Overcoming the Project Communications Management Breakdown amongst Foreign Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Biophilia Inveigled Construction Projects in Malaysia

Chitdrakantan Subramaniam, Syuhaida Ismail, Serdar Durdyev, Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd Rani, Nur Fatin Syazwani Abu Bakar and Audrius Banaitis
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Chitdrakantan Subramaniam: Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Syuhaida Ismail: Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Serdar Durdyev: Department of Engineering and Architectural Studies, Ara Institute of Canterbury, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand
Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd Rani: Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Nur Fatin Syazwani Abu Bakar: Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Audrius Banaitis: Department of Construction Management and Real Estate, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 10223 Vilnius, Lithuania

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-19

Abstract: The property sector is revitalised to incorporate sustainability, specifically the biophilic design, to encourage human interaction with nature. Thus, there is an urgent need to communicate the biophilic design elements amongst stakeholders, especially the foreign workers, to ensure the project meets the requirement. However, standard project communications management is no longer practical, as the construction industry worldwide has been severely impacted by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Hence, this paper evaluates the biophilic design elements to be communicated and examines the project communications management breakdown relating to the biophilic design elements in the Malaysian construction industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a systematic literature review (SLR), focus group discussion (FGD) and questionnaire survey on 147 foreign workers, this paper found that from 33 biophilic design element items, only 1 item is categorised as highly critical, whereas another 20 items are categorised as critical. In addition, 43 potential communications management breakdown items from a total of 66 items fall under the critical category. The finding suggests that communication breakdown is caused by the language barrier amongst foreign workers from different ethnicities as well as between foreign workers and the supervisors, since face to face communication is limited during the pandemic.

Keywords: project communications management; foreign workers; biophilia; construction project; COVID-19; Malaysia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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