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Project Communication in AEC Industry

Prem Srujalkumar Gandhi

Graduate School, New England College

MG 5415: Organizational Communication for Leaders

Dr. Paul W. Richardson

June 19, 2022

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Abstract

Conflicts between the parties to construction projects are of great concern to the industry.

Conflicts in the construction industry affect the interests of several stakeholders with substantial

investments and reduce their profits. This necessitates the study of the causes of these conflicts

and avoiding them. Several research articles have been published regarding the importance of

communication to avoid and control conflicts and disagreements in construction. The author

discusses the importance of the construction sector and discusses the consequences of conflicts

in the first part of the paper. In the second part, the author reviews the existing literature that

studies the relationship between communication and the success of the project. Later barriers to

communication are discussed followed by measures to improve project communication.

Keywords: barriers to communication, construction communication, conflicts, disputes, effective

communication, improve communication, project communication

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Introduction and Need for the Study

The acronym AEC stands for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction. The acronym

indicates the collaboration required among architects, engineers, and construction professionals

on construction projects for its smooth completion - from design to execution. This paper refers

to projects under the AEC umbrella as a construction project for ease of use.

The construction sector is one of the largest employers in the US economy with more

than 7 million people as per 2020 County Business Patterns (United States Census Bureau,

2020). The construction sector added a value of about 3.84 trillion USD which is 4.2% of US

GDP in 2021 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2022) . Overall, the construction industry

employs a substantial workforce and contributes significantly to the economy. Therefore, it is

necessary to look at the problems of the construction industry. Conflicts in the construction

industry affect the interests of several stakeholders. Conflicts and disputes in the construction

industry are very common. There are many factors behind it and it was put succinctly by a court

judge:

“...except in the middle of a battlefield, nowhere must men coordinate the movement of

other men and all materials in the midst of such chaos and with such limited certainty of present

facts and future occurrences as in a huge construction project...Even the most painstaking

planning frequently turns out to be mere conjecture and accommodation to changes must

necessarily be of the rough, quick, and ad hoc sort, analogous to ever-changing commands on the

battlefield. ” (Blake Const. Co. v. CJ Coakley Co., Inc., 1981).

Effective communication is indispensable to construction projects. A lack of effective

communication can lead to conflicts and disagreements. Several research articles have been

published regarding the conflicts and disagreements in construction. The author discusses that
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the real cause of conflicts in construction is more often the unsuccessful communication among

the participants in a project. Despite this understanding, poor communication persists as a

problem. Construction projects are considered information-intensive projects (Kwofie et al.,

2020) and so it is necessary to find ways to improve communication effectiveness.

Conflicts, Claims, and Disputes

It is essential to understand how communication issues can create conflict and manifest in

the project outcomes. Some lead to claims while others may lead to a dispute. As far as the

construction industry is concerned, there is a distinction between the terms conflict, claims, and

dispute, and many minds may lack clarity about it. These terms have been represented visually

by authors Acharya and Lee in their paper on construction conflicts (Acharya & Lee, 2006)– See

figure 1 below:

Not clearly
managed
Risks Conflicts Claims
Dispute

Not clearly Not clearly

assigned resolved

Figure 1: Conflict, Claims, and Dispute Model (Acharya & Lee, 2006)
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The term ‘conflict’ is endemic to the construction industry due to the complexity of

contracts and the differences in interests among the stakeholders in the project. Conflict is ‘the

process which begins when one party perceives that another has frustrated, or is about to

frustrate, some concern of his’ (Colman, 2019). A claim is “a demand for something due or

believed to be due” (Mirza, 2005, p. 2). Generally, it is the consequence of an action or a

direction. A dispute is defined as a problem or disagreement between the parties that cannot be

resolved by on-site project managers as per The Construction Industry Institute. If conflicts are

not managed properly then it will lead to claims. If the claims are not resolved when disputes

arise. For dispute resolution, various process exists such as negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or

litigation.

Literature Review

Effective communication and successful project delivery

Communication is the exchange of information between a sender and a receiver, and the

inference (perception) of meaning between the individuals involved (Bowditch et al., 1997).

Many publications have studied the relationship between communication and the successful

delivery of projects. A few authors have also proposed that communication is one of the primary

causes behind the conflict arising in the project.

Authors Sigitas Mitkus and Tomas Mitkus have analyzed the causes of conflicts between

clients and contractors in the construction projects through the lens of communication issues

(Mitkus & Mitkus, 2014). A construction contract agreement between the client and contractor

which defines the relationships between them is also considered a medium of communication.

The authors hypothesize that “the main cause of conflicts in the construction industry is

unsuccessful communication between the client and the contractor” (Mitkus & Mitkus, 2014, p.
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3). Authors have reviewed the disputes based on categories such as changes in conditions,

interpretation, workplace conditions, communications, law, access to the construction site, access

to materials, etc. Next, they study these disputes and reclassify them into the following groups:

wrong causes, potentially right but unclearly formulated causes, and true causes of conflicts. The

reclassification has been carried out by keeping psychological and organizational communication

in mind. The authors argue that the causes of conflicts in the construction identified in the

reviewed literature used one key research method, i.e., a questionnaire of participants who

express their own subjective opinions.

Authors (Ikechukwu et al., 2017) have taken a step further by proposing effective

communication as a means of conflict avoidance. This research paper uses the public building

construction projects for its case study. The study quantifies the need for the research due to the

increasing complexity of construction contract documents, international impacts on the cost of

materials, and varying expectations from contractors. The study considers three types of

communication – upward (communication with senior executives), downward (communication

for the personnel on the field), and lateral (communications with clients, vendors, and managers).

The paper puts forward two hypotheses:

1. Effective communication is not a strategy for the avoidance of conflicts in building project

delivery.

