Table 2 Collaborative elements that... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2

Collaborative elements that teams deploy to work effectively in a united team

Element	Notes and references
PAA behavioural contract requirements	A code of collaborative behaviour is embedded through the PAA/IFOA (Ross, 2013; Ashcraft, 2015). The contract specifically demands behaviours that support collaboration such as respect for others, being open-minded, curiosity to learn and understand, and demonstrating integrity. The impact of this source of commitment is that it encourages participants to fearlessly question decision proposals to seek clarification and understanding. The PAA also contains a no litigation clause and no-blame workplace culture that helps identify and discuss early potential issues before they become This culture of openness about problems has been shown to reduce rework and its negative impact on Alliance projects (Love, 2002; Love et al., 2019; Love and Matthews, 2022)
Experiencing trust and commitment through collaboration	Discouraging power-information asymmetry enables trust between participants and encourages affective commitment (Kadefors, 2004; Davis and Walker, 2008) to collaborate effectively at inter and intra NOP-POR alliance team level. Commitment extends to ensuring best-for-project outcomes, in part because of the KPIs relating to project outcomes and not any participant team’s performance. Trust reduces the emotional and financial transaction costs (Williamson, 1993; Haaskjold et al., 2019)
Collaborative dialogue	Through cross-disciplinary and genuine dialogue, issues become better understood to trigger more effective action. Dialogue different to debate. Effective dialogue occurs when one party presents a proposition based on best available knowledge that is challenged and examined through alternative perspective lenses to arrive at a superior outcome (Bohm and Nichol, 1996). Alliancing contractually relies on consensus decision-making, this is logical given joint responsibility and accountability because the focus is on project outcomes. Each discipline and participant has a body of expertise and knowledge that is respected and is freely shared through the low power/information asymmetric organisational structure. This encourages more effective decision-making and supports resilience and ambidexterity taking the collaborative initiative to resolve problems when plans begin to unravel
The project ambience	Alliancing workplace culture is critical for effective collaboration. Walker and Lloyd-Walker (2014) reported from a study on alliance projects that there was a specific feeling in the air, an ambience, on many alliance projects that supported close collaboration and sense of community. Finnish studies of alliance Big Room use observed co-located workforce mingling and exchanging ideas This resulted in high levels of collaboration (Aaltonen et al., 2023). This also occurs on IPD projects in the USA (Fischer et al., 2017)
Shared values and motivation	The POR has a role to play in creating high performance project teams. Articulating a unifying common purpose for the project through communicating the project vision and mission can galvanise collaborative behaviours. We see this in the LXRP for example where the POR co-developed with NOPs a set of clear answers to the questions: why do we exist? (as a project organisation); what values are important to us? What do we want to create? (the vision; How do we get there? (the project strategy); How do we monitor and measure success? (performance outcomes); what do we need to do? (plans and corporate support programs) and What do I need to do (personal development plans). This kind of articulation of the project and team’s purpose was shown to be inspiring collaboration in the LXRP case (Magree et al., 2025a, b). The LXRP values was consistently communicated and shared across the alliance work packages in the highly integrated program of projects

Element	Notes and references
PAA behavioural contract requirements	A code of collaborative behaviour is embedded through the PAA/IFOA (Ross, 2013; Ashcraft, 2015). The contract specifically demands behaviours that support collaboration such as respect for others, being open-minded, curiosity to learn and understand, and demonstrating integrity. The impact of this source of commitment is that it encourages participants to fearlessly question decision proposals to seek clarification and understanding. The PAA also contains a no litigation clause and no-blame workplace culture that helps identify and discuss early potential issues before they become This culture of openness about problems has been shown to reduce rework and its negative impact on Alliance projects (Love, 2002; Love et al., 2019; Love and Matthews, 2022)
Experiencing trust and commitment through collaboration	Discouraging power-information asymmetry enables trust between participants and encourages affective commitment (Kadefors, 2004; Davis and Walker, 2008) to collaborate effectively at inter and intra NOP-POR alliance team level. Commitment extends to ensuring best-for-project outcomes, in part because of the KPIs relating to project outcomes and not any participant team’s performance. Trust reduces the emotional and financial transaction costs (Williamson, 1993; Haaskjold et al., 2019)
Collaborative dialogue	Through cross-disciplinary and genuine dialogue, issues become better understood to trigger more effective action. Dialogue different to debate. Effective dialogue occurs when one party presents a proposition based on best available knowledge that is challenged and examined through alternative perspective lenses to arrive at a superior outcome (Bohm and Nichol, 1996). Alliancing contractually relies on consensus decision-making, this is logical given joint responsibility and accountability because the focus is on project outcomes. Each discipline and participant has a body of expertise and knowledge that is respected and is freely shared through the low power/information asymmetric organisational structure. This encourages more effective decision-making and supports resilience and ambidexterity taking the collaborative initiative to resolve problems when plans begin to unravel
The project ambience	Alliancing workplace culture is critical for effective collaboration. Walker and Lloyd-Walker (2014) reported from a study on alliance projects that there was a specific feeling in the air, an ambience, on many alliance projects that supported close collaboration and sense of community. Finnish studies of alliance Big Room use observed co-located workforce mingling and exchanging ideas This resulted in high levels of collaboration (Aaltonen et al., 2023). This also occurs on IPD projects in the USA (Fischer et al., 2017)
Shared values and motivation	The POR has a role to play in creating high performance project teams. Articulating a unifying common purpose for the project through communicating the project vision and mission can galvanise collaborative behaviours. We see this in the LXRP for example where the POR co-developed with NOPs a set of clear answers to the questions: why do we exist? (as a project organisation); what values are important to us? What do we want to create? (the vision; How do we get there? (the project strategy); How do we monitor and measure success? (performance outcomes); what do we need to do? (plans and corporate support programs) and What do I need to do (personal development plans). This kind of articulation of the project and team’s purpose was shown to be inspiring collaboration in the LXRP case (Magree et al., 2025a, b). The LXRP values was consistently communicated and shared across the alliance work packages in the highly integrated program of projects

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