Social network analysis for construction crews

Construction crews usually have to share the limited working space with each other during construction to perform their tasks, which increases the chance of interference/conflict and productivity lost. Social network analysis (SNA) has been known as a methodology to determine the conditions of social structures by investigating the interdependencies among a set of actors. The impact of jobsite social network on the performance of the crews has not been well documented in previous research. This research proposes an analytical approach by combining SNA and work plan variation analysis to (1) quantify the influence construction crews receive from jobsite social network, and (2) explore the impact of jobsite social network on the crews’ performance particularly on their work plan variation through a case study. The results indicated that there is a positive monotonic association between each of the centrality indices (representing network influence on each crew) and each of the work plan variability indices (representing crew's performance). The more influences a crew receives form the network, the more work plan variation it will have. A better understanding of the existing jobsite interdependencies will help project managers to control it through better planning and leadership, consequently increasing jobsite productivity.