Distilling agency in BIM-induced change in work practices

Purpose: Critics of claims about BIM’s capability to revolutionise construction industry practices, describe it as overhyped, fallacious, and therefore suggest that there is need for a more critical examination of its’ change impacts. Others have posited that the changes BIM induces are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. In this vein, a careful analysis of the nature of such changes was undertaken to distil actual changes that happened, and the type of agency that brings such changes about. Design: Drawing from appropriate qualitative research strategies, data was collected through key informant interviews from consulting organisations in South Africa that have implemented BIM within their organisations and on projects. Findings: Changes in organisations’ work practices were evident in their workflows, formal/informal methods of interaction, norms, leadership and authority structures, remuneration, and the way work was conceived or conceptualised. Furthermore, changes in organisational work practices do not solely occur through the direct agency of the BIM tool’s implementation. Instead, BIM-induced change occurs by delegated, conditional and needs-based agency – which are not mutually exclusive. Originality: The nature of changes in professional work practices could be misconstrued as being solely due to the actions of agents who actively participate in implementing BIM. The discussion in the literature has been advanced from general to specific theoretical understandings of BIM-induced change, that emphasise the need for construction stakeholders to actively participate in developing the innovations that drive change in the industry rather than hand the power to drive change to BIM authoring and management application developers who have less stake in the industry.