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Project Failure: A Bad Communication (Case Study)

January 2023
International Journal of Management and Humanities 9(5):5-7

DOI:10.35940/ijmh.E1553.019523

Authors:

Maldives Transport and Contracting Company Plc

The most common cause of project failure is miscommunication. It is most underrated and purposefully not deeply planned by most of the contractors, like Sujata, who become confused when changes and updates are not communicated correctly and on time. This ambiguity leads to errors, missed steps in the process, conflicts, and other problems. All these scenarios impacted the project, resulting in delays or budget overruns in the end. In this case, multiple stakeholder communications and changes in client requirements caused the project to fail and updates are not communicated correctly and on time. This ambiguity leads to errors, missed steps in the process, conflicts, and other issues. All these scenarios will result in delays or budget overruns in the end. In this case, multiple stakeholder communications and changes in client requirements caused the project to fail. As a result, internal conflicts will arise, with teams blaming each other for inefficiencies and poor deliverables. This case also entails the importance of stakeholder engagement at different levels of the project and the strategy to be implemented for stakeholder management. The goal of this case study is to draw attention to the difficulties that arise when small and medium-sized businesses fail to recognize the value of communication management in stakeholder engagement, which provided them success but were unable to account for the losses they suffered. This will enable them to account for the costs associated with change management involving stakeholder engagement.

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International Journal of Management and Humanities (IJMH)

ISSN: 2394-0913 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-5, January 2023

Retrieval Number: 100.1/ijmh.E1553019523

DOI: 10.35940/ijmh.E1553.019523

Journal Website: www.ijmh.org

Published By:

Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering

& Sciences Publication (BEIESP)

Abstract: The most common cause of project failure is

miscommunication. It is most underrated and purposefully not

deeply planned by most of the contractors, like Sujata, who

become confused when changes and updates are not

communicated correctly and on time. This ambiguity leads to

errors, missed steps in the process, conflicts, and other problems.

All these scenarios impacted the project, resulting in delays or

budget overruns in the end. In this case, multiple stakeholder

communications and changes in client requirements caused the

project to fail and updates are not communicated correctly and on

time. This ambiguity leads to errors, missed steps in the process,

conflicts, and other issues. All these scenarios will result in delays

or budget overruns in the end. In this case, multiple stakeholder

communications and changes in client requirements caused the

project to fail. As a result, internal conflicts will arise, with teams

blaming each other for inefficiencies and poor deliverables. This

case also entails the importance of stakeholder engagement at

different levels of the project and the strategy to be implemented

for stakeholder management. The goal of this case study is to draw

attention to the difficulties that arise when small and

medium-sized businesses fail to recognize the value of

communication management in stakeholder engagement, which

provided them success but were unable to account for the losses

they suffered. This will enable them to account for the costs

associated with change management involving stakeholder

engagement.

Keywords: Communication Management, Failure in Success,

Interior Project, Project Management.

I. INTRODUCTION

Sujata Kalpade, a project manager at Adhan Bharat LLP,

was disenchanted on June 3, 2022, after hearing from the site

supervisor about the delivered light of a fit-out project.

Chuliars India (CI), a Singapore-based company, was chosen

as the general contractor by Udhar Swiss (US), a

foreign-based bank (NBFC), to develop the new office fit-out

project as part of their expansion plan. Further, GC has

awarded Adhan Bharat LLP (ABL) a civil and interior

package for a fit-out project with a total value of INR 24

million.

Sujata required a robust solution to the problem; however,

the lights being delivered are not ABL's responsibility;

however, they provide SK with a sense of pride in timely

completion and enhance ABL's reputation. Meanwhile,

Deepak Arora, the US representative, is equally concerned

about the timely completion of the US office, given the

Manuscript received on 02 December 2022 | Revised

Manuscript received on 17 December 2022 | Manuscript

Accepted on 15 January 2023 | Manuscript published on 30

January 2023.

* Correspondence Author(s)

Sahil Kumar Arora*, Project Manager, Special Construction Division,

MTCC, Maldives. Email: sahilkarora065@gmail.com, ORCID ID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5293-9798

Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the

CC-BY-NC-ND license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

upcoming visit from foreign delights. A critical component of

the project is the new regional office, which must be

developed and handed over to the business operations unit by

July 7, 2022. (EOT approved)

This new office is part of an expansion plan for the US in

India, as this would boost their operational occupancy and

also provide an easy commute to the top officials as the

location is nearer to International Airport, Delhi.

