Communication networks of an integrated project delivery team for construction: relationships between formal and informal communication networks

The current study modeled formal and informal communication networks of an integrated project delivery (IPD) team and examined the interplay between the two networks. The IPD format as an alternative method of building construction relies on its multiple stakeholders’ equal and active collaboration. Analyses of both endogenous and exogenous network variables found very distinctive tie formation dynamics between the formal and informal communication networks. While both networks were rather decentralized, a preferred structure for facilitating collaboration in IPD teams, reciprocal communication was identified only in formal (i.e., project-related information exchange), not in informal (i.e., social conversations) networks in valued exponential random graph modeling (VERGM). Ethnic heterophily, also a preferred structure for the IPD collaboration, was significant for formal, but not for informal communication networks. A small number of female members (4 out of 26) were more participating in formal, but less in informal conversations compared to males. Team members from designer and contractor organizations were active in project-related information exchange, but not as much in social conversations compared to the owner’s representatives. While a multiplexity effect was identified between formal and informal communication networks in VERGM, MR-QAP regressions revealed the cyclicality of each network significantly predicted the other type of communication frequency above and beyond its own structural configuration.