Soft Skills for Teams in Public Linear Infrastructure: The Development of a Decision Support Tool

Davies, Hollie K. and Posillico, John J. and Edwards, David J. (2025) Soft Skills for Teams in Public Linear Infrastructure: The Development of a Decision Support Tool. Buildings, 15 (7). p. 1197. ISSN 2075-5309

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Abstract

Despite the plethora of digital and technological advances made in the construction industry over the past three decades, at its core, the sector remains human-centric. Consequently, this research investigates the core soft skills employed on public linear infrastructure (PLI) projects (during the construction phase) that are digitally enabled and concludes with the development of a decision support tool for PLI project team management. A mixed philosophical stance is implemented using interpretivism, postpositivism and grounded theory together with abductive reasoning to examine subject matter experts’ perceptions of the phenomena under investigation. Textual analysis is then utilised to formulate a decision support tool as a theoretical construct. The research findings demonstrate that communication, leadership and creativity/curiosity are the three main soft skills required of PLI projects. Furthermore, the key elements of a decision support tool—namely, trackable and measurable data, clear objectives and success criteria, and an easy-to-understand visual format—were identified. Such knowledge provides a strong base for building an emotionally intelligent project team. This research constitutes the first attempt to understand the essential soft skills required on PLI projects and, premised upon this, generate a decision support tool for project management in teams that helps to augment project performance through workforce investment via a learning organisation.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.3390/buildings15071197
Dates:	Date Event 4 April 2025 Accepted 5 April 2025 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	soft skills, public linear infrastructure, built environment, decision support tool, Industry 5.0
Subjects:	CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-02 - building
Divisions:	Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > College of Built Environment
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	08 Apr 2025 09:10
Last Modified:	08 Apr 2025 09:10
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16294

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