The US (the client) had awarded the project to CI as the

lowest bidder for the general contract work. MEP services,

LV services, data and networking, and civil and interior

works are all included in the INR 58 million total. The US

also appointed Jalandhar Laung Elaichi (JLE), India, an

America-based company, as a PMC for the project. The

architect and consultant were chosen as partners by the US in

a separate contract to execute all projects in India. The client

has also appointed its AV vendor.

According to the tender terms and conditions, the project

must be developed and handed over to the client within three

months of the construction phase contract being awarded.

The PMC is the entity in charge of coordinating between the

architect, consultants, and client and is authorized to

represent the client in providing quality and timely project

completion.

The Similar Nature project was completed earlier in Pune,

India, for the US, where the JLE, consultants, and architects

were the same. The client wants the project to be LEED

certified with a platinum rating.

II.

CONTRACT

DIVERSITY

The packages have also been sublet by the general contractor

• Iluminate Electricals as the electrical vendor partner.

• Saaf Air is the HVAC partner.

• Liram as the LV partner.

• ABL is the C&I and PFF (plumbing and firefighting

partner).

• Armer is the carpet partner.

• Kimra was named loose furniture partner, and Layvord

was named modular furniture partner.

The Plumbing consultants, electrical consultants,

mechanical consultants, and cost consultants based in

Mumbai have been appointed.

A. Abbreviations and Acronyms

LV: Low Voltage Works, C&I: Civil and Interior Works,

HVAC: Hydraulic Ventilation and Air Conditioning, PFF:

Plumbing and Fire Fighting Works, NBFC stands for

Non-Banking Financial Company. General Contractor;

PMC: Project Management Consultancy; MEP: Mechanical,

Electrical, and Plumbing Services; LVT: Luxury Vinyl Tile;

EOT: Extension of Time.

Project Failure: A Bad Communication (Case Study)

Sahil Kumar Arora

Project Failure: A Bad Communication (Case Study)

Retrieval Number: 100.1/ijmh.E1553019523

DOI: 10.35940/ijmh.E1553.019523

Journal Website: www.ijmh.org

Published By:

Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering

& Sciences Publication (BEIESP)

B. Communication Plan

• The meeting for project progress between the GC,

PMC, and client is held once a week to monitor the

progress of the project.

• The meeting for design augmentation between the

GC, PMC, client, architect, and consultants of the

project occurs at a frequency of once a week.

• The site update meeting between GC and its affiliate

partners, as well as PMC, takes place once a week.

• Issues related to meetings between the architect,

consultants, GC and its affiliate partner, and PMC as

per the requirements previously informed

• ABL and similar affiliates are not allowed to

communicate directly with JLE, consultants, or the

architect.

• They can communicate all their queries to CI, which

can further discuss them with other stakeholders and

provide the answer similarly.

C. Project Planning and its Features

The project is planned for a three-month duration. The total

area of the project is 5000 sq ft (464.52 m2). The area

comprises three critical rooms: two 6-person meeting rooms,

an 18-person boardroom, two senior manager cabins, one

finance room, two other rooms, one store, one cafeteria, one

washroom, and one hall to accommodate 20 workstations.

The project consists of Italian marble flooring, LVT, carpet,

acoustic paint on the ceiling, rafter ceilings, baffle ceilings,

and gypsum ceilings. Grid ceilings, modular partitions,

gypsum partitions, block works, texture paint, wallpaper,

graphics, and signage.

III. PROJECT EXECUTION AND CHALLENGES

Sujata and Changez Gupta, a project manager from

Chuliars India, visited the site for due diligence on March

16th and discovered that the existing floors were not levelled,

which could cause a quality issue later with the carpet

installation. The floor where the marble flooring will be

installed must be removed in any case. Sujata requested that

Changez provide her with the necessary approval for the

complete floor dismantling after noticing the quality issue.

Later, on March 20, 2022, Changez received approval and

gave Sujata permission to perform the dismantling work.

While the dismantling work appears to be done to achieve

high quality, it later proves to be a nightmare for all

stakeholders.

