The effect of intra-organisational data sharing during the tender phase on risk awareness in multinational construction companies

Abstract

Due to the dynamic and complex nature of the construction industry, it is evident that the integration of processes and groups is more challenging to attain in comparison to other industries (Demirkesen & Ozorhon,2017). Therefore, there is a call for better integration of project participants and processes in construction projects (Franz et al., 2017). Consequently, organisational collaboration and integration are often considered inefficient and dependent on individuals. This inefficiency can be caused by individuals not making the right connections to gain access or obtain relevant data for the decision making process. This can be explained by the fact that the industry is renowned for its fragmentation and temporary project teams Whitley, 2006). Due to this fragmentation, it is not uncommon for parties to have their own internal silos. These internal silos contain different sorts of data and have limited connections within their own or with other project teams, resulting in bad data sharing and communication. The presence of data silos and limited data sharing affects risk awareness as this can cause unavailability of data or subjective biases in the decision-making process. As a result, the employees that make the decisions are not (completely) aware of the involved risks, which can give the impression of soundly under-supported choices (van der Meer, 2021). By utilising data sharing and ensuring the proper coordination and communication, one could take on the silo’s created by this fragmentation between and in project teams, and by doing so, one could expect to reduce the detrimental effects on risk awareness. Especially when firms are active in a multinational environment, research has shown that connections between people that cross physical boundaries can enhance opportunities to improve performance and improve entry to information (DeSanctis & Monge, 1999). That is why, one could argue that data sharing could contribute significantly to risk awareness among team members. To investigate this, the following research question has been formulated: How does data sharing in intra-organisational project networks contribute to risk awareness in the tender phase?