Challenges faced by foreign professionals working in Sri Lankan construction industry

Abstract

Construction industry plays the key role in economic expansion of each country. During past few years, Sri Lankan construction industry has been a considerable factor in the rapid economic development. Many foreign investors and contractors are involved in Sri Lankan construction industry in past few years. These companies have entered in to Sri Lankan construction industry with a lot of professionals along, in various fields. This study aims to investigate the challenges faced by foreign professionals work in Sri Lankan construction industry, during the construction phase and propose a mechanism to overcome those identified