Analysing cultural problems in international projects

Xiao, Hong and Boyd, David (2008) Analysing cultural problems in international projects. In: 24th Annual Conference of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management, ARCOM 2008, 1 September 2008 through 3 September 2008, Cardiff, UK.

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Abstract

With the fast development of globalisation, 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. As part of a wider project to establish how practitioners can work more effectively in cross cultural situations, this paper describes the authors' recent experience of working with a Chinese partner on a master planning project, and discusses some of the issues arising from the multicultural project environment. The analysis uses personal construct theory to interpret many of the problems in perception and communications and also to reveal the problem of emotion. It concludes that to work effectively in such a situation, we need to work with our personal constructs and pay more attention to informal communications.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Dates:
DateEvent
2008Published
Uncontrolled Keywords: Communication, Cross cultural environment, International project, Personal constructs, Construction projects, Cultural backgrounds, Cultural environment, Globalisation, Informal communication, International projects, Language barriers, Master planning, Personal constructs, Project environment, Communication, Construction industry, Project management, Behavioral research
Subjects: CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-01 - architecture
CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-02 - building
CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-04 - planning (urban, rural and regional)
Divisions: Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > School of Engineering and the Built Environment
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > School of Engineering and the Built Environment > School of Built Environment
Depositing User: Yasser Nawaz
Date Deposited: 21 Jul 2016 10:30
Last Modified: 22 Mar 2023 12:17
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/2353

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