Developing productive relationships in civil engineering

In any group of people, cohesion depends on relationship competence. This involves insightful, intuitive and empathetic noticing of each others’ needs and proactive taking of responsibility to help each other, deeply founded in good intent; indeed, it is the basis of all professional behaviour. This paper reports on a study of productive relationships in civil engineering that has given rise to a model and a framework for guiding and assessing the development of this aspect of professional competence. The model is outlined in the paper along with comments from civil engineers and other construction professionals.