Assessing Coordination Performance Based on Centrality in an E-mail Communication Network

Abstract

Building design and construction require the collective effort of diverse project participants. The coordination performance of these project participants is important for effective management and needs to be assessed periodically. However, there is no uncomplicated quantitative way to measure coordination. Measuring coordination is cumbersome and time-consuming particularly during the project execution phase. This study proposes an easy procedure for monitoring the coordinative performance of project participants. The degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality measures of the project participants in a wayfinding signage project at a major airport construction project are calculated using social network analysis on the e-mail communication network between the participants. A centrality index is defined for each firm based on the average of these three centrality measures. The firm’s coordination score is also calculated based on content analysis of the sent and received e-mails between the participants. The coordination scores are found to be highly correlated with the centrality indices. To define the coordinative role of a firm, its centrality index could therefore be measured easily using a simple software and only the number and direction of e-mails exchanged between the participants rather than performing cumbersome and time-consuming content analysis of exchanges to calculate coordination scores.