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Interdisciplinarity is a critical component of creating a more sustainable built environment and improving student learning outcomes. Yet, learning interdisciplinarity and measuring it in higher education is challenging. This study implemented a diagnostic tool that allowed educators to measure how both disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills, knowledge, and values would grow in courses related to sustainable built environments. One school containing four different disciplines devoted to the built environment, was selected as the study area to collect emprical data. Pre- and post-semester surveys were conducted. Among 286 students, interdisciplinarity grew most among students within the school’s majors, while among students from outside the school majors interdisciplinary learning decreased. Though disciplinary learning outpaces interdisciplinary learning the closer students are to earning their bachelor’s or higher degrees. The result showed that students’ knowledge, values and skills differ depending on the majors, their affiliational context, and the year of classification. The result suggests that the timing of teaching interdisciplinary contents should be earlier. The diagnostic tool which measured pre- and post- course disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and values related to sustainable built environment would also be applicable in other courses in higher education.

This study examines the influence of project managers’ communication behaviors in integrated project delivery (IPD) projects. This study also considers the impact of team-level information sharing on team-level outcomes (i.e., goal alignment, decision quality, process commitment, and project quality). Results indicate that team information sharing was perceived as beneficial, but the effects of project manager communication behaviors were inconsistent. Interaction analyses indicated that project managers’ communication behaviors hindered team functioning if teams were already engaging in adequate levels of information sharing. This manuscript contributes to the project management corpus by explicating an integrative model whereby project manager and team-level information-sharing behaviors are modeled simultaneously.

Recently, architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) project teams have begun to adopt the integrated project delivery (IPD) method with increased frequency. This adoption has been made on the assumption that IPD will lead to beneficial project team dynamics and outcomes. Although novel and potentially useful, we contend that the mere implementation of the IPD method does not in and of itself guarantee successful project team dynamics and outcomes. In specific, in this manuscript we argue that commitment disparities between project team members are problematic for numerous project team dynamics and outcomes: goal alignment, communication behaviors, and decision-quality. Using data from 21 IPD project teams, we show this to be the case. Results from this investigation suggest that when members’ commitment levels vary within project teams, goal misalignment, poor communication behaviors, and reduced decision quality are expected to follow. Moreover, results suggest that this is especially likely to occur when members’ commitment levels are low as opposed to high. This work contributes substantially to our understanding of project team dynamics in the AEC industry, especially as they relate to those delivered under contractually followed IPD. Although the IPD method holds the potential to be beneficial, these results suggest that such benefits accrue only if team members’ commitment levels are both high and uniform. In the absence of such conditions, problematic team-level dynamics and outcomes are expected to ensue.

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a popular approach for collecting annotated data to train supervised machine learning models. However, annotator bias can lead to defective annotations. Though there are a few works investigating individual annotator bias, the group effects in annotators are largely overlooked. In this work, we reveal that annotators within the same demographic group tend to show consistent group bias in annotation tasks and thus we conduct an initial study on annotator group bias. We first empirically verify the existence of annotator group bias in various real-world crowdsourcing datasets. Then, we develop a novel probabilistic graphical framework GroupAnno to capture annotator group bias with a new extended Expectation Maximization (EM) training algorithm. We conduct experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our model in modeling annotator group bias in label aggregation and model learning over competitive baselines., 10 pages

Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) project teams have a segmented organizational structure with subgroups, for example, designer, contractor, and owner. AEC projects are chal...

Networks in complex interorganizational engineering project teams are shaped by individuals’ actions to perform specific project functions. These networks are dynamic; they change based on ...

Partnering has enabled state departments of transportation (DOTs) and aviation construction projects to significantly reduce claims and improve project schedules. Today there is a wide body...

Knowledge management practices in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) projects emphasize team integration and motivational factors to improve knowledge transfer among team mem...