The work can only be done at night to avoid disrupting the

work of other tenants during official working hours. The

previous night's work had been halted because the developer

had rented the adjacent, similar space to a company that

operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This issue was discussed further, and an agreement was

reached to work at night from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM, Monday

through Friday, with 24x7 weekend coverage until Monday

6:00 AM. This knowledge modified Sujata's plan, which she

must revise following approved timelines.

On March 26th, 2022, the project site was dismantled and

cleared. Site marking was carried out according to the

drawings received, and it was discovered that there was a

difference between the drawing and the actual site

dimensions. Sujata highlighted this to the GC, who brought it

up with the PMC, who relayed it to the architect, who

informed the client of the discrepancies. Another three days

passed in vain, with no word from Sujata on how to begin the

work. Fortunately, another ABL site is on the upper floor to

accommodate the labour's idle time.

The proposed alterations by the architect were authorized

on March 30, 2022, following input from JLE's top

management. Because ABL is not directly bound to the

project's primary stakeholders, Sujata advised a direct

connection with the architect after seeing how much time was

being lost in this process. However, this suggestion broke the

contract for the project.

The client purposefully opposed her request because,

according to the contracts, ABL has no right to communicate

directly with the project stakeholders appointed by the client.

She issued an RFQ, requesting that the queries be forwarded

to the GC in the hopes that they would be resolved in time for

the project to proceed smoothly.

Sujata was informed of a change in drawings on April 17,

2022, and some drawings were kept as originals. Sujata

requested that the GC provide the consolidated drawing set

for the latest drawings. The team was unsure which drawing

to follow, and she was unsure because she had never attended

the regular weekly design meeting with the GC, PMC,

architects, consultants, and clients.

On April 20th, 2022, a new challenge appeared as the

building was very old and the floor height above the slab

bottom was 2900 mm as per the drawings. Work is being

done to raise the ceiling to 2400 mm. This turned out to be

another communication problem, as the HVAC drawings

suggested a ceiling height of 2300 mm, which was duly

approved by the consultant. No change is being made to the

interior drawings, and no information is being shared with

Sujata. This halted the work for nearly ten days, and on May

3, 2022, the revised ceiling heights of 2350 mm and 2200 mm

were received.

Sujata was just happy enough to realize that the EID

festival had become more of an issue for her, causing further

delays in bringing the labour. On May 8th, she received her

planned labour, and a revised completion date of June 30th

was requested, highlighting the issues being recorded and

approved by the clients.

Sujata received the revised consolidated drawing on May

17, 2022, following a long battle. On May 20, 2022, after a

client visit and a follow-up visit from the architect, the

drawings were revised again, and the changes were

communicated informally.

The battle for consolidated drawings has resumed, and a

meeting has been scheduled for June 3rd, 2022, to resolve the

issues that highlight two 6-pax meeting rooms that should be

identical, resulting in rework. Sujata also demanded that AV

vendors visit the site before she began the final stages of the

project. The AV vendor recently visited and suggested some

additional changes.

The client of a foreign delight visiting the office declared a

deadline; the ultimate due date was July 7, 2022. All required

clearances were received.

International Journal of Management and Humanities (IJMH)

ISSN: 2394-0913 (Online), Volume-9 Issue-5, January 2023

Retrieval Number: 100.1/ijmh.E1553019523

DOI: 10.35940/ijmh.E1553.019523

Journal Website: www.ijmh.org

Published By:

Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering

& Sciences Publication (BEIESP)

When the major lights failed to arrive in time for the

three-day visit on July 3, 2022, the lights were delivered as

hanging lights with clutch wire arrangements, and the

challenge was figuring out how to install the lights. The

ceiling was designed specifically to receive the concealed

linear lights in the cabins.

Sujata had previously highlighted the same for

cross-checking with the light supplier, but the supplier never

visited. To accommodate the lights, the entire ceiling had to

be dismantled and rebuilt.

The general contractor was aware that the electrical

consultant had previously authorized the lighting plans, but

neither the architect nor the C&I vendor had been informed.

IV. OBSERVATION

Sujata deployed more staff and teams to work 24 hours a

day, seven days a week, for the next three days, and the site

visit became a success [4]. The above scenario is apparent

since the client failed to properly communicate his

requirements to the architect. [5] As a coordinator, the PMC

failed miserably. [1] The company erred in communicating

the change to the affiliate member. [2] If Sujata's request to

directly contact the stakeholders had been granted, the story

might have turned out differently. [3]

It also raises the question of how this type of diversity can

harm the project; what do you recommend?

