Ochieng, E G and Price, A D F (2010) Factors influencing effective performance of multi-cultural construction project teams. In: Egbu, C (ed.) Proceedings of 26th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-8 September 2010, Leeds, UK.
Abstract
As a result of globalization, one of the major issues affecting the success of a construction project would be the formation of a multi-cultural project team. As construction project leaders continue to lead global, multi-cultural projects, there is a demand for managing a workforce that is more diverse than ever. The multi-generational workforce has distinct views on work ethic, communication and incentives; finding common ground is essential. This study examines how cultural differences could impact upon multi-cultural team performance. Postal questionnaires were sent to project leaders in Kenya and UK. The results indicate that different approaches in multi-cultural performances consist of seven key impacts: communication techniques, smoothness of handover, teamwork, issue resolution, joint decision making, people selection, people selection and prioritization. The findings suggest that project leaders managing multi-cultural construction project teams need to have the attributes to building trust among team members, provide good planning and institute good communication techniques. Our results on how cultural differences impact multi-cultural construction project teams can help construction organizations identify likely areas of potential divergence on multi-cultural projects, and researchers to identify areas of future research.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | multi-cultural; communication; trust; Kenya; UK |
| Index terms: | construction organization, construction project team, teamwork, cultural difference, construction project, decision-making, questionnaire, globalization, resolution, project team, Kenya, team performance |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, organization, project delivery, production management, Geography, management, economic factors, conflict resolution, cross-cultural studies, decision analysis |
| Topics: | International Construction, Organizational Design, Business Strategy, Geographical Context, Project Management, Research Practice, Stakeholder Management, Risk Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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