Ochieng, E G and Price, A D F (2009) Addressing cultural issues when managing multicultural construction project teams. In: Dainty, A R J (ed.) Proceedings of 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009, Nottingham, UK.
Abstract
This paper examines the nature of multicultural project teams and their place in the global business environment. It highlights some of the issues regarding cultural complexity that exist in multicultural project teams and argues that, getting multicultural project teams to work effectively across international boundaries has become a major concern. The inclination is likely to continue and the future of business will increasingly depend on doing projects effectively in different cultural environments. This is difficult enough to achieve where the team is situated in the same office located close to the construction site. But it is much more difficult for multicultural global projects that have a range of diverse companies involved, are widely separated geographically and that have very different organisational and regional cultures. This study explored the efficacy of multicultural team working in heavy construction engineering in Kenya and the UK. The research employed both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to capture all the relevant experiences of senior managers. Using evidence from the two sets of participants, the study highlights some of the barriers to effective multicultural team working and demonstrates the critical importance of building cultural understanding through leadership. The findings revealed a number of determinants, attributes, and variables that either facilitated or limited the effectiveness of multicultural team working.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Kenya; UK; cultural complexity; multicultural team working |
| Index terms: | complexity, project team, boundaries, Kenya, heavy construction, determinant, effectiveness, evidence, methodology, construction site, construction project team, manager |
| Subjects: | practitioner, risk assessment, evaluation and assessment methods, property law, project delivery, work location, Geography, performance management, research methods, infrastructure and transport systems, systems engineering |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Project Management, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Risk Management, Legal Issues, Quality Management, Site 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