V. CONCLUSION

The communication channel must be properly designed at the

beginning of the project. The preceding scenario

demonstrates the significance of stakeholder involvement.

Multi-level communication like including the subcontractor

in the design-related meeting will not only aid in

subcontractor planning but will also provide significant

progress and serve as a useful tool in the accurate assessment

of the project's impacts because of changing the design

mid-project. Additionally, the levels of attention and

impact—both actual and desired—of various stakeholders

will vary. The sunk cost related to stakeholder engagement

can be decreased, and the client will be able to manage the

expense.

DECLARATION

Funding

Not applicable

Conflicts of Interest/

Competing Interests

Not conflicts of interest to the

best of our knowledge.

Ethics Approval

Not relevant

Consent to Participate

Not applicable

Consent for

Publication

Not applicable

Availability of Data

and Material

Not applicable

Authors

Contributions

Not applicable, I am only the

sole author of the article.

Code Availability

Not applicable

REFERENCES

1. Atul R Nikumbh, D. S. (Jan, 2014). Role of Project Management

Consultancy in Construction. IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil

Engineering (IOSR-JMCE). [CrossRef]

2. Elias Defalgn Debelo, Z. B. (2022). Effect of Contractor –

Subcontractor Relationship on the Performance of Construction

Project: A Case Study of Dire Dawa Construction Projects. American

Journal of Civil Engineering. [CrossRef]

3. Hongyan Li, J. F. (vol. 2021). "Collaborative Evolution Mechanism

of PMC Project Organizational Management System from the

Perspective of Organizational Conflict". Mathematical Problems in

Engineering,. [CrossRef]

4. Institute, P. M. (2008). A guide to the project management body of

knowledge (PMBOK® guide) (Fourth ed.). Project Management

Institute.

5. Udo, N. (2009). Starting right: establishing requirements. Paper

presented at PMI® Global Congress.

AUTHORS PROFILE

Sahil Kumar Arora, Education: PGP ACM from

NICMAR (2020 batch), B.E.-Civil Engineering.

Project Manager, Special Construction Division,

Maldives Transport and Contracting Company plc,

Maldives. He was born in Saharanpur and plays district

cricket. He also has an interest in singing. He graduated

in 2016 from AKTU (formerly UPTU). Later, he began

working in the construction industry. Before joining the Nicmar, he worked

as a project engineer in Nepal for an ADB-funded project. The post-graduate

experience instilled in me the ability to write and a keen interest in research

publication. He got placed in an interior design project, and during those

times, the idea stuck in his mind to write this case study when he was in a

similar project and experiencing the same challenges.

