Factors Influencing the Performance of Railway Track Maintenance Teams

Team functionality plays an important role in employees' performance that drives organisational objectives. Optimal performance within the railway industry requires management systems to be created and implemented to achieve team efficiency to enhance productivity. Various factors linked to High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) relating to human behaviour and function are investigated to determine key factors that influence the performance of maintenance teams, specifically focusing on activities linked to the railway industry. A questionnaire was presented to 180 sample population, out of which 131 questionnaire data were used for analysis. The respondents were responsible for perway (track) related maintenance tasks, the quantitative results presented by respondents ranked factors of this study and how they viewed each item using a four-point scale methodology. Collaborating the results through descriptive, frequency, reliability and validity statistics, the outcomes of the analysis have shown the following factors as valued the most to the least: rewards and recognition (most valued), effective communication, motivation, trust, teamwork, effective leadership, skills, supervisor support, cooperation and co-ordination, adaptation, performance monitoring, shared responsibility and diversity (least valued). Although every factor is indicated to be relevant in this study, they are valued differently in the railway industry; by leveraging the top items, railway organisations can ensure and maintain high performance. Furthermore, by investigating and implementing the least valued factors, organisations can improve the intrinsic motivation of teams, which will ultimately have a positive influence on team performance.

Keywords: High Performance Work System (HPWS), Railway, Performance productivity, Human resource.