Communication behaviour during management and design team meetings: a comparison of group interaction

Although a few studies have investigated the communication behaviour of construction professionals this research represents the first attempt to model the construction team's interaction in live project meetings. Using the established Bales interaction process analysis (IPA) method, both task and relational interaction were recorded and a model of group communication was produced. A total of 36 meetings were observed from 10 construction projects and the data aggregated to provide a single profile of the groups' interaction. The construction meetings' interaction is compared to previous research undertaken in other contexts. Differences were found between the interaction patterns of work, social and academic groups. Typical of the interaction previously observed in work groups, the participants in construction meetings use high levels of task-based interaction and low levels of socio-emotional interaction. The adversarial environment often associated with construction was not found, indeed the level of negative emotion and critical discussion was so low that it could be suggested that problems may pass unchallenged.