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The “One Belt and One Road” initiative has been proposed for more than seven years and has won wide recognition from the international community. By the end of January 2021, China has signed 205 cooperation documents with 140 countries and 31 international organizations for the co-construction of “One Belt and One Road.” China’s construction industry has made remarkable achievements in the field of international engineering construction, but there is still a big gap compared with the construction industry of advanced industrialized countries; the construction labor productivity is only about two-thirds of that of developed countries; the construction industry is still big but not strong; the organization of engineering construction is backward; the level of architectural design needs to be improved; there are more market violations; the core competitiveness of enterprises is not strong; and other problems are more prominent. Under the influence of Chinese traditional thinking and traditional system, the organization and management of construction projects are still limited to the scope of project contracting business and split organization model [1]. In the traditional management model, the participants who are responsible for decision-making, construction, and operation services [2] provide services on behalf of the interests of the project legal person in the corresponding phase. Medium and large construction projects span civil, electrical, planning, environmental, and other functional departments to work together, and the connection between the participants is extensive and close and affects each other. As the project progresses, the relationship between participants changes dynamically, resulting in greater complexity of project organization and management. In addition, the different expertise and experience of each participant also increase the complexity of project coordination, which is more likely to cause problems such as confrontation and conflict among project participants. The high-quality development of the construction industry urgently needs to establish real good cooperation between all participants and improve the efficiency of organizational implementation [3]. Obviously, the traditional project management system, management style, and philosophy in China cannot meet to the needs of modern medium and large-scale project management. Engineering practice cases showed that the PMC model (project management contracting model) has the advantages of design optimization, integrated management, risk redistribution, and cost-saving compared with traditional DB and DBB models [4]. PMC model is an organizational model to meet the market demand and implement the whole process of engineering consulting in the project decision-making and construction implementation stages [5], mainly to provide high-quality intellectual and technical services for construction activities. PMC model refers to the engineering project management enterprise (PMC contractor), in accordance with the contract, preparing a feasibility study, feasibility analysis, and project planning for the owner at the decision-making stage; providing bidding agent, design management, procurement management, construction management, and commissioning (completion and acceptance) services for the owner at the implementation stage; and carrying out quality, safety, progress, cost, contract, and information management and control of the project on behalf of the owner. The PMC contractor shall generally bear certain management risks and economic responsibilities in accordance with the contract. Its essence is to provide high-quality whole-process intellectual and technical services for the project legal person. PMC project refers to the construction project that adopts the PMC model for the whole process integrated and professional organization and management. In February 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Construction issued document 19, the first time mentioned “whole process engineering consulting” concept, and in 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued “Guidance on Promoting the Development of Full-Process Engineering Consulting Services” (Development and Reform Investment Regulations (2019) No. 515), which pointed out the urgent need to innovate the organization and implementation of consulting services and vigorously develop full-process engineering consulting service model oriented by market demand and meeting the diversified needs of commissioners. A series of construction project management-related regulations and practical applications have accumulated rich experience in promoting professional management of large-scale engineering project management [6]. PMC model is widely used in large-scale international project construction, for example, the South China Sea ethylene project undertaken by SINOPEC Engineering and Construction Corporation, the Bangladeshi Chittagong-Dhaka refined oil Pipeline Project undertaken by Langfang CNPC Langwei Engineering Project Management, the China-Myanmar Oil and Gas Pipeline Project undertaken by CNPC Pipeline Engineering Co., and so on [7]. The PMC model has become one of the important project management models in oil, transportation, water conservancy, and other industries [8]. The current research on the PMC model focuses on the theoretical definition and scope of the PMC model, risk study of the PMC model [9], schedule and cost control study [10], application practice study, and comparison study with other models [11]. Both domestic and foreign scholars have focused on the operational aspects of the PMC model, discussing how the PMC contractor conducts planning, design, and management scope of the PMC contractor, the risk of lump-sum contracts under unclear conditions, and institutional barriers to the promotion of the model. The research results of the PMC model have provided reference ideas for the professional management of construction projects [12], as an extension of the owner; the PMC contractor manages the whole process of project construction to achieve safe, high quality, low cost, and on-schedule completion of the project in accordance with the predetermined objectives and to optimize the technical and economic indicators over the life of the project. In the traditional project management model, the decision-making, implementation, and operation phases are independent, and the professional engineers who undertake the tasks of different phases provide consulting services for the owner in the corresponding phases, and the antagonism between the owner and the contractor is deep-rooted. Field research on PMC projects is implemented in China, due to the lack of systematic operation norms and references, and the influence of traditional construction project management ideas and systems; conflicts between PMC contractor and owner, supervisor, designer, and constructors are frequent in the project implementation Owners and PMC contractors do not trust each other; supervisor and designer and PMC contractor constrain each other in the implementation; and constructors do