Revisiting the essential communication channels in safeguarding the well-being of the construction industry players from the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The construction industry has been impacted severely due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that forced almost every nation to impose strict restrictions in order to safeguard the well-being of the construction industry players as envisaged in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3). This limits usual construction site activities that involve communication, such as site briefings, toolbox meetings and hands-on technical training that keeps the team well informed of the project progress. Since communication remains as one of the most important elements in project management, the current restriction forces the industry to rework the existing project communications management practices hence remain sustainable and safeguard the well-being of the construction industry players against the COVID-19 transmission. Therefore, this study focuses on examining communication channels that are critically used in the construction industry towards the SDG 3 in safeguarding the well-being of the construction industry players from the COVID-19 pandemic through the systematic literature review approach. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methods are employed to scrutinise the most relevant publications from two identified databases, namely SCOPUS and Web of Science. Out of 579, only 95 publications were identified as the most relevant publication related to project communications management in the construction industry, where eleven communication channels were shortlisted and listed based on significant order; team meeting discussion, project reports, site review meeting, formal communication, informal communication, work breakdown structure, organisational breakdown structure, record management system, resource breakdown structure, technology and employee suggestion scheme.