2. Conflicts have no adverse effects on building project delivery

A sample size of 116 respondents/projects was analyzed for these hypotheses.

Considering the responses, both hypotheses were proven wrong and it was deduced. by negation,

that conflicts do have adverse effects on the project delivery and effective communication is a

strategy for conflict avoidance.

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Another research study identified the various causes of construction disputes and

categorized them as poor communication amongst the team, failure to respond on time,

inadequate tracing for RFI (request of information), reluctant to check for constructability,

clarity, and completeness, and discrepancies or ambiguities in contract documents (Fenn et al.,

1997). All these can be assigned as communication issues.

Authors (Kumaraswamy & Yogeswaran, 1998) in their research say the sources of

construction disputes are primarily related to contractual issues such as variations, quality of

specifications, and time extensions, availability of information among other factors such as

unrealistic expectations from clients, administration, and management.

In his dissertation, Kyoo-Chul Shin at Georgia Tech reports that disputes can be created

by stakeholders such as architects, engineers, contractors, and other project-related professionals

(Shin, 2000). Another peer-reviewed paper available in the ASCE library mentions that disputes

arise “primarily due to lack of communication, distrust, misinterpretations of contracts,

uncertainties of role and responsibilities, and an ‘us versus them’ posture based on an imbalance

in risk allocations” (Thompson et al., 2000).

Authors Chua and Seng provide a specific case where they discuss that when individual

project scope schedules are developed by various project participants, it often leads to conflicts

when merged together to create a project schedule. The paper further mentions that “…the main

challenge of communication among the constructors lies in the implicit interfacial dependencies

between the project activities…” (Chua & Song, 2003).

Barriers to Communication

Various researchers have studied barriers to the communication process and tried to

classify them so that they can be addressed in a better manner. Barriers that interfere with
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communication within a project were classified by Silena Fox into four categories; verbal,

environmental, interpersonal, and emotional reactions in her paper on effective communication

for engineering and construction projects (Fox, 2001).

(Demchenko et al., 2021) classify barriers to construction communication into 4

categories: semantic barrier, stylistic barrier, logical barrier, and socio-cultural barrier. Semantic

barrier is based on the non-compliance of systems of values of the personnel involved in

communication and it is more common in communication between leaders of different groups.

Stylistic barrier is due to the style of speech in communication. This happens frequently in online

communication. The socio-cultural barrier is becoming more prominent due to the globalization

of the workforce and emerging rapidly.

It is critical to understand these different types of barriers mentioned above. This can be

used to raise awareness among project managers for improving communication in the project.

Increased awareness can help them take steps to ensure that the right information is being

appropriately received by the right receivers.

Measures to Improve Communication

Authors (Hoezen et al., 2006) have studied and concluded that to increase innovation and

positive decision making it is critical to improve communication in construction projects.

Improving communication for a construction project needs to be addressed at the site level as

well as at the organization level.

As summarized in the survey-based research paper by (Abdul et al., 2017),

communication problems on-site can be minimized by using noise reduction measures, open

communication among workers and supervisors, curbing on-site bullying, and providing
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information in a language understood by workers, and encouraging communication among

workers.

In a well-known AEC industry magazine - Construction Executive, Tom Stemm, in an

article, suggests many measures to overcome communication barriers in construction. These are

from the point of view of using various software and digital information platform for project

communication. The principal among them is having a single data source with consistent access

for users. Due to increasing software solutions, different teams are using disparate references and

standards. This may create problems as teams are working with outdated or inconsistent data

hosted on different platforms (Stemm, 2021).

Authors Ahuja and Priyadarshini have analyzed huge infrastructure projects in the Indian

construction sector to highlight the importance of effective communication at the organizational

level. The authors suggest various lessons learned such (Ahuja & Priyadarshini, 2015):

 Provide meaningful information in a readily understandable format and language

 Providing information in advance of consultation activities and decision-making

 Assigning responsibility for the communication to particular individuals

 Respect for local traditions, timeframes, and decision-making processes

 Creating and maintaining clear mechanisms for responding to people’s concerns, suggestions

and grievances and incorporating them where feasible

(Demchenko et al., 2021) suggests in their paper to make use of courses on cross-cultural

communication courses. They further suggest using Building Information Modeling (BIM) to

overcome barriers. BIM allows the use of a pre-organized, pre-defined system of software and

standards for professional communication.

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Lessons from the course text

Several barriers to communication and improvements concepts suggested in the book on

organizational communication (Kinicki, 2021) are applicable for construction projects. Some of

this resonates with the findings of the research paper discussed earlier.

The common causes/ barriers are identified as unclear roles and responsibilities, unmet

needs, and poor management of information, among others. Author Kinicki highlights the

importance of recognizing communication patterns for different participants such as gender

(male vs female), generations (Gen-Z vs Boomers), and the use of the device/medium of

communication. He further suggests measures to improve communication by clarifying

expectations and norms for communication, tools of communication, and considering the

implicit biases of people involved.

Conclusion

The construction sector is an important sector from an employment and GDP

perspective. Poor communication management has been affecting construction project delivery

and leading to losses in money and productivity. Many authors have documented the importance

of communication and proved its necessity for successful project delivery. There are significant

factors that can act as barriers to communication in the project and managers are advised to be

aware of them and actively work to overcome these barriers. With effective communication

measures, project outcomes can be improved. This paper provides a review of existing literature

that provides a link between lack of effective communication and undesirable project outcomes

for construction. It further analyzes the common communication barriers and finally addresses

measures to improve communication at the site level and the organization/office level.
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List of Figures

Figure 1: Conflict, Claims and Dispute Model (Acharya & Lee, 2006).............................4