Communication in Construction Teams Book

Preface     x
The social life of construction projects     1
Communication     3
The construction team     5
Interaction during construction projects     8
Researching communication during live projects     9
Further reading     12
Construction communication research     13
Group development within the temporary project team     17
Communicating to achieve project objectives     19
Construction communication research     21
Professional engagement and procurement     27
Construction meetings     28
Misunderstandings and conflict: The nature of interaction     31
Group interaction research     36
Multidisciplinary groups and organisational communication     37
Group development and group norms     43
Bales' interaction process analysis     47
Group participation and interaction     54
Leadership and participation     56
Task and relational interaction     58
Social influence and persuasion     71
Group performance and outcomes     83
Summary     84
Collecting communication data from construction projects     86
Observing interaction     87
Quantitative observation with qualitative explanation     88
Clarifying, classifying and coding communication acts     95
Preliminary testing of data collection methods     100
Testing Bales' IPA: The pilot study     103
Research method     115
Use of the IPA method     117
Data processing and analysis     118
Coding and analysing Bales' IPA     119
Interaction data from construction meetings     122
Results: Case study 1     122
Results: Case study 2     128
Results: Case study 3     131
Results: Case study 4     135
Results: Case study 5     139
Results: Case study 6     142
Results: Case study 7     146
Results: Case study 8     149
Results: Case study 9     152
Results: Case study 10     156
Summary of observations     159
Team interaction characteristics     162
Interaction norms of construction progress meetings     162
Comparison of findings with previous studies     171
Discussion of team interaction characteristics      178
Summary     180
Successful and unsuccessful project outcomes     181
Different levels of interaction analysis     181
Socio-emotional and task-based interaction     182
Positive and negative socio-emotional interaction     184
Analysis of Bales' 12 categories     187
Successful and unsuccessful project outcomes: Relationships between categories     212
Contractor's representatives and interpersonal interaction     213
Summary     222
Discussion of the findings     224
Participation in site-based progress meetings     224
Differences between interaction in successful and unsuccessful projects     231
Summary: Task-based interaction categories     234
Interaction of contractor's representatives     235
Conclusions and recommendations     240
Typical management and design team meeting interaction     241
Conclusion: Hypothesis 1     243
Conclusion: Hypothesis 2     245
Limitations and recommendations     246
Revaluing communication in construction teams     249
Communication as a critical success factor     251
Recommended reading     252
Definition of communication acts attributed to Bales' IPA categories     253
Observer reliability: Test results     263
Data collection sheet     268
Number of meetings observed     271
Communication models developed from this research     272
Bibliography     275
Index     295