Challenges of Communication Across Engineering Disciplines: A Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the major communication challenges experienced by engineers working across disciplinary boundaries in multidisciplinary engineering projects. A qualitative inquiry design was used to examine how engineers from different disciplinary backgrounds interpret, negotiate, and manage communication challenges in collaborative project environments. Participants were selected through purposive sampling from engineering firms, consulting companies, construction projects, technology organizations, and industrial project teams in Tehran, Iran. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with 22 engineers representing civil, mechanical, electrical, software/computer, industrial, and chemical/process engineering disciplines. Interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached, with saturation identified after the twentieth interview and confirmed through two additional interviews. All interviews were audio-recorded with participant consent, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis. NVivo software was used to organize transcripts, develop initial codes, compare emerging categories, and support systematic retrieval of coded segments. Analysis generated five main categories: disciplinary language and epistemic framing, ambiguity at technical interfaces, coordination pressure under time and hierarchy, fragmentation of digital communication tools, and relational trust and boundary-spanning competence. Participants reported that communication problems often emerged not from unwillingness to collaborate but from differences in terminology, design assumptions, risk priorities, documentation habits, and expectations regarding decision authority. Cross-disciplinary misunderstanding was most visible at interfaces between design, implementation, safety, software, and project management functions. The findings suggest that communication across engineering disciplines is a socio-technical process shaped by professional language, disciplinary identity, organizational routines, project constraints, and the quality of boundary-spanning practices. Improving interdisciplinary communication requires more than formal meetings or documentation templates; it requires shared interpretive spaces, explicit interface management, translation-oriented leadership, and a project culture that supports questioning, clarification, and mutual learning.