Barriers of communication in managing Industrialised Building System (IBS) projects in the northern region of Malaysia: Virtual team communication practices

• Main Author: Mohd Affendi, Ahmad Pozin
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English; English; English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: T58.5-58.64 Information technology; HD28-70 Management. Industrial Management
• Online Access: https://etd.uum.edu.my/10134/1/kebenaran%20mendeposit-tidak%20membenarkan-817571.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/10134/9/s817571_01.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/10134/8/s817571_02.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/10134/4/s817571_references.docx; https://etd.uum.edu.my/10134/

Communication issue is one of the challenges faced by the current Malaysian construction projects particularly those with the Industrialized Building System (IBS). During the implementation of IBS project, fragmentation process that takes place in project execution has led to major problems in communication. However, through rapid expansion of capability and accessibility of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), innovation of organization structures and methods employed by working team or the purported ‘virtual teams’ can be formed. Although past studies revealed that virtual teams are widely adopted in practices such as manufacturing, education and professional organization; it has been in the nascent stage and less attention is given to the construction project in Malaysia particularly the IBS project in rural areas. In fulfilling this gap, an inductive research approach of specifically semi-structured interviews were conducted among five project managers who had undertook various roles in the construction industry. By merging both previous literature reviews and semi-structured interviews, fundamental issues concerning virtual communication namely; people, technology, and process in managing construction industry are formed. Causes of communication barriers are also explicated and examined in this study. The results proposed that the challenges actually revolve around the managerial and operational issues. Additionally, the causes of the issues and their interactions are also being investigated and analysed. Generally, this study has highlighted two main conclusions. Fragmentation of design and planning phase initially requires effective communication process. The findings revealed that project teams need high competency and skill in communication to deliver clear information to the distributed team members. The findings then offer useful implications of the virtual teams for the project managers in managing distributed teams to increase both the organizational and individual levels in order to become more innovative and successfully adopt new technologies and methods of working. Finally, some success factors related to virtual communication that are discussed above are provided.