TY - JOUR
T1 - Unpacking cohort social ties
T2 - The appropriateness of perceived social capital to graduate early career performance in construction project teams
AU - Carter, Kate
AU - Thomson, Derek
PY - 2017/2/13
Y1 - 2017/2/13
N2 - Construction project teams require social capital. When present in
appropriate forms, it creates the social cohesion through which
individuals accept project goals as their own. It lets team members
share knowledge when present and reveal when it is missing. In
education, social learning helps students appreciate the need for
social capital appropriate to team performance. In practice, social
capital enables the project team learning that overcomes projectspecific
challenges. Despite this importance, little is known about
how students perceive social capital or the compatibility of that
understanding with construction project needs.
To characterise this aspect of ‘graduateness,’ collective understanding
of social capital was elicited from construction students in a Scottish
university by free recall. Analysis was structured around four dimensions
of social capital: cohesion, legitimacy & authenticity, sharing, and safety.
Notions of friendship were found to dominate student understanding of
their social capital even though this understanding derived from settings
where the need for capital to support team performance is
emphasized. The potential for misalignment between the capital that
graduating students bring into practice with that required by project
teams was apparent. The case for further investigation of this influence
on early career development was established.
AB - Construction project teams require social capital. When present in
appropriate forms, it creates the social cohesion through which
individuals accept project goals as their own. It lets team members
share knowledge when present and reveal when it is missing. In
education, social learning helps students appreciate the need for
social capital appropriate to team performance. In practice, social
capital enables the project team learning that overcomes projectspecific
challenges. Despite this importance, little is known about
how students perceive social capital or the compatibility of that
understanding with construction project needs.
To characterise this aspect of ‘graduateness,’ collective understanding
of social capital was elicited from construction students in a Scottish
university by free recall. Analysis was structured around four dimensions
of social capital: cohesion, legitimacy & authenticity, sharing, and safety.
Notions of friendship were found to dominate student understanding of
their social capital even though this understanding derived from settings
where the need for capital to support team performance is
emphasized. The potential for misalignment between the capital that
graduating students bring into practice with that required by project
teams was apparent. The case for further investigation of this influence
on early career development was established.
UR - https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/23946?mode=full&submit_simple=Show+full+item+record
U2 - 10.1080/15578771.2016.1260667
DO - 10.1080/15578771.2016.1260667
M3 - Article
SN - 1557-8771
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - International Journal of Construction Education and Research
JF - International Journal of Construction Education and Research
ER -