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Leadership is a crucial driver of project performance. While traditionally, the project leader was considered as the exclusive source of leadership behavior, recent research indicates that particularly dispersed projects may profit from joint leadership efforts by all project members. However, leadership functions in dispersed projects are likely to differ from those in a face-to-face context. In this chapter, we specify shared leadership functions for the domain of geographically dispersed project teams with high levels of task uncertainty. Arguing that shared leadership in dispersed teams occurs through interrelation of individual and team actions, we specify a dispersed screening function as well as self-, other-, and team-directed interrelation functions and develop propositions on how these functions are related to project performance. Furthermore, we point to motivational aspects of shared leadership and discuss the role of the vertical leader in developing and facilitating shared leadership.

This chapter brings to notice the general idea behind the need to consider value as a pertinent point since construction is swiftly moving towards sustainability. The introductory chapter introduces the general information about the subtopics across the parts of the book and mentions other techniques implemented in the construction industry. The value system for construction characterizes construction features into sections. The barriers often experienced in implementing value management highlight some of the difficulties encountered in applying value management or any new technique in the construction industry. The summary aspect ends the whole concept of the work discussed in this chapter.

Value management is a conceptual process that ensures the use of alternative materials to increase the function, reduce time and eliminate unnecessary cost. This process spreads from when the client has given the brief to the used stage of the project. It involves gathering the professionals involved in the project by a value management facilitator for 40 hours of brainstorming and finding alternative materials to be used. Furthermore, the ways to avoid difficulty in the project are devised by looking critically into the brief and outline design, removing unnecessary costs found in the design or brief before the project comes to execution and achieving more functionality for the project while at the same time getting value for money. Australia experienced an improved economy with the implementation of value management into construction some years ago. This study is aimed at evaluating how value management is practiced in Australia and correspondent application of its tools on construction projects in Australia. This entails details relating to its application in the country's construction, history and methodology, the application of the practice, challenges faced, benefits and measures to enhance the industry. The study was rounded up with a conclusion to summarize the salient observations made during the study.

Forming a project organization is, in our opinion, the most essential characteristic of the project-working mode. A project task calls for contribution from several parties, e.g., user representatives with knowledge of the application situation, specialists with professional knowledge and experience, and management that can provide the overall support and position the project strategically. Cooperation across professional areas and organizational units is required.

A project organization should be designed in view of the project task. In this chapter, we present and discuss a basic pattern of a project organization consisting of three generic parts: a decision, a management, and a working part. The specific appointments to these parts will depend on questions and issues related to four aspects: professional contribution, management contribution, anchoring of the project results, and influence (where should stakeholders’ influence and involvement be dealt with).

The chapter discusses adjustment of the project organization as the project comes along. We also discuss organizational issues when there are several independent partners, e.g., joint ventures and partnering.

This chapter aims at providing an understanding of the research and devlopment (R&D) process in the pharmaceutical industry, by exploring the methodological challenges and approaches in the assessment of the determinants of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. It (i) discusses possible methodological approaches to model occurrence of events; (ii) describes in detail competing risks duration models as the best methodological option in light of the nature of pharmaceutical R&D processes and data; (iii) concludes with an estimation strategy and overview of potential covariates that have been found to correlate with the likelihood of failure of R&D pharmaceutical projects.

Functionality as a measure of project performance encompasses definitions across literature, relevance and essentiality in construction as the industry moves towards sustainable construction. Functionality in this section shows details in social functionality, as well as functionalities expressed in assessing, implementing project performance within set out target and goal. Furthermore, for functionality to be truly experienced in construction, many factors have to be gotten right. One of such is decision making that tends towards standard expatiated in the contract agreed without compromising budget, performance, collaboration, health and safety, communication, profit, satisfaction, quality, project cost, profitability among others.

Our notion of project control is based on the five-by-five model and constitutes a comprehensive control model including control of results, time and work control, resource control, financial control, and contract management.

The task of project control is determined by uncertainty and complexity and calls for improvisation and ingenuity in order to be able to maneuver the project. The notion of forward-oriented follow-up is introduced.

The relevance of the value management (VM) concept in the construction industry in Sri Lanka cannot be overemphasized. VM ensures that projects are designed and documented to provide satisfactions within an expected project value. VM is a team approach that assesses the relationship between function, cost and worth. Its significance notwithstanding, VM is still not widely used in Sri Lanka in construction projects. Practitioners in the country's construction industry are still not disposed to its use. This research strives to explain the development, relevance and evolution of VM in the construction sector in Sri Lanka. An effort is also made to outline the objectives of VM as well as the method of its application with a conclusion, using practical brief case studies to demonstrate the level of its application in Sri Lanka.