The problem of communication in construction

Communication is an important topic in the construction industry, as also reported in the literature. Often problems in construction are referred to as communication problems [Emmerson 1962]; [Higgin and Jessop 1965]; [Latham 1994]; [DETR 1998]. Due to its specific characteristics, the industry forms a complex communication environment. Construction is a fragmented and dynamic sector with a projectbased nature. This makes that many stakeholders operate in frequently changing sets of relationships which are contractually driven. The culture shows a reality of conflicts and lack of mutual respect and trust [Dainty et al 2006]. The goal of this research project is to improve communication in construction. To define the problem in more detail and to define a more specific research goal, the project started with two studies. Literature on communication in construction was studied, and interviews were held with experts in the Netherlands. This provided a first impression of the situation in the practice and literature of construction. This paper reports the first findings (in Section 4), including a more focused problem definition, the main research goal and a possible research set-up to tackle the problem. The literature study is reported in the next section; the empirical data from the expert interviews are discussed in Section 3. The paper ends with some conclusions.