Resilience and creative problem-solving capacities in project teams: A relational view

Teams often struggle with their assigned projects and evidence indicates relatively limited project success. Recent research advanced a behavioral perspective to the study of the variance in project performance. We seek to advance this literature by developing and testing a dual-pathway model of project performance. Specifically, we expand on relational coordination theory to suggest that teams can enhance their project performance through two knowledge creation mechanisms – access to knowledge and experiential learning – which underpin resilience and creative problem solving. Results of time-lagged data from project teams indicate that high quality relationships between team members facilitate both experiential learning and access to knowledge, which in turn are positively related to team resilience. Team resilience, in turn, is indirectly related to project performance, through creative problem solving. We advance the extant literature of project management by enhancing our understanding of how relationally coordinated project teams develop capabilities – resilience and creative problem solving – and improve their project performance.