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Workplace stress is recognized as a worldwide challenge for both employees and organizations. From this point of view, approaching a research topic regarding the factors that determine the occurrence of stress within the project teams from public institutions, along the realized public projects, I think it is also of real interest for public institutions. This research aimed to determine which are the main stressors that appear within the project team, more precisely in the elaboration and implementation of public projects and to discover new ways to reduce these factors for future projects. In order to reach the objectives we worked on three research hypotheses that through the research methods used (the questionnaire method and the interview method) and through the systematization and data analysis tools were verified and validated. The target group was made up of 3 public institutions from Bucharest, which carry out activities in the field of public projects and which, by participating in the current research, helped to verify the working hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental impact of construction activities have remained important issue as a result, most construction industry stakeholders are facing the huge challenge to achieve a more resource-efficient and environment friendly society. This study critically evaluates the process of managing the implementation of mitigating strategies aimed at reducing the negative environmental impacts associated with the construction of a new 180MVA 275/66kV transformer for the National Grid Substation in West Boldon, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom. 20 copies of questionnaires were distributed to members of the project team to investigate the implementation of the mitigating proposed measures in the environmental impact assessment. The survey was undertaken during the project execution to identify procedures for reducing or eliminating negative impacts and to also suggest ways of improving the implementing of the environmental impact assessment process. The questionnaires which had a response rate of 75% were collated and plotted as bar graphs and pie charts for further evaluation. The main findings indicated that majority of the participants (90%) identified the use of standard assessment procedures and tools such as environmental impact assessment, environmental checklists and the environmental management plan as well as environmental training as strategies for increasing the awareness for project team members on environmental concerns. The result also suggests that environmental training should be an ongoing process for all personnel on site during the construction of the project in sustaining the awareness, knowledge, skills and attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Scrum, an agile development process allows quickly production of working piece of product by undergoing the development into small release cycles and in improvement ways. There is a growing demand to expose students to such practices. In the same time, students also need to practice the possible roles that they will get when they join a real life project or an industry. Exercising the Scrum practices may help the students to learn and practice the possible roles to perform during a project. During a cycle, of scrum called 'sprint retrospective', the team dedicated time to reflect how they are doing and to find ways to improve. The scrum team will be constantly looking for improving opportunities either for the product builds or the practices they choose. In this paper, we discuss our experiences in practicing the Scrum practices in students' development of final year projects. This study may be useful for students in the final year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world around us requires a creative approach to problem solving. Innovation and creative potential are emphasized by companies more and more. If companies want to lead in the market they have to generate new, untraditional ideas which satisfy the stakeholders' needs. The work from project teams can be a way of achieving this. Project team building is a prerequisite for the successful achievement of project goals. The project team is established for a limited period of time during which it must solve the problems in a new and innovative way in order to gain certain goals. The project team consists of professionals and experts who in most cases have not known each other before the project's start. A creative approach to problem solving is needed during work on the project. The project team members are holders of creative potential which should be used by companies. Creative potential represents a complex combination of knowledge, abilities, skills, motivation and personal moral characteristics of an employee which can be witnessed during meetings that involve a creative process. Creative potential can be utilised by companies for finding and creating innovative impulses due to new ways of problem solving. It is necessary to invest effort where the project teams will benefit. Jealousy, envy, doubting the validity of results and many other negative phenomena are obstacles for the development of creative potential. The article describes a solution for supporting the creative potential of the project team members. This solution works with four elements which overlap and influence each other. This article is part of a research project VEGA no. 1/0491/09 "Project management processes maturity control as a tool for the improvement of the mechanical engineering enterprises competitiveness". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on project learning has recognised the significance of knowledge transfer in project based organisations (PBOs). Effective knowledge transfer across projects avoids reinventions, enhances knowledge creation and saves lots of time that is crucial in project environment. In order to facilitate knowledge transfer, many PBOs have invested lots of financial and human resources to implement IT-based knowledge repository. However, some empirical studies found that employees would rather turn for knowledge to colleagues despite their ready access to IT-based knowledge repository. Therefore, it is apparent that social networks play a pivotal role in the knowledge transfer across projects. Some scholars attempt to explore the effect of network structure on knowledge transfer and performance, however, focused only on egocentric networks and the groups' internal social networks. It has been found that the project's external social network is also critical, in that the team members can not handle critical situations and accomplish the projects on time without the assistance and knowledge from external sources. To date, the influence of the structure of a project team's internal and external social networks on project performance, and the interrelation between both networks are barely known. In order to obtain such knowledge, this paper explores the interrelation between the structure of a project team's internal and external social networks, and their effect on the project team's performance. Data is gathered through survey questionnaire distributed online to respondents. Collected data is analysed applying social network analysis (SNA) tools and SPSS. The theoretical contribution of this paper is the knowledge of the interrelation between the structure of a project team's internal and external social networks and their influence on the project team's performance. The practical contribution lies in the guideline to be proposed for constructing the structure of project team's internal and external social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents conference paper abstracts on technology and innovation management. An empirical study of organizational cognition in semiconductor manufacturing and process development presents evidence that learning in high technology industries can be leveraged. Prolonged, sustained investments in learning at a relatively constant level may generate highly non-linear surges in performance, but performance deteriorates as market windows close. A model of capability reconfiguration is developed in order to explain the responses of incumbents to technological change. Substitution, evolution and transformation are identified as three mechanisms of capability reconfiguration that entail different costs. The choice of reconfiguration mechanism is linked not only to the nature of technological change but also to the attributes of capabilities. The geographic concentration and co-location of university research and industrial research and development in three technological areas, such as medical imaging, neural networks, and signal processing are examined. Another paper examined the relationship between interdivisional knowledge transfer and organizational innovativeness in the context of the diversed firm.