Using Social Network Analysis to Explore Communication among Members of an Integrated Project Delivery Team

Abstract

Due to the contractual obligations of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), participants are intrinsically motivated to collaborate with each other. This paper presents the findings of an ethnographic case study exploring the communication structures among members of an IPD team. Direct observational data were collected from three different types of team meetings over a period of 3 months. The data were coded and analyzed using social network analyses (SNA). Findings highlighted the characteristics of each type of communication network and the relation between them. While participants affiliated with the owner, designers, general contractor, and trade partners were members of the integrated team, members representing the general contractor emerged to take central positions in both formal and informal networks acting as the primary channel of information exchange and social relationships. Further, quadratic assignment procedure multiple regression (QAP-MR) revealed that informal communications among the team members could significantly predict the strength of formal communications. The graphical visualizations and the empirical evidence provide insights for formal and informal communication structures with their distinctive features and their interrelationships. © 2021 Associated Schools of Construction.