Boyd, D and Xiao, H (2010) Understanding Chinese and British construction: A problem of metaphors. In: Egbu, C (ed.) Proceedings of 26th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-8 September 2010, Leeds, UK.
Abstract
Globalization means that more and more construction projects involve participants from different countries or different cultural backgrounds. This challenges previous approaches and is creating a new context for the industry. Besides the obvious language barrier, people from different cultural backgrounds may also have different faiths, assumptions and behaviour norms which can and do cause conflicts. This paper considers the way we understand construction in different countries exploring the issue of the use of metaphors. Metaphors not only are part of our language for communication, but also form much of the bases of our thinking and consequently our action. They are the way we relate experience and connect to new situations. There is a tendency to understand construction in different situations superficially by interpreting activities from one’s own cultural perspective. The deeper operation however cannot be understood in these terms as perception, appreciations and behaviours are set within different metaphorical frames. This will be demonstrated from interviews in China and Britain where practitioners narrate their experience of their work. It is argued that Chinese and British construction practitioners have similar metaphorical frames. The paper discusses one such frame that of seeing 'project as battles' which operates differently in each culture. It is concluded that this new area of construction management research may provide more effective communications and deeper understanding of cross culturally situated projects.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | communication; practice; metaphor; situated learning |
| Index terms: | management research, interview, construction practitioner, practitioner, globalization, construction project, norms, China |
| Subjects: | production management, Geography, professional development, sociology, economic factors, data collection methods, research design and methodology, practitioner |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Geographical Context, Project Management, Information Management, Roles and Professions, International Construction |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
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