Shared Mental Models (SMM) is a well-established concept in cognitive psychology with strong links to team performance. Despite the extensive body of research in this area, the literature still presents varied perspectives and definitions for the SMM construct. Also, SMM empirical studies are limited to mostly the investigations of small disciplinary teams and are underutilized for inter-organizational project teams, such as those in the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. This study presents a detailed review of SMM literature resulting in a comprehensive framework and discusses the implications of SMM on AEC project teams, making a case for integrated project delivery. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a theoretical lens of SMM through which to analyze the AEC literature related to project delivery processes.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to comprehend the ways of knowledge and application of green building guidelines and assessment systems as innovations diffuse in developing countries’ Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries. Design/methodology/approach – Building up on recent research on the India case, this study focused on Indonesia and Turkey and further studied “how green building assessment systems diffuse in developing countries”. A total of 110 experts representing individuals from private and governmental sectors from both countries responded to the conducted survey. Findings – Findings show insights to adoption of green building guidelines in developing countries, including their diffusion paths, barriers to their use and their applications. Additionally, the results are compared with the India case from the recent literature and analysed via the lens of the diffusion of innovation theory. Research limitations/implications – A random sampling of the AEC industries in developing countries in future studies and capturing of the evolution of the trends over time will provide further insights into the diffusion of innovation phenomena in the context of green building guidelines. Practical implications – Innovation adoption paths for green building guidelines in Indonesia, Turkey and India are similar, while a higher adoption rate is observed in the case of India. “Diffusion of innovation” categories for green building guidelines that define the state of each adopter at the time of survey conduct in India, Indonesia and Turkey are found. Environmental groups as innovator, large business houses as early adopter and nodal agencies as early majority are the common adopters and categories of green building guidelines. The study findings align with those in the literature and show that clients and market conditions can catalyse the diffusion of innovation in AEC industries in Turkey and Indonesia. Social implications – Diffusion of green building guidelines as innovations in developing countries’ AEC industries showed alignment with the Roger’s (2003) model. However, respondents in both Turkey and Indonesia reported approximately ten times as many innovators and twice as many early adopters as Roger’s (2003) model would predict. Because of the small proportions of late adopters and laggards in these two countries, any useful innovation should be quickly incorporated. Originality/value – Aligning with the literature, findings show that clients and market conditions catalyse diffusion of innovation in AEC industries in Turkey and Indonesia. It is important to note that both countries approximately have ten times as many innovators and twice as many early adopters as theory would predict. Because of the small proportions of late adopters and laggards in these two countries, useful green building innovations could be quickly incorporated.

There is an obvious need in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry for improved project team integration through project delivery to ensure improved project outcomes. The literature reports that, among other methods, project partnering, when followed successfully, provides a great opportunity to improve project performance via improved collaboration among key project stakeholders (e.g., owner, designer, contractor) and reduce claims as a result while letting all project members stay in their traditional roles and work under any contractual framework, including design-bid-build. Despite its potential and history in the United States since the late 1980s and being classified as one of the best practices by the Construction Industry Institute in 1996, partnering continues to be underutilized. Existing research on partnering is mostly limited to public projects such as mega roadway and bridge projects. Guided by the literature, the aim of this research is to understand and report barriers to project partnering in the United States from both vertical/horizontal and public/private construction sectors. Via a comprehensive literature review, followed by a Delphi survey of partnering experts, this study systematically classified barriers to project partnering. In study results, implementation barriers to partnering during project delivery are more frequently pronounced than the barriers to its adoption. Of the top reported barriers to project partnering, the majority are cultural; project team related barriers show the greatest area of potential for improvement; and contrary to the literature, none is legislative. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by drawing attention to project delivery and management practices in the AEC industry to improve team collaboration and chances of successful implementation and adoption of integrative practices.

Implementing any innovation successfully is a challenge. In addition to commonly reported climate and values-fit constructs, this study proposes that communication behaviors (i.e., monitoring, challenging, managing, and negotiating) are also vital for innovation implementation. Via an in-depth literature review, the study first defines these metrics. Second, a content analysis of an integrated project delivery (IPD) case study report enables the study to explore if these communication behaviors exist in inter-organizational architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) project teams. Results provide four key communication metrics for innovation implementation, supported by evidence and examples that illustrate these metrics in AEC teams implementing IPD as an innovation.

Over the last three decades, substantial research in construction management highlights the benefits and shortcomings of project partnering in architecture, engineering, and construction pr...

Sustainable practices in the built environment are becoming a more common phenomona as market penetration of green buildings grow. Despite the reported benefits of green buildings, barriers to sustainability still exist. To motivate wider adoption of sustainable built environments, this research studies public policy and its impacts. The study aims to understand the links between public policy, construction playmakers' (e.g., organizations', institutions', business owners', and developers') motivation to build green, and growth of sustainable built environments in the United States. As a step forward in this direction, this paper focuses on the case of Michigan and explores construction playmakers' motivations to build and/or occupy sustainable buildings and how effective current public policy in Michigan is at addressing these motivations. There is little research on the links among legislation, construction playmakers' motivation to build green, and the growth of sustainable built environment in the United States. This article's findings show that: 1) green building costs are still the most frequently-reported barrier to green building, 2) property developers are significantly less likely to utilize green building practices than other construction playmakers, 3) single-family residential buildings were the least likely building type to receive green certifications, and 4) construction playmakers report low levels of green policy awareness and use despite the presence of relevant public policies. These findings will provide direction for policy makers and advocates in creating policy that will effectively promote green building construction.

