Developing construction management research: a balance of perspectives

Research development for construction management has recently received considerable attention by academia and major industry sponsors. A major motivation for these efforts include ensuring that research does not just achieve any outcomes, but also produces relevant outputs that can benefit all the interested parties associated with the research community. In particular, concerns expressed about the traditional quantitative orientation of construction management research has provoked a debate on the methodological issues within the field. As a result, the discipline is gradually witnessing a polarisation of research orientation into rational and interpretive schools of thought. This paper is an attempt to reconcile this current division in research orientation. It utilises an anecdotal approach to argue that the entrenched positions on research perspectives is not adequate for enhancing the development of the field of construction management. It presents an option where both perspectives complement each other to produce a more balanced outcome for academic research. It concludes by posing the question, Is it time to define the boundaries of construction management so that its research development can be appropriately addressed?