Caprario, Rick (2025) Interpersonal communication, relationships, and collaboration among construction specialty contractor project management professionals: A single case study. EdD thesis, Baylor University, USA.
Abstract
Ineffective interpersonal communication skills stifle healthy relationships and collaborative exchanges among project management professionals working in a construction project environment. Construction projects are complex, temporary social environments that rely on the effective exchange of information between project management professionals to organize project activities related to cost, scope, schedule, and quality. The construction industry recognizes the significant value of interpersonal communication on relationship development and collaborative outcomes to achieve project goals. Despite valuing interpersonal communication skills, the industry remains fixated on hard skills (e.g., scheduling, financial management, quality management) while relegating soft skills (e.g., interpersonal communication, relationship development, collaboration) to a secondary role. This fixation then perpetuates the cycle of revenue loss and risk exposure driven by ineffective communication skills. In this qualitative single case study, I explored the relationship between interpersonal communication and relationships and collaboration.Guided by social network theory in construction (Pryke et al, 2017), I conducted a qualitative single case study. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the experiences of specialty contractor project management professionals and their perceptions of interpersonal communication, relationships, and collaboration. This study utilized two data sources, semi-structured interviews and direct observations, with observation debriefings. Four specialty contractor project management professionals participated in this study, providing rich and descriptive accounts of their experiences.This study had three key findings. The first finding was that construction management professionals stressed the importance of developing positive cycles of dialogue through face-to-face interactions. The second finding was that construction management professionals emphasized that social behaviors were integral to creating strong interactions within their social networks. The final finding was that construction project management professionals described project partnerships that were built on collaborative problem solving and shared task completion goals. The findings from this study provided insight into the experiences of specialty contractor project management professionals' perception of interpersonal communications, relationships, and collaboration. The study has implications for construction professional associations, higher education construction management programs, and the building trades and registered apprenticeship programs, suggesting the implementation of soft skills curriculum and coursework into existing programs to enhance construction project outcomes.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Meyer, Melanie S |
| Index terms: | social behaviour, implementation, case study, specialty contractor, social network, building trade, apprenticeship, scheduling, construction professional, collaboration, revenue, direct observation, interaction, project management, higher education, quality management, construction industry, face, exposure, social network theory, program, problem solving, partnership, construction project, financial management, construction project management, communication skill, interview |
| Subjects: | quality assurance, professional development, educational institutions, practitioner, software systems, partnership management, decision-making and reasoning, operations research, public and environmental health, contractual arrangements, sociology, professional practice, data collection methods, professional education, management, industry analysis, economic analysis, psychology, behavioral psychology, project management theory and practice, production management |
| Topics: | Information Management, Quality Management, Digital Applications, Stakeholder Management, Engineering Principles, Time Control, Business Strategy, Procurement, Organizational Design, Education, Project Management, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here