Organisational culture of construction project managers in the GCC countries

Abstract

Purpose -One of the consequences of globalisation is the proliferation of interactions between professionals of organisations from different cultural backgrounds. This is certainly true for construction project managers working in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and the aim here is to provide foundation evidence regarding first, the existence of a distinct organisational culture and, second, the perceived culture type. Design/methodology/approach -Data collected through questionnaire-based interviews with 96 construction project managers in the GCC countries was analysed by applying the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI, Cameron and Quinn, 2006) and empirical statistics. Findings -The OCAI was found to be a useful tool to determine a profession's culture, and, confirming what has so far been anecdotal evidence, the findings indicate that both the group and hierarchy cultures are dominant culture types among construction project managers in the GCC countries. Practical implications -The confirmation of the dominant culture types gives increased confidence to practitioners to develop effective cultural diversity management regarding professional interactions with construction project managers in the GCC countries. Originality/value -The findings contribute to the body of knowledge by proving that construction project managers in the GCC countries perceive a dominant blend of group and hierarchy cultures.

Direction of the Corporate Culture in Slovak and German Transport Companies from a Top Managers' Perspective

“…13 presents that hierarchy culture dominated in Slovak transport companies in 2016. Similar outcomes are mentioned by Ližbetinová et al (2016), Matraeva et al (2016), Jaeger and Adair (2013), Hitka and Balážová (2013), Balogh et al (2011) and Hitka and Czajkowska (2010). Authors cited point to the fact that the procedures, rules and regulations are crucial tools in the management of enterprises.…”

Organizational culture and total quality management practices in Indian construction industry

“…For example, Willar et al (2016) have reported that the Indonesian construction companies are dominated by the group culture. Similarly, other studies like Jaeger and Adair (2013) and Oney-Yazici et al (2007) have stated that a mixture of group and hierarchical cultures dominate in construction organizations for countries affiliated to the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, United Arab Emirates) and Turkey, respectively. Furthermore, Nukic and Huemann (2016) informed that the hierarchical culture type dominated in the Croatian construction organizations.…”

Organisational culture of Chinese construction organisations in Kuwait

“…Furthermore, the Competing Values Framework allows comparisons with results of numerous previous studies, since it is widely used (e.g. Cameron et al, 2006), including the previous study on organisational culture of construction professionals in the GCC region ( Jaeger and Adair, 2013). The framework is explained in more detail below, with a detailed discussion of the measures to be used in the Research Method section.…”

“…The four types of culture stand for unique ways of thinking, dealing with challenges and creating organisational values (Cameron et al, 2006). The instrument has been slightly modified by Jaeger and Adair (2013) in that the term "Clan" has been replaced by "Group" in order to avoid potential negative associations of the term "Clan" in some cultures.…”

“…So far, the organisational cultures of entities within the countries of the GCC have not received much attention from researchers ( Javidan et al, 2006;Dedoussis, 2004). A recent study contributed to filling this gap and found that a combination of Hierarchy culture and Group culture is predominant in construction organisations within the GCC ( Jaeger and Adair, 2013). Virtually, no research has investigated the culture of Chinese construction organisations in the GCC, specifically with the aim of identifying differences when compared with Chinese construction organisations in China and GCC construction organisations.…”