The Virtual Interactive Relationship Between BIM Project Teams: Effective Communication to aid Collaboration in the Design Process

Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides a shared source of information about a built asset, which creates a collaborative virtual environment for project teams. Literature suggests that to collaborate efficiently, the relationship between the project team is based on sympathy, obligation, trust and rapport. Communication increases in importance when working collaboratively but effective communication can only be achieved when the stakeholders are willing to act, react, listen and share information. Case study research and interviews with Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry experts suggest that synchronous face-to-face communication is project teams’ preferred method, allowing teams to socialise and build rapport, accelerating the creation of trust between the stakeholders. However, virtual unified communication platforms are a close second-preferred option for communication between the teams. Effective methods for virtual communication in professional practice, such as virtual collaboration environments (CVE), that build trust and achieve similar spontaneous responses as face-to-face communication, are necessary to face the global challenges and can be achieved with the right people, processes and technology. This research paper investigates current industry methods for virtual communication within BIM projects and explores the suitability of avatar interaction in a collaborative virtual environment as an alternative to face-to-face communication to enhance collaboration between design teams’ professional practice on a project. Hence, this paper presents comparisons between the effectiveness of these communication methods within construction design teams with results of further experiments conducted to test recommendations for more efficient methods for virtual communication to add value in the workplace between design teams.

Desarrollo cultural en las organizaciones: un modelo de estudio basado en la Grounded Theory

La cultura organizacional se configura a partir de la interrelación de los procesos de apropiación de la filosofía, la pertenencia, la adaptación, la satisfacción y el liderazgo compartidos por un grupo. Este conjunto de categorías puede ser reconocido mediante el uso de una matriz que incluye en su estructura subcategorías o conceptos y un conjunto de propiedades observables en el público interno. El presente artículo tiene por objetivo describir un modelo de estudio construido a partir de la Grounded Theory o Teoría Fundamentada que nos permita comprender el desarrollo cultural de las organizaciones. El estudio de caso se realizó en una compañía líder en Europa del sector de la distribución.

Breaking the silence ceiling: how gender violence became into a social problem in Spain through media and politics

This research presents the explanatory model of the process of reconstruction of the ʺsocial problemʺ of Intimate Partner Violence (I.P.V) in Spain during last five years, with special attention to the role of media in this process. Using a content analysis of the three more diffused general newspapers, a content analysis of the minutes of the Parliament, and the statistics of the police reports and murders, from January of 1997 to December of 2001, it observes the relationship between the evolution of the incidence of Intimate Partner Violence (I.P.V) (measured by the number of deaths and the number of police reports) and the evolution of stories about this topic in press. It also studies the interconnection of the two previous variables with the political answer to the problem (measured by the interventions on the I.P.V. in the Senate and in the Congress). Data shows that, even though police reports have increased due to the contribution of politics and media, I.P.V murders keep on growing up.

La comunicación en la responsabilidad social interna

Por lo general, los estudios sobre la eficacia de las estrategias comunicativas internas de las organizaciones se centran en el uso de las herramientas, mientras que los públicos y sus necesidades comunicativas caen en el olvido. Estudiar el estado de la responsabilidad social en su dimensión interna y cómo se gestiona, analizando la comunicación como instrumento que contribuye al alcance de las buenas prácticas internas de responsabilidad social y aportando los indicadores de su cumplimiento, van más allá de las técnicas empleadas. El trabajo que se presenta argumenta que la conducta empresarial se comunica y que en las relaciones internas se refleja dicha conducta.