not recognize PMC contractor’s management. The PMC contractor is in an awkward position, and it is difficult to coordinate the relationship between all parties, and the confrontation and contradiction between the parties is intensifying as the project progresses. This is extremely mismatched with the current development demand of the construction industry; it is difficult to meet the needs of a high-quality development strategy [13]. It is urgent to introduce the system thought to explore the overall and integrated way of organization and coordination [14]. In view of this, the paper abstracts the PMC participants into an organizational management system with self-organizational characteristics from the perspective of system theory, using the Cucker–Smale group movement model, emphasizing the structure, movement, and development law of the system itself, highlighting the integrity and dynamics of the system operation, simulating the PMC participants of exchanging information and interacting with each other within the system, and identifying the underlying causes of organizational conflict among PMC project participants in the Chinese context, to facilitate in-depth study of the management mechanism of PMC projects. The paper explores the evolutionary mechanism and evolutionary dynamics of synergy formation in PMC project organizational management systems so that the PMC model can get rid of management dilemmas such as antagonistic participants, frequent conflicts, and low organizational efficiency; realize efficient collaboration among the participants, in order to promote the development of the PMC model in the field of Chinese construction project; and provide theoretical references for the revolution of the project management model. 2. Literature Review The existing collaborative studies of construction projects were mainly based on the relationship between the participants to construct the relationship network [15]. Dogan et al. used SNA to construct an e-mail communication network between the participants of a large airport construction project and calculated closeness centrality to evaluate project coordination performance [16]. Zhao et al. constructed an organizational network between participants based on e-mail log data from a $20 million AEC project to identify inconsistencies between organizational and collaborative networks, with the aim of analyzing the patterns of collaboration achieved by the project [17]. Conflict within the organization is one of the main factors affecting project synergy due to the diversity of interests and goals among project participants [18]. Conflict in the project construction process is dominated by interorganizational conflict, which refers to the interactive process in which actors show different interests, views, and preferences [19]. With the development of the economy, the increasing scale and technical complexity of engineering projects, the emergence of various new transaction models and project management models, the organizational conflicts of construction projects have increased dramatically. In addition to multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary, and different objectives that lead to organizational conflicts, the technical capacity or coordination ability, experience, and economic capacity of the professional team also lead to organizational conflicts [20]. In owner management, untimely owner decisions, excessive supervision, poor coordination, lack of management ability, failure to provide information or sites in a timely manner, and failure to follow procedures for handling unreasonable contractor claims can lead to conflicts [21]. This requires the project manager to have the ability to coordinate conflicts between the participants and make the project organization synergistic [22]. Most conflicts originate early in the project lifecycle, and it is important to take measures to mitigate them early on [23]. Jin et al. proposed conflict resolution strategies for the planning, construction, and handover phases by building a dynamic social network model among project participants [18]. Wang et al. discussed the causes and solutions of conflict in the construction project through multiple case studies and proposed the following six resolution strategies: (1) prevention, (2) compromising, (3) mediation, (4) resolving, (5) avoidance, and (6) smoothing [24]. Postevaluation of conflict management is also an important part, assessing the quality of conflict management in five dimensions: satisfactory resolution outcome, comprehensive resolution process, conflict prevention, perception of fairness, and postconflict effects [25]. The construction field has conducted relatively in-depth research from both the analysis of the root factors of conflict and conflict management strategies, with a focus on the study of the conflict between owners and contractors. Construction projects are open organizational systems involving many important stakeholders, while medium and large construction projects have more complex social, cultural, and legal contexts so more complex conflict factors within the organization [26]. Most of the existing studies on conflict management are based on the local perspective of some participants or in phases, the studies on project organization issues and organizational behavior are still scattered, and there is a lack of systematic studies on conflict management in medium- and large-scale projects [27]. Systems theory stems from the investigation of natural phenomena; in 1978, Qian et al. published the article “Technology of Organizational Management-Systems Engineering,” which opened a new era of systems engineering research in China [28]. In this article, a system is defined as an organic whole with specific functions, which consists of several components that interact and depend on each other, and any engineering project is a social system with continuous dynamic evolution composed of subsystems that interact and work together. Yin et al. from the perspective of engineering ontology and engineering system view proposed to look at engineering from the perspective of human survival and development, not only recognize various elements of engineering composition but also see engineering as a system, and recognize, analyze and grasp engineering from the system viewpoint [29]. The study of construction project organizational behavior requires a broader systematic perspective. As temporary organizations, construction project organizations can be viewed as complex adaptive organizations, where the behaviors of participants at all levels interact and change dynamically [30]. Principled negotiation and joint cooperative action among participants within the project organizational system can play an important role in mediating conflicts, and interorganizational trust has direct and indirect positive impacts on improving cost performance [31]. Based on the engineering system theory, the project organizational management system is a group composed of many independent participants who depend on each other [32], which belongs to an open organizational system, and the relationship between the