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The purpose of this paper is to describe a model of team establishment that emerged from 64 teams comprised of mid‐career working professionals.

A total of 64 similarly configured 18 member teams assembled for work on the same day and, thereafter, worked on similar tasks. A single representative team was observed throughout its process of its formation‐establishment‐using participant observation and interviews. A case report describing the process was co‐constructed afterward. Individuals from remaining teams systematically compared/contrasted their experience with the case report. Qualitative analysis of 874 responses provides the basis for this paper.

Teams formed very differently than expected. A highly dynamic and rapid process was seen. The model suggests interplay between ongoing assessment of the context and organizing for work while norms emerge and work is performed.

Individual comparisons/contrasts with the case report, unlike the case report itself, were not the result of prolonged engagement, persistent observation, triangulation, and co‐construction processes. The research focus was on team development; implications for performance are not addressed.

Leaders can influence the speed of establishment through intentionality during the establishment phase. The rapid establishment process that emerged here may have application across a wider range of work settings—especially where members are experienced in working collaboratively.

The model of team establishment has likely application in other settings. The study also suggests the valuable insights that study informants can contribute to research.

Although recent research acknowledges the importance of reducing the inefficient activities from road transportation, there is still a missing link in literature of how transportation extended wastes impact road haulers efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between waste reduction practices (WRP) and fleet operational efficiency (FOE) in road hauler firms.

A theoretical model was developed to assess this relationship. The authors test the model with a sample from logistics companies providing road haulage services in the Middle East, providing a contribution to extant literature from a different setting.

Results suggest that WRP have a positive and significant impact on FOE. A valuable scale for the measurement of operational efficiency was developed and validated, representing an index toward the most efficient organization.

The findings of this study serves as a tool for shippers to benchmark the efficiency levels of their motor carrier service providers against each other, considering that segmentation is a relevant issue to understand the choice in favor of a given provider to the detriment of another. Furthermore, road haulers can use the efficiency measurements as a basis for establishing future action plans to adopt waste reduction practices.

The research deals with a newly emerging stream of research on linking waste practices to road transport. The authors contribute to this developing body of research through filling a gap in the link between waste and road transport operational performance. The research is also different from recent literature in that the authors provide insights from a larger population, unlike other similar studies who used VSM and studied only a particular case. Thus, the work is important to generalize the findings, especially that the authors provide a perspective from a non-western perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the structural design of customer teams (CuTes) working with external teams to implement customized information systems (IS). Design consists of theoretically based measures and a first set of real-world, empirical values.

A search in the organizational literature suggested that the adhocracy is the preferred structure for CuTes. Adhocracy-like measures were then developed and applied to a high-performance CuTe to reveal a first benchmark for a team’s adhocratic design.

High-performance CuTes do not necessarily implement the adhocratic principles to the highest degree.

It is still open whether all the structural measures described here are necessary and sufficient to describe the adhocracy-like structural design of CuTes.

The CuTe is highlighted as the key incumbent of cooperation with the technology supplier and consultants in terms of project authority and responsibility. A psychometric instrument and real-world values are proposed as a reference for the structural design of high-performance CuTes.

The performance of IS projects is a social concern, since IS products should be aimed at serving people better both inside and outside the organization. Professionals who work in CuTes to develop better IS should receive institutional recognition and management attention.

This study seems to be the first to discuss the structure of CuTes in customized IS projects from a theoretical and applied perspective.

Environmental sustainability and social contexts are becoming increasingly important concepts. The infusion of sustainability and humanitarian engineering (HE) into the academic core curriculum is often challenging. This study aims to provide an understanding of students’ perceptions and attitudes toward the incorporation of active learning of sustainability and humanitarian concepts into engineering education.

A project-based sustainability course was developed and offered to engineering undergraduates. A HE international field experience was also provided to students as an extracurricular activity. Pre- and post-surveys were conducted to assess students’ perceptions and attitudes toward sustainability and HE project learning experience. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine the statistical significance of the results and demographic influences on students’ experiences.

Both project-based and international field learning experiences positively influenced the students’ perceptions of sustainable practices, social change and appreciation of the engineering profession. Multidisciplinary learning also helped students become more motivated, engage in sustainability-promoted activities and community work and improve their social interactions. Students gained practical engineering skills that they did not typically receive in traditional classroom settings and recognized the global and social responsibilities that are core to sustainable development education.

The study demonstrates a mixed undergraduate educational model in which students acquired sustainability concepts through a project-based engineering course and practiced social responsibility through international HE projects. The findings help engineering educators understand students’ perceptions toward sustainability and HE, providing insight into effective curriculum design and strategic inclusion of social responsibility in traditional engineering education.