Obstacles to tele-cooperation in engineering networks of the building industry

Abstract

This report is about an engineering network in the building industry which has been supported by the OrgTech project in its attempt to implement modem tele-cooperation technology. The cooperation of the small and medium sized firms involved is organized by regular face-to-face meetings of their managers corresponding the centralization of decision making within the firms. These regular meetings allow the cooperating firms to organize projects and quality management with some (very limited) flexibility. On the other hand, the over-centralization of decision making is an obstacle to the formation of tele-cooperating teams and to any more sophisticated organizational arrangements.