Effect of Internal Teamwork Practices on Performance of Projects in Rwanda: A Case of Cornerstone Development Project

Evolution of teamwork and its concept started during the industrial revolution, where most organizations shifted from the hierarchical approach and used scientific management to design organizations and jobs. As per the report of formative evaluation of Cornerstone Development Project of December, 2017, the project is equipped by enough resources necessary to implement its activities, however, despite these potential resources available, Cornerstone Development Project did not managed to implement its activities as expected. The findings from that formative evaluation recommended the project owners to improve their internal teamwork practices since the evaluation findings revealed that there are poor internal teamwork practices. Therefore this research aims at to analyze the effect of internal teamwork practices on performance of projects in Rwanda by focusing on Cornerstone Development Project. The study was guided by three specific objectives including determining the effect of internal accountability on performance of Cornerstone Development Project to assess the effect of internal cohesiveness on performance of Cornerstone Development Project and to establish the relationship between internal communications on performance of Cornerstone Development Project. The researcher used descriptive research design where quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. The target population of this study was fifty eight (58) employees of Cornerstone Development Project. In this study the researcher calculated the sample size use Yamane formula and come up with a sample size of 51 respondents. To achieve the objective of this study the researcher collected primary data using questionnaires. Means, standard deviation and frequency distribution were used to analyze data. Data presentation was done by the use of frequency tables for easy understanding and interpretations. The study concluded that internal team accountability have an effect on performance of Cornerstone Development Project. The research findings revealed that there is presence of self-assessment practices that enable the team to work accordingly. Furthermore research findings revealed that there is ownership of team members that enable the project team to implement the project accordingly. The research findings revealed that team members support each other and this enables them to implement the projects activities accordingly, there is significant and positive relationship between internal team cohesiveness and performance of Cornerstone project. The study concluded that in Cornerstone Development Project there are effective discussions among the project team members. Furthermore the researcher concluded that there is effective listening among the project team members. The project managers should foster internal team accountability so as to ensure that every project team member is responsible for his/her assigned responsibilities, they should also make sure that there is ownership of team members so as to enable the project to implement the project accordingly. The project managers and owners should foster internal team cohesiveness since it has been seen to be a big factor contributing to project performance. The project team members should respect each other so as to create a favorable working environment that enables the project team to implement the project activities accordingly. The project implementing team should always batter on the internal communication since it is the essence for performance of any project.