participants constitutes the organizational structure. In this paper, the definition of synergistic project organizational management system is as follows: under the disturbance of the external environment, the internal participants of the system have a stable connection, forming an orderly structure of internal and external energy, material and information exchange, and continuously maintaining the dynamic stability of the system structure. Definition of PMC project organizational management system synergy evolution is an organizational process in which the interactions between project participants move toward orderly and dynamic stability, forming a life-like group that combines self-organization and other organizations, in which the participants under the leadership of the commander adapt to other participants in the system by changing their rules, with the ability of self-development, self-improvement, and spontaneous synergy so that the overall system exhibits dynamic synergy. The research results help PMC projects mitigate organizational conflicts and synergize the strengths of all parties involved, provide theoretical references for innovative project management models and the implementation of specialized PMC models, open up paths for achieving integrated and specialized management of the whole process in the field of construction, and significantly improve management effectiveness and construction management levels. 3. Methodology It is observed that self-driven particles such as flocks of birds, fish, and sheep have self-organized group behavior and can transition from disorder to orderly motion using local information and simple rules. Group behavior is characterized by certain macroscopically ordered behaviors of individuals in a group through interactions, with “order” usually referring to the same movement patterns [33]. In 1995, Vicsek et al. proposed the first numerical model to describe animal group behavior, and Jadbabaie et al. proved the correctness of the above numerical model from the mathematical point of view [34, 35]. Based on the above research, Cucker and Smale studied the formation mechanism of orderliness and proposed the Cucker–Smale model to describe interactions between particles [36, 37]. The Cucker–Smale model analyzes the formation mechanism of group coherence by describing the position and velocity of individuals and interindividual interactions during group motion and establishing a mathematical model; the authors also demonstrate the validity of the model by using the formation of a common language in primitive societies and the emergence of the vowel system as examples. Each individual in the Cucker–Smale model adjusts its velocity by summing the weighted average of the difference between its own velocity and that of other individuals. Given particles in dimensional Euclidean space, denotes the position and velocity of the -th particle (), and the velocity and position updates of these particles obey following the system of the below equation:where and denote the position and velocity of individual at time , respectively, and is the time step. quantifies the strength of interactions between individuals, and the strength of interactions between individuals is a smooth decreasing function of relative distance, as shown in equation (2). As can be seen from , the model is a symmetric interaction model, that is, the information transfer is bidirectional, and the interactions between subjects diminish as the relative distance increases, but the interactions are always strong or weak.where , , and are the system parameters and is the decay rate. Definition 1.1. The solution of system (1) with asymptotic group effect means that(1)Relative velocity tends to be 0, that is, , (2)Relative displacement aggregation, that is, , Shen proved the correctness of the Cucker–Smale model using induction and obtained convergence results similar to the original model [38]. Cucker and Dong further explored the Cucker–Smale model with a hierarchical structure using a subsystem induction approach and using a flock of birds perched on a branch and suddenly disturbed by a predator as an empirical case [39]. Subsequent researchers have proposed various improvements to the Cucker–Smale model to suit different application scenarios and have also validated the validity of the model from different perspectives. Cucker et al. and Dong et al. studied improved models affected by noise and time delay, giving threshold conditions for the occurrence of group behavior [40–42]. Cucker and Markou I et al. improved the model for collision avoidance by adding repulsive forces [43–45]. Cucker and Dong studied the Cucker–Smale model with the introduction of hierarchy and topologically acting neighborhoods, giving conditions for the occurrence of cluster clustering [46, 47]. Cluster dynamics models were originally used to simulate the group motion of animal groups in nature, and in recent years, such models have also been mostly used to study the control mechanisms of the asymptotic behavior in multi-intelligent body systems [48]. Examples including aircraft formations [49], robotic mass movements, and engineering science research [50] provide basic coordination and consistency algorithms for mobile autonomous individual systems. The famous Chinese economist Cheng pointed out that the most essential characteristic of a complex system is that its components have some degree of intelligence, that is, the ability to understand their environment, anticipate its changes, and act on predetermined goals, which is intrinsically responsible for biological evolution, technological innovation, economic development, and social progress [51]. The current research on the coordination of construction project participants is mostly based on SNA. SNA portrays the intersubject relationship through the network structure model and conducts a static quantitative evaluation of the density, centrality, and other indicators, but the organizational network structure changes dynamically as the project advances, and the static evaluation of SNA can hardly reflect the dynamic nature. The PMC project organizational management system is composed of several participants, who have independent interest goals and act according to the predetermined goals. As the project progresses, the interaction between the participants will prompt them to continuously receive information [52], summarize the experience, adjust action rules, improve their own adaptability, and make the system evolution more and more complex. In summary, this research introduces the Cucker–Smale cluster dynamics model, considers the characteristics of PMC project organizational structure, constructs the effectiveness function of the interaction between participants in the PMC project organizational management system, simulates the evolution process of the interaction of participants, identifies the causes of conflicts in PMC project organizational management systems, and explores the mechanisms and paths to achieve synergy and consistency. The research framework is shown in Figure 1.

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