Team effectiveness is one of the factors in ensuring a project’s success in the construction industry. Many previous researchers reported that effective communication between team members can help enhancing the effectiveness of a project team and that poor communication is one of the causes of poor project performance in the construction industry. There are numerous research being conducted by previous researchers related to the impacts of project communication skills on the effectiveness of construction project team. However, there are insufficient similar research being conducted in Sarawak, Malaysia. Similar research should be conducted in Sarawak to enhance the performance of project teams. Therefore, the present research aims to study the impacts of project communication skills on the effectiveness of construction project team in Sarawak. The objectives of the research are (i) to identify the most important communication related skills which lead to project team effectives & characteristics of effective project teams and (ii) to assess the correlation between the communication related skills and characteristics of effective project team. The present research adopted a quantitative research approach. The sampling methods adopted were non-probability convenience sampling method and snowball sampling method. Structured questionnaires that use a 5-point Likert scale were sent to approximately 350 companies consisting of construction companies, developers, and consultant firms in Sarawak to collect primary data. The 200 valid responses received were analyzed using SPSS descriptive statistics in order to achieve objective 1. The result shows that the top 3 communication related skills are persuasion, able to ask effective questions during conversation, and explaining while the top 3 characteristics of effective project team are free flow communication, team flexibility to change, and seamless operation with no organizational boundaries. In order to achieve objective 2, Spearman Rank Order Correlation analysis was subsequently conducted to assess the correlations between all the communication related skills and the characteristics of effective project team. The result reveals that 6 out of 8 communication related skills have either medium or strong positive correlations with 9 characteristics. The present research indicates that communication skills can influence the effectiveness of a project team. Therefore, construction practitioners in Sarawak can put in efforts in maintaining good communication between project members so as to ensure smoother delivery of construction projects. For future research, it is suggested that similar research can be done in other states of Malaysia so that the results can be compared with the present research to give a bigger picture of the communication issues in Malaysia.
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