Research on Coordination Mechanism in Construction Project Organization

The construction process of modern project is distributed across teams, departments, or systems, each of which is corresponding to a particular project unit. Conflicts often occur in construction project organization because of the improper coordination amongbetween these project units. The primary reason for coordination puzzle in project organization is generally the diversification of culture and technology. In order to enhance the organization’s performance efficiency, good and effective coordination mechanism aimed at diversification of culture and technology is needed. The relationship amongbetween parties and project units is defined and expressed through contract, so construction project organization usually relies on various contracts to deal with its cooperative partner relationship. However, the contractual mode is a defensive method which is more prone to conflicts than the conglomerate of diversification, especially evaluated from the aspects of culture and value. By culture integration—a more flexible way to make up the shortage of contractual mode, a harmonious atmosphere in which organization members can exert their potential ability can be created to help project administrators mitigate organization conflicts and achieve the common goals of project organization. Based on arbitration theory, moreover, this paper puts forward a combined coordination mechanism-hierarchical coordination and nonhierarchical coordination—to resolve the conflicts resulted from diversification of technology. The introduction of intelligent agents system has the advantage of a more systematic and organizational method in reality without causing unnecessary emotional and the behavioural side effects is an effective instrument to utilize this coordination mechanism and realizes its established goals.