This research examines the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry's use of the contractually followed Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) format as an administrative innovation to reduce inefficiencies and fragmentation in ventures involving multiple agents and contractors. A promising integrative theoretical framework, developed by Klein and Sorra [The challenge of innovation implementation. Academy of Management Review, 21, 1055–80], emphasizes two constructs in the successful implementation of innovative organizational processes: climate and value-fit. This paper presents an IPD case study via the lens of Klein and Sorra's model to: test the model's fit to interorganizational AEC project teams; bring insights to effective implementation of IPD as an innovation; and expand our understanding of administrative innovations' implementation. The case study provided a unique opportunity to this research as five months into the project, the owner decided to give up IPD and revert to a more fam...

The demand for sustainable buildings in the United States has risen because of accelerated depletion of natural resources, rising energy costs and green house gas emissions, and increased awareness of indoor environmental quality. Recently, this demand expanded from including only low energy strategies and products in buildings to prioritizing maximum energy conservation and occupant well being. All of these characteristics represent aspects of sustainable, high-performance buildings. Project delivery methods—e.g., design-build (DB) and design-bid-build (DBB)—can affect the level of team integration, which has been reported by the industry to result in optimal project outcomes and better value to the owner. However, there is a gap in the literature to examine the relationships among these results. This research studied how project delivery methods influence an owner’s ability to achieve its sustainability goals mediated through the level of integration achieved in the delivery process. The researc...

The Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry currently lacks streamlined corrective measures to improve communication within cross-functional teams and optimize project outcomes. Previous research in this area offers lean construction methodologies, building information modeling techniques, and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) principles. However, communication aspects within project teams and their impact on project outcomes are to be further examined. Using a well accepted taxonomy of team processes, this paper explores the communication aspects among AEC team members in an IPD case. Process maps developed based on project team meeting minutes guided this study in identifying the episodes in study case leading to positive or negative cost outcomes. Due to the intrinsic characteristics of IPD projects, the authors were able to rule out some key concepts of team integration such as collaborative decision-making, respect, trust, early involvement of participants and open communication, and focus on information exchange dynamics among participants in the case study. Results suggest that influence in decision-making, integrated communication, and timing for key decisions are among the major factors that lead progress during project delivery to optimize project cost.

We are happy to present this special issue on considerations of sustainability. We received 56 abstract submissions, of which 35 full papers were invited. After full peer review, 12 of the 35 papers were identified for publication in the special issue. We would like to thank the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management for encouraging us and supporting us in our efforts at compiling this issue. This publication comes at a very exciting time in the construction industry. The state of California has a legislative mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Other states such as Illinois are investing heavily in constructing and maintaining highway infrastructure that has lower environmental impacts. There has also been a focus on the development of rating systems, such as INVEST, supported by the Federal Highway Administration, and Envision, developed by ASCE. Stakeholders in the construction industry are being challenged to adopt practices to construct and maintain environmentally friendly infrastructure designed to sustain livable communities. Within this context, the research community is playing an important role in supporting the development of relevant best practices to further the goals of the industry. It is expected that the papers in this issue will showcase some of the trends in current sustainability research while identifying research gaps and pointing to a future agenda in integrating principles of sustainability in construction engineering and management. The footprint of this issue spans topics in construction operations, infrastructure systems management, buildings and energy, materials, project delivery, information technology, and livable communities. The following are some of the noticeable themes emerging from the compilation: • Life-cycle assessment (LCA) has emerged as a dominant methodology. It is used to discriminate between alternative products and processes and to estimate environmental impacts. Future work can further develop general project-based LCA frameworks for construction operations and processes for application across systems as different as buildings and pavements. • Rating systems can serve as important tools to aid decision makers in uniformly implementing the results of a LCA analysis. This issue presents papers that develop rating systems and papers that investigate the underlying frameworks that support the identification of sustainability factors. In the future, research aligning rating systems and quantitative, LCA-based estimates of environmental impacts may provide useful pointers for practitioners. • A number of papers studied the life-cycle impact of decisions made during the design and construction phases on the performance and use of a facility or infrastructure. Integration across life cycles of infrastructure systems presents challenging questions that are difficult to generalize given the diversity of construction systems. • Efforts at integrating sustainability principles into the undergraduate and graduate curricula are necessary for preparing future decision makers. This must be complemented by outreach to today’s decision makers and practitioners to encourage the adoption of best practices. The most important need of the hour is to develop a coherent set of methodologies that can be used by construction researchers, with the ultimate goal of developing tools that can be used by owners, contractors, and agencies to support best practices. Efforts at integrating design information and decision making across different life-cycle stages, combined with a mix of qualitative and quantitative assessment methods, are a good start. Given the diversity of the field, it will be necessary to develop suitable benchmarks and case studies along the way. Indeed, much has been done to address these challenges. Research pertaining to considerations of sustainability in construction has progressed far enough to merit serious consideration as an individual topic. It has been a well-established track at the Construction Research Congress since 2009 and most recently was been identified as a specialty area within this journal. We hope this special issue will energize research in this area and help develop a fruitful body of work within this journal.