Construction projects are characterised by complexity in the technical, organisational and environmental sphere. The organisational complexity of such projects makes it necessary to manage relationships between actors who fulfil various functions. Formal organisational structures that have been developed for this purpose do not always reflect the actual relationships between construction project participants. In literature, scholars more and more often point to the need to identify and monitor such informal relationships and attempt to manage them in order to effectively carry out projects. Structural analysis of so-called self-organising networks of relationships between project participants is carried out on the basis of established structural measures by performing Social Network Analysis (SNA). In a situation when inappropriate communication between project participants relative to management staff expectations is detected, interventions meant to improve communication in such networks are possible. The goal of the article is proposing an optimisation-oriented approach to planning such interventions while taking various constraints, such as communication costs, into consideration. As a part of this optimisation, the authors proposed a method from the heuristic methods group. This solution will support decision-making in terms of intervening within an informal relationship structure. The method was presented on the example of an actual construction project involving the construction of a complex of housing buildings. the self-organising network structure was defined on the basis of a survey carried out among the project's participants and concerned communication between them over a four-week period. As a result of the structural network analysis, abnormalities in communication between project participants were detected. The optimisation method developed by the authors pointed to possibilities of improving communication effectiveness within this network. The effects of the analysis confirmed the application potential of the method that was presented.

Communication and information flowduring construction project execution is often discussed in the literature. Numerous scholars note the presence of problems with communication and information flow and highlight that these problems also affect construction project completion time and cost. The vast majority of studies on the impact of communication on construction project completion time and cost takes on a qualitative character and there is a lack of quantitative analyses of this subject. To address these deficiencies, the authors of this paper propose a quantitative approach to assessing communication between construction project participants in the aspect of its impact on said project’s completion time and cost. The authors used meta-network theory to model and analyse the problem, as it can fully depict the problem’s complexity. The method proposed allows for dynamic identification of key information flow paths between project participants, which determine its performance in an essential way. The proposed approach can support decision-makers in effective management of communication between a construction project’s participants, which has a positive carryover to achieving planned project goals. The method was tested on a real-world development project that featured the construction of a housing complex in Katowice, Poland.

In the literature, researchers present construction projects as temporary self-organising coalition networks, composed of specialist entities that work towards set goals. The number of parties involved in the various processes during construction causes communications relations to be exceedingly complex and to change. The environment of a construction project is dynamic and complex, and self-organising communication networks are sensitive to institutional and social change. It becomes necessary to identify situations rooted in both insufficient communication during the carrying out of a project and its excess, which generates unnecessary cost. Effective control of information flow within self-organising communication networks through its planning and monitoring by project management can contribute to achieving project goals. This paper presents a proposal of an optimisation approach (in terms of minimising communication costs) to information flow planning that accounts for various constraints, on the example of a real-world case of building a housing complex in Poland.

Animal behaviour and its underlying causal factors are investigated by numerous behavioural sciences. Ethology, one of the most important classical behavioural sciences, is concerned with the description and quantification of behaviour and the analysis of a wide spectre of its causal factors. Ethology also lays stress on the importance of comparative behavioural research and field research. Specific behaviour paterns were considered by classical ethology as elements of hierarchically organised behavioural systems focused on specific functions. The notion of instinct was, however, far from unequivocal and is no more frequently used in behavioural sciences. We also know that information flow between the levels of organization existing in the nervous system and in living systems in general is multidirectional. The assumption that processes running on higher levels of organization can and should be explained solely in terms of processes running on lower levels becomes thus largely groundless. In behavioural sciences reductionism can manifest itself also as the so called law of parsimony adopted during explanations of observed phenomena (Occam’s razor, Lloyd Morgan’s canon). Since the introduction of Karl Popper’s falisifiability criterion to the methodology of scientific research, reductionistic explanations of observed phenomena are, however, less frequently proposed in behavioural sciences. Instead, an approach currently used involves experimental testing of sets of hypotheses proposing alternative explanations of the observed phenomena, not necessarily the simplest ones. Classical ethology was the so called objectivist science of behaviour: its adherents did not deny the existence of subjective phenomena in animals, however, explanations of mechanisms of investigated phenomena in terms of underlying subjective processes were not considered to be sufficient. Presently we may put forward increasingly daring hypotheses concerning subjective experiences of animals thanks to the development of advanced techniques of neuroimaging such as the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Behavioural sciences are constantly progressing and their methods become increasingly sophisticated. We can thus hope that philosophy and behavioural sciences will continue during a long time yet to contribute jointly to achieve new insights enriching our knowledge on factors influencing animal and human behaviour.

This paper investigates the fact that construction projects, due to their specificity, are complex, temporary and dynamic. Over their course, participants change, successive construction works are done and new information becomes available. This carries over to difficulties in communication. In the literature, numerous studies note the fact that a network-based approach to the analysis and monitoring of communication as a part of complex construction projects is commendable. Relations between agents, knowledge and tasks in the context of communication within a construction project can be visualized in the form of a meta-network, and suitably developed structural measures can be used to analyze them.
In this paper, the authors used meta-network theory to analyze relations between project participants, knowledge and tasks in the context of communication within a construction project, on the basis of the construction of a housing estate located in Katowice, Poland. Meta-network structural analysis allowed for a deeper understanding of these relations and the detection of essential information about the level of communication in the project under investigation, which was a basis for further discussion. The authors also stress the benefits from the approach presented and argue that it should be a starting point for effective management in the sphere of communication in construction companies.