A framework to measure collaboration in a construction project

Abstract

Collaboration amongst stakeholders in a construction project plays a significant role in managing and completing a project successfully. It specifically helps in interface management amongst the stakeholders. Among the various aspects of collaboration, there are two key factors that predominant. Firstly, the psychological factors that define a person as a natural collaborator, and secondly, the project-level enablers that determine a collaborative project. Therefore, in this study, two inductive theories are developed- one for psychological factors and another for project-level enablers of collaboration. This study aims to identify the key psychological factors and project enablers associated with collaboration and develop a conceptual framework to measure collaboration in a construction project. The workflow of the conceptual framework is developed in the first part of the research, and the input requirements are quantified. Robust hypothesis testing methodology is adopted to identify the key psychological factors and project enablers. Hypotheses testing yields three specific psychological factors for defining a person as a natural collaborator, and six enablers are essential for facilitating project collaboration. These results are used as input parameters in the derived conceptual framework to measure the level of collaboration in a construction project.