An Analysis for Construction Engineering Networks

Civil engineers at a construction site form a particular population because of their unique work location, the danger involved in their work, and the need for support from others. Teamwork and effective order enforcement are therefore critical for construction project success. This research establishes the order-management, technical-consultation, and interpersonal-social networks of site engineers using a questionnaire that surveyed the Husan dam project in Taiwan. The aim of this study is to discover the underlying job-site management problems and potential technology interfaces by analyzing three job-site social networks. It was found that the order-management network, which is a goal-directed and hierarchical architecture, has the highest degree of social density among the three because of abundant resource infusion and institutional enforcement. The interpersonal-social network has no goals or resource inputs and is not formally organized; hence, it exhibits a highly disjointed structure. The technical-consultation network topology lies between the above two networks because its resource infusion is not apparent. In the order-management and technical-consultation networks, the site manager and principal engineers assigned by the owner or contractor are the central figures in these networks; however, they become outliers in the interpersonal-social network. Two ideal network models for order-management and technical-consultation are proposed in this paper for effectively executing construction projects. In the order-management aspect, a giant network (largest isolated subnetwork) with two interconnected hierarchical structures, the owner and contractor, can increase order and information transmission efficiency within the network. The technical-consultation network with a small world architecture may not only encourage interdisciplinary interaction leading to technology renovation, but also prevent engineering errors or delay because of misaligned technological interfaces. Applying social network analysis to construction projects allows understanding the actual management structures, identifying central figures in an organization, and exploring the potential threats that cause engineering mistakes.