Purpose Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) represent a potential pathway towards addressing Australia’s long-lasting housing undersupply and construction productivity challenges. Yet MMC constitutes not merely a technological change but a socio-technical transition that reconfigures workforce practices and knowledge systems. This study aims to examine how built environment workforce dynamics co-evolve with MMC adoption through the identification and resolution of systemic contradictions. Design/methodology/approach This research adopted a multi-method qualitative methodology combining semi-structured interviews and fieldwork. Twenty interviews were conducted with participants across diverse MMC company profiles, including designers, manufacturers and builders. Fieldwork using an observational-interview hybrid method was undertaken at 15 companies across five Australian states. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis, with Expansive Learning Theory providing the analytical lens for interpreting contradictions within activity systems. Findings The analysis identifies eight interconnected contradiction themes driving workforce transformation, including temporal resequencing of decision-making, coordination locus shift, professional knowledge boundary tensions and education system-industry pace mismatch. These contradictions do not operate in isolation but cascade across domains – temporal resequencing exposes knowledge limitations, generating coordination distortions that reveal education misalignment. This cascading dynamic reshapes workforce requirements differently across design/engineering, manufacturing and assembly. Originality/value This study demonstrates how contradictions function as interconnected drivers of workforce transformation rather than discrete problems. The findings extend taxonomic approaches that conceptualise skills as specifiable occupational attributes by revealing skills as emergent properties – arising when workers, technologies and organisational arrangements encounter incompatible demands. The integration of Expansive Learning Theory with socio-technical transitions theory positions workforce transformation as integral to MMC transition rather than a downstream consequence.
Gutierrez-Bucheli et al. (Mon,) studied this question.