IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i8p4513-d538736.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Relationship between Communication and Success of Construction Projects: The Mediating Role of Conflict

Author

Listed:
  • Summaira Malik

    (Department of Economics, Lahore Campus, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Defence Road, Off Raiwind Road, Lahore 54000, Pakistan)

  • Muhammad Taqi

    (Department of Management Science, Lahore Campus, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Defence Road, Off Raiwind Road, Lahore 54000, Pakistan)

  • José Moleiro Martins

    (ISCAL (Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Lisboa), Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Avenida Miguel Bombarda, 20, 1069-035 Lisboa, Portugal
    Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL), 1069-035 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Mário Nuno Mata

    (ISCAL (Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Lisboa), Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Avenida Miguel Bombarda, 20, 1069-035 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • João Manuel Pereira

    (ISCAL (Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Lisboa), Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Avenida Miguel Bombarda, 20, 1069-035 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • António Abreu

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, 1959-007 Lisbon, Portugal
    CTS Uninova, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal)

Abstract

The success of a construction project is a widely discussed topic, even today, and there exists a difference of opinion. The impact of communication and conflict on project success is an important, but least addressed, issue in literature, especially in the case of underdeveloped countries. Miscommunication and conflict not only hinder the success of a project but also may lead to conflicts. The focus of this paper was to examine the impact of communication on project success with the mediating role of conflict. By using SPSS, demographics, descriptive statistics and correlation were determined. Smart PLS version 3.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal accuracy and validity estimates, hypothesis checking and mediation testing. The results showed that formal communication has a negative impact on the success of a construction project, resulting in conflicts among project team members, whereas informal communication and communication willingness have a positive impact on project success because people tend to know each other, and trust is developed. Task, process and relationship conflicts were used as mediating variables. It was found that task conflict effects the relations positively because project team members suggest different ways to do a certain task, and, hence, project success is achieved. On the contrary, process conflict and relationship conflict have a negative impact on communication and project success. Both of these conflicts lead to miscommunication, and project success is compromised. Hence, it is the responsibility of the project manager to enhance communication among project team members and to reduce the detrimental effects of process and relationship conflict on project success.

