1Departament de Direcció d’Empreses, University of Valencia, Valenc\
ia, Spain2Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi University, Milan,
Italy
3Fundação Dom Cabral, Strategy and Intern ...
1Departament de Direcció d’Empreses, University of Valencia, Valenc\
ia, Spain2Department of Management and Technology, Bocconi University, Milan,
Italy
3Fundação Dom Cabral, Strategy and International Business Research \
Center, Nova Lima, MG, Brazil
4Action Business Consultoria e Treinamentos, Rua Dr. Guilherme Bannitz,
São Paulo, Brazil
Corresponding Author:
Lívia Lopes Barakat, Fundação Dom Cabral, Strategy and Internat\
ional
Business Research Center, Avenida Princesa Diana 760, Alphaville Lagoa d\
os
Ingleses, 34018-006 Nova Lima, MG, Brazil.
Email: liviabarakat@ fdc. org. br
Project Management Journal
2021, Vol. 52(1) 75–89
© 2021 Project Management Institute, Inc. Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub. com/ journals- permissions
DOI: 10. 1177/ 8756 9728 20953958
journals. sagepub. com/ home/ pmx
Teams and Project Performance:
An Ability, Motivation, and
Opportunity Approach
Àngels Dasí 1, Torben Pedersen 2, Lívia Lopes Barakat 3, and Tiago Rangel Alves 4
Abstract
This article analyzes the relationships between project performance and \
the team’s ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO).
We contribute to the project management literature by exploring which co\
mbinations of AMO factors are best for project
performance at different levels of complexity. We test our hypotheses on\
a sample of 285 projects. Our study shows that in
simple projects, ability is the key factor both as a main effect and as a constraining factor that acts as a bottleneck for project
performance. In the case of complex projects, the multiplicative model i\
s superior given the significant interaction effects of
motivation.
Keywords
team performance, project performance, ability, motivation, opportunity,\
project complexity
Article
Introduction
Firms use team- based projects to manage activities and
resources in an integrated way and to share knowledge and best
practices internally (Gupta & Govindarajan, 2000; Sydow
et al., 2004). Project teams are comprised of employees with
varied knowledge, expertise, and experience who work together
over the life span of a project to achieve a common objective of
either developing an incrementally or radically new concept,
service, product, activity, or generating change (Chiocchio,
2015). As such, team members are interdependent in the per -
formed tasks (Gladstein, 1984; Guzzo & Dickson, 1996).
However, the temporary and discontinuous character of proj-
ects can impose barriers to learning if abilities, motivations,
and opportunities are not properly managed (Bartsch et al.,
2013). Therefore, an understanding of the antecedents of proj-
ect performance on the team level is particularly important,
especially given the increasing performance pressures faced by
project managers ( Zimmerer & Yasin, 1998).
When examining the factors that contribute to a project’s
success, scholars have pointed to the resources and compe -
tences held by team members, the human resource
