THE EFFECT OF TEAM BEHAVIOUR ON THE PERFORMANCE OF AN ENGINEERING JOINT VENTURE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

The increasing tend towards, and importance of, inter-organisational collaborative agreements, such as joint ventures, is widely recognised. While the benefits of joint ventures have been extensively promoted, many such ventures continue to fail. Research into joint ventures has been described as either focusing on an in-depth analysis of a selected narrow issue or sweeping generalisations of a more general magnitude, with emphasis on joint venture formation motives, joint venture structuring and partner selection and characteristics. More recently, a growing volume of literature strongly supports the notion that joint venture performance might be more fully understood by the examination of the behavioural characteristics of the joint venture team. This study aims to establish how the behaviours of an engineering joint venture team influence the venture’s performance. The methodology applied in this study is qualitative, interpretive research using the case study method. The qualitative case study investigated the implementation of an international engineering joint venture between Hatch Africa, Mott Macdonald and Goba engineering companies for the delivery of the Transnet mega projects programme in South Africa. The researcher utilised semi-structured interviews and documentary investigation to construct a rich database in order to provide a holistic view of how behavioural characteristics of the joint venture team influences joint venture performance. Seven key behavioural groupings, consisting of commitment, trust, cooperation/coordination/interdependence/reciprocity, communication, conflict resolution, role of management/management style and learning were analysed. Four key themes emerged namely: organisational hierarchy; the effect of time; organisational set up and design; and the current market conditions. Organisational and individual learning, communication and the role of management/management style emerged as the behavioural groupings which had the greatest affect, either positively or negatively, on joint venture performance. Commitment, cooperation and coordination also emerged as having a significant impact on joint venture performance while trust was found to have an indirect influence on joint venture performance. Interdependence, conflict resolution and reciprocity were found to have less of an impact on joint venture performance. ii By considering the results of this research, managers of joint venture partner firms and joint venture management teams themselves can focus their attention, both at the commencement and set up stage of the joint venture as well as during the joint venture development, on the behaviours which have the biggest impact on the joint venture performance, thereby improving the probability of success in the joint venture.