Should construction enterprises, working internationally, take account of cultural differences in culture?

In an increasingly competitive global environment, companies operating at an international level in many industries have come to realise that a good awareness and understanding of cultural issues is essential to their business success. This realisation would appear to be lacking among companies involved in the international construction industry. In a survey conducted jointly by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in the US (Yates, 1994), one of the primary concerns of individuals involved in all aspects of the construction industry was their lack of understanding of foreign cultures, ethics and languages. Academics and business analysts have asserted that the parochial nature of education and training in this area is partly responsible for recent poor economic performance in general terms, and specifically for the decline in the performance of US construction companies, internationally. After endeavouring to explain what we really mean by 'culture', this paper seeks, through a review of the literature, to suggest some of the ways in which cultural differences can impact on various aspects of a construction enterprises' activities. It is suggested that these impacts of cultural differences may have an adverse effect on the competitiveness of those construction enterprises working internationally. It is recommended that adopting a more sensitive approach to cultural diversity in an international construction context would help to overcome the negative effects and enhance the positive aspects of this equivocal concept. Further, it is suggested that, unless such an approach is adopted in the near future, construction enterprises from developed nations will find themselves left with an increasingly diminishing share of the world construction market.