Ankrah, N A and Proverbs, D (2004) Treading the softer areas of construction management: A critical review of culture. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 20th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2004, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
Culture has to a large extent been utilised as the 'black box' reason for many of the construction industry ills, with many parties, through reports and other means, calling for a 'cultural change' in the industry. Fundamental to such change is the need to fully investigate and understand the manifestations and effects of culture in the industry. However, relatively little, by way of research, has been done in this area due mainly to the generally recognised complexity of the subject and its 'soft' and subjective nature. As a prelude to an investigation into the impact of organisational culture on the performance of UK contractors in furtherance of research in this genre, this study presents an overview of culture and a critique of current research into culture in the construction industry. The common theme from the review is that culture comprises the practices peculiar to a group and the underlying values shaping them. Within construction, culture is perceived as comprising the characteristics of the industry, approaches to construction, competence of craftsmen and people who work in the industry, and the goals, values and strategies of the organisations they work in. A few studies within the construction domain have touched on national, industry, organisational and occupational culture, highlighting such critical issues as antagonism and international cultural diversity and their potential impact on the practices and output of the industry, and this provides evidence of a growing awareness of the importance of culture in the overall performance improvement agenda of the industry.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction industry; culture; organisational culture |
| Index terms: | cultural change, construction industry, craft worker, complexity, organizational culture, performance improvement, competence, investigation, evidence, strategy, critique, critical issue |
| Subjects: | practitioner, risk assessment, data collection methods, evaluation and assessment methods, industry analysis, systems engineering, sociology, personnel development, performance measurement, management |
| Topics: | Human Resources, Quality Management, Organizational Design, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Risk Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here