The impact of communication technologies on group problem-solving performance in construction

The continuous interaction among construction project participants is key to resolve conflicts and speed up problem solving in construction. New communication technologies as computer-mediated communication and video conferencing allow geographically separated group members conduct real-time meetings. The adoption of these technologies by the construction industry could speed up problem solving, improve collaboration, and reduce productivity losses due to lack of information. However, there is a lack of understanding of how these technologies compare to the traditional face-to-face and audio communications. Also, there is no common agreement on which features of communication technologies are most appropriate for use in construction. The goal of this research is to assess the impacts of the emerging communication technologies on group performance in construction. In this study, seven real-time communication channels representing traditional and emerging communication methods in construction. These channels are: (1) Face-to-face, (2) Audio, (3) Fax, (4) Computer-mediated text communication, (5) Computer mediated text, voice, and sketching utility, (6) Computer-mediated text, voice and software-sharing, and (7) Video-conferencing. Four group tasks were created to emulate typical problem solving tasks in construction. A total of 84 experiments by two-participant groups were conducted to assess the impact of communication channels and task types on group performance. The evaluation of the experimental data using two-way analysis of variance supports the proposed model and provides evidence regarding the effectiveness of computer-mediated and video conferencing communication for problem solving in construction. In addition, the analysis shows that groups using media-rich computer-mediated communications perform at levels equal or better than face-to-face groups. In addition, performance differences between video-conferencing and face-to-face groups on tasks that have low visualization requirements were insignificant. The findings of the study provide quantitative evidence on the relative effectiveness of computer-mediated and video conferencing communications compared to face-to-face and audio communications. Implications of the research findings on technology adoption in construction companies and on the development of future communication systems are discussed.