**6. Limitations**

The following are the main limitations of this study:


Changing Skills in Changing Environments: Skills Needed in Virtual Construction Teams 45

(Rezgui, 2007). In addition, small-medium companies may be at an advantage because they

Designers bring with them a range of generic skills acquired over the years from a multitude of different activities. These need to be adapted to the new environments they find themselves working in. This is succinctly summarised by Larsson (2003) who states that since "design involves communication and interaction between individuals and groups in complex social settings, the social character of design is not separated from the technical results" (p. 153). Virtual technologies impact on the way designers work and collaborate and hence impact on the skills that need to be brought to bear. The investigations documented in this chapter contribute to this body of knowledge by identifying the generic skills of design professionals, profiling some of the impacts of different virtual communication technologies on these skills and identifying some goals which need to be addressed if virtual technologies are to be effective and successful. As Carletta, Anderson and McEwan have stated (2000, p. 1250), technologists are less interested in "social and organizational concerns than in equipment mechanics". The performance of virtual teams is far below their potential despite their rapid growth (Abuelmaatti & Rezgui, 2008). Therefore the investigation of these teams takes on a new urgency, particularly as virtual communication has been shown to have advantages over face-to-face interaction during problem-solving (Hatem, et al., 2011). Without taking into account the impact of these new design environments, advanced technologies that allow teams to collaborate at a distance may have a deleterious effect on

We wish to acknowledge the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation (CRC-CI), part of the Australian Government's CRC program, who funded this project

Sher, W., Sherratt, S., Williams, A., & Gameson, R. (2009). Heading into new virtual environments: what skills do design team members need? Journal of Information

Abuelmaatti, A., & Rezgui, Y. (2008). Virtual teamworking: Current issues and directions for

Activeworlds-Corporation (2008). Active Worlds Retrieved 28 Sept 2008, from

Bell, B. S., & Kozlowski, S. W. J. (2002). A typology of virtual teams: Implications for effective leadership. Group and organization management, 27(1), 14 - 49. Bellamy, T., Williams, A., Sher, W., Sherratt, S., & Gameson, R. (2005). Design

Bales, R. (1951). Interaction process analysis. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley Press Inc.

the future. In L. M. Camarinha-Matos & W. Picard (Eds.), Pervasive Collaborative

communication: issues confronting both co-located and virtual teams. Paper presented at the 21st Association of Researchers for Construction Management

(Project 2002-024-B), and Tom Bellamy, who was one of our researchers. Finally, sections of this paper are based on the following publication:

Networks (Vol. 283, pp. 351-360). Boston: Springer.

http://www.activeworlds.com/

can more flexibly change and adapt to new technology (Rezgui, 2007).

teamwork and productivity.

Technology in Construction, 14, 17-29.

**9. Acknowledgments** 

**10. References** 

 Due to the fact that participants were selected from a restricted pool of design professionals, all participants were from one discipline (architecture). Whilst our results may reflect the teamwork culture of the architectural profession, multi-disciplinary design teams may have experienced even more difficulty in exercising generic skills in virtual environments.
