Managing effective communication in project management firms

Abstract

Effective communication is always important, especially to the construction industry as it is labour intensive and relies heavily on the workforce for projects. Project managers tend to face problems when communicating with members of the projects as there are many parties involved. Project managers will need to work with professionals of various working styles and thus communication problems arises, causing misunderstanding.

With the high degree of diversification of the work force in Singapore’s construction industry, project managers will also need to communicate with workers from different cultural backgrounds. Language barrier is one problem that is challenging the project managers. With different cultural backgrounds, foreign workers may have a different set of religious belief which may pose further problems to project managers.

Other than cultural difference, the different level of knowledge also poses problems for the project managers. They would need to deliver information in many different methods to ensure that all of their project partners fully understood his or her intentions. The perception level of a layman and a professional is very different and the terms used must vary as well.

The main objective of this research is to evaluate the implications of these communication problems and implement measures to overcome them. Efficiency becomes a main problem when there is communication breakdown. Using Bales’s Interaction Process analysis (IPA) countermeasures that aid in improving efficiency will then be implemented.

The research method consisted of a questionnaire sent to project managers based in Singapore. The data were collected through snow-ball sampling for personal contacts and also random sampling for project management firms in Singapore’s construction industry.

In the analysis of the findings, a one sample t-test was conducted to find out their responses on preferred communication method when communicating with different people, i.e. project team members and colleagues of different management level. All the project managers who were surveyed had more than 1 year of working experience and thus they were able to give answers according to their knowledge.

According to the data collected, most respondents had preferred to use electronic mail and face to face when interacting with the professionals, clients and colleagues. It is also observed by using Bales’s IPA that during meetings, most of the professionals do not show much emotion when interacting as most of the communications done during meetings are confined to task-based.

The research may not represent the view of all project managers in Singapore as although the sample is restricted to project managers in Singapore, but not all of them are Singaporeans and thus their communication style may be different.

Through this research, project managers will be able to identify the type of communication method to use when interacting with different professionals and also proper way of communicating during meetings using Bales’s IPA.