Effective Communication and Linguistic Clarity: A Study of Construction Management Practices in Anambra State
Authors: Fadumo Daniel Oluwatayomi , Makinde Peter Oyewole 
Published: December 2021

Researches have shown that effective communication is a challenge for project managers and stakeholders at all levels within an organization. Project managers experience the greatest challenge to set up and regulate communications that support a project overall. This, therefore, makes effective communication and linguistic clarity in construction management practices a sine qua non for achieving the expected results. Although a lot of studies have been carried out on effective communication both within construction management practices and beyond, very few studies have looked at effective communication and linguistic clarity among construction managers in Anambra State. Given the foregoing, there are several things we are not aware of. First, we do not know the types of language and methods of communication that are employed on construction sites in Anambra State. Also, our knowledge is limited to how effective communication aid in enhancing the performance of construction organization in Anambra State. In addition, we are not aware of the challenges confronting effective communication and linguistic clarity in construction organization within the state. Likewise, we do not know what identifiable solutions had been proffered towards language barrier and challenges confronting effective communication and linguistic clarity in construction organization in Anambra State. To attempt to answer the questions raised here, this study aimed at evaluating the place of effective communication and linguistic clarity in construction management practices in Anambra State. The study employed survey research and the use of questionnaires to obtain data for the study. The researchers use a five-point scale to elicit information from the respondents. The results highlight that the use of spoken communication on construction sites in Anambra State will breed an improved professional organizational commitment, minimize accident rates and adopt better safety precautions. It further identified that the use of related words, synonym and antonym as well as easy-to-understand the written form of passing instruction or communications produces high performance, innovation and increase organizational stability and flexibility and improve work quality. The study recommends that hiring a multilingual workforce, getting translated plan or construction documents materials and offering immersive language training programs for the construction workforce will help to eliminate the challenges confronting effective communication and linguistic clarity in the construction organization. It is recognized that, in some ways, this research work would have limitations ranging from geographical and scope coverage limitation as the study focused only on construction management practices in Anambra State, Nigeria which may inevitably introduce limited bias into the survey which could limit the application of the results to geographically dissimilar areas. This study had other limitations such as data limitation in measuring the variables of linguistic methods on construction sites, only seven (7) language methods were identified. Therefore, there may be more variables if the study was extended. Secondly, there was also a methodological limitation due to the sample size as thirty-five (35) questionnaires were administered; also more construction professionals would have been included in the population area but only four (4) respondents group were interviewed due to time and financial constraints.