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MG5415 - Research Paper - Prem Gandhi
MG5415 - Research Paper - Prem Gandhi
MG5415 - Research Paper - Prem Gandhi
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
materials, and varying expectations from contractors. The study considers three types of
for the personnel on the field), and lateral (communications with clients, vendors, and managers).
1. Effective communication is not a strategy for the avoidance of conflicts in building project
delivery.
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
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.,
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
In his dissertation, Kyoo-Chul Shin at Georgia Tech reports that disputes can be created
(Shin, 2000). Another peer-reviewed paper available in the ASCE library mentions that disputes
uncertainties of role and responsibilities, and an ‘us versus them’ posture based on an imbalance
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
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,
categories: semantic barrier, stylistic barrier, logical barrier, and socio-cultural barrier. Semantic
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
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
Authors (Hoezen et al., 2006) have studied and concluded that to increase innovation and
Improving communication for a construction project needs to be addressed at the site level as
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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workers.
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
Authors Ahuja and Priyadarshini have analyzed huge infrastructure projects in the Indian
level. The authors suggest various lessons learned such (Ahuja & Priyadarshini, 2015):
Creating and maintaining clear mechanisms for responding to people’s concerns, suggestions
(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
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
(male vs female), generations (Gen-Z vs Boomers), and the use of the device/medium of
expectations and norms for communication, tools of communication, and considering the
Conclusion
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