Lorenz, K and Marosszeky, M (2004) Intercultural management for international construction projects: A comparison of Austria and Germany with Australia. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 20th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2004, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
The construction industry is international with many of its major corporations operating globally. Cultural differences can affect the conduct of daily business and, besides many general practical books, little has been published on how differing cultural backgrounds affect the operating environment in an industry. This research gives an overview of cultural differences between organisations within the construction sector in Australia and in Austria and Germany. The first method used was an assessment of organisational culture based on the Competing Values Framework (Cameron and Quinn, 1999) with responses from enterprises in Austria and Australia. The intention was to identify differences in cultural orientation between construction organisations in Australia and Austria. This should have an influence on projects. The second method consisted of semi-structured interviews with mainly Austrian and German managers and engineers, who were working on construction projects in Australia at the time of research in early 2003. These interviews revealed that there were a number of significant differences in the operating environment of the sector. These have arisen as a result of a range of different cultural, governmental and historical factors in areas such as organizational culture, safety management on site, the influence of trade unions and of public stakeholders as well as the importance placed on environmental issues.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | competing values framework; leadership; international comparison; organizational culture; safety management |
| Index terms: | organizational culture, international construction project, construction sector, safety management, construction industry, trade union, Germany, construction project, Austria, Australia, cultural difference, engineer, international comparison, interview, environmental issue, construction organization, manager |
| Subjects: | sociology, cross-cultural studies, occupational health and safety management, industry analysis, Geography, production management, data analysis and analytics, organization, strategic management, profession, data collection methods, practitioner, environmental issues |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Roles and Professions, Geographical Context, Project Management, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, International Construction |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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