Relationship conflict in construction: A literature review

The construction industry is recognized for its adversarial culture and frequency of conflict. Previous relationship conflict research has not been collectively summarized or categorized nor have the remaining gaps been identified. This literature review examines common themes and salient issues that emerge from the included studies and provides key insights that include the identification of sources, consequences, and mitigating factors of relationship conflict in the literature. Recommendations are made for the use of these findings to reduce the causes of relationship conflict in the construction industry, lower the negative impact on project performance, and foster efforts to mitigate relationship conflict.