Suggested Citation

  • Summaira Malik & Muhammad Taqi & José Moleiro Martins & Mário Nuno Mata & João Manuel Pereira & António Abreu, 2021. "Exploring the Relationship between Communication and Success of Construction Projects: The Mediating Role of Conflict," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:8:p:4513-:d:538736
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4513/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4513/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Prapatpaow Awakul & Stephen Ogunlana, 2002. "The effect of attitudinal differences on interface conflicts in large scale construction projects: a case study," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 365-377.
    2. Ahmad Salman & Mastura Jaafar & Summaira Malik & Diana Mohammad & Sohail Ayaz Muhammad, 2021. "An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of the Communication and Employee Motivation on the Project Success Using Agile Framework and Its Effect on the Software Development Business," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 9(1), pages 46-61, January.
    3. Dvir, Dov & Lechler, Thomas, 2004. "Plans are nothing, changing plans is everything: the impact of changes on project success," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Sabri Ahmad & Wan Mohamad Asyraf Bin Wan Afthanorhan, 2014. "The Importance-Performance Matrix Analysis in Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with Smartpls 2.0 M3," International Journal of Mathematical Research, Conscientia Beam, vol. 3(1), pages 1-14.
    5. Homa Bahmani & Wei Zhang, 2021. "Application of System Thinking and Factors Interrelationship Analysis to Identify Primary Success Factors of Post-Natural Disaster Recovery Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-24, March.
    6. Zhikun Ding & Fungfai Ng & Qiying Cai, 2007. "Personal constructs affecting interpersonal trust and willingness to share knowledge between architects in project design teams," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(9), pages 937-950.
    7. Sabri Ahmad & Wan Mohamad Asyraf Bin Wan Afthanorhan, 2014. "The Importance-Performance Matrix Analysis in Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) With Smartpls 2.0 M3," International Journal of Mathematics Research, Conscientia Beam, vol. 3(1), pages 1-14.
    8. Peter Fenn & David Lowe & Christopher Speck, 1997. "Conflict and dispute in construction," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(6), pages 513-518.
    9. Yiqing Dai & Yu Bai, 2020. "Performance Improvement for Building Integrated Photovoltaics in Practice: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, December.
    10. Sławomir Wawak & Žanesa Ljevo & Mladen Vukomanović, 2020. "Understanding the Key Quality Factors in Construction Projects—A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-25, December.
    11. Ioana Beleiu & Emil Crisan & Razvan Nistor, 2015. "Main Factors Influencing Project Success," Interdisciplinary Management Research, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Economics, Croatia, vol. 11, pages 59-72.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Davaei, Mahboobeh & Gunkel, Marjaana & Veglio, Valerio & Taras, Vas, 2022. "The influence of cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence on conflict occurrence and performance in global virtual teams," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(4).
    2. Emily A. Paskewitz, 2021. "Exploring the Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Family Farm Member Conflict Experiences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pilawa, Joanna & Witell, Lars & Valtakoski, Aku & Kristensson, Per, 2022. "Service innovativeness in retailing: Increasing the relative attractiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Mahsa Mesgar & Diego Ramirez-Lovering & Mohamed El-Sioufi, 2021. "Tension, Conflict, and Negotiability of Land for Infrastructure Retrofit Practices in Informal Settlements," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, November.
    3. Muñoz, Félix-Fernando & Encinar, María-Isabel & Cañibano, Carolina, 2011. "On the role of intentionality in evolutionary economic change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 193-203, September.
    4. Gorjian, Shiva & Bousi, Erion & Özdemir, Özal Emre & Trommsdorff, Max & Kumar, Nallapaneni Manoj & Anand, Abhishek & Kant, Karunesh & Chopra, Shauhrat S., 2022. "Progress and challenges of crop production and electricity generation in agrivoltaic systems using semi-transparent photovoltaic technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Samuel Amo Awuku & Firdaus Muhammad-Sukki & Nazmi Sellami, 2022. "Building Integrated Photovoltaics—The Journey So Far and Future," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-5, February.
    6. Vicente Rodríguez Montequín & Joaquín Villanueva Balsera & Sonia María Cousillas Fernández & Francisco Ortega Fernández, 2018. "Exploring Project Complexity through Project Failure Factors: Analysis of Cluster Patterns Using Self-Organizing Maps," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-17, May.
    7. Luong Hai Nguyen & Tsunemi Watanabe, 2017. "The Impact of Project Organizational Culture on the Performance of Construction Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-21, May.
    8. Matthias Lang, 2020. "Mechanism Design with Narratives," CESifo Working Paper Series 8502, CESifo.
    9. Miao Yu & Fangwei Zhu & Xiaotian Yang & Linzhuo Wang & Xiuxia Sun, 2018. "Integrating Sustainability into Construction Engineering Projects: Perspective of Sustainable Project Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-17, March.
    10. Kuchta Dorota & Sukpen Joseph, 2013. "Culture and Project Management," Journal of Intercultural Management, Sciendo, vol. 5(3), pages 23-38, September.
    11. Muhammad Irfan & Sanam Zaib Khan & Nasruddin Hassan & Mazlan Hassan & Muhammad Habib & Salma Khan & Hadi Hassan Khan, 2021. "Role of Project Planning and Project Manager Competencies on Public Sector Project Success," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, January.
    12. Hannen, Julian & Antons, David & Piller, Frank & Salge, Torsten Oliver & Coltman, Tim & Devinney, Timothy M., 2019. "Containing the Not-Invented-Here Syndrome in external knowledge absorption and open innovation: The role of indirect countermeasures," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    13. JeeHee Lee & Youngjib Ham & June-Seong Yi, 2021. "Construction Disputes and Associated Contractual Knowledge Discovery Using Unstructured Text-Heavy Data: Legal Cases in the United Kingdom," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    14. Homa Bahmani & Wei Zhang, 2022. "Why Do Communities Recover Differently after Socio-Natural Disasters? Pathways to Comprehensive Success of Recovery Projects Based on Bam’s (Iran) Neighborhoods’ Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-29, January.
    15. Vaid, Shashank & Donthu, Naveen, 2023. "When injured product users may also stay satisfied: A macro-level analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Bumjin Han & Seunghyun Son & Sunkuk Kim, 2021. "Measuring Safety Climate in the Construction Industry: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-22, September.
    17. Keehoon Kwon & Doyeong Kim & Sunkuk Kim, 2021. "Cutting Waste Minimization of Rebar for Sustainable Structural Work: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, May.
    18. Butković Lana Lovrenčić, 2021. "A new framework for ranking Critical Success Factors for International Construction Projects," Organization, Technology and Management in Construction, Sciendo, vol. 13(2), pages 2505-2520, July.
    19. Verworn, Birgit, 2009. "A structural equation model of the impact of the "fuzzy front end" on the success of new product development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1571-1581, December.
    20. Xiao-Hua Jin & Florence Yean Yng Ling, 2005. "Constructing a framework for building relationships and trust in project organizations: two case studies of building projects in China," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7), pages 685-696.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:8:p:4513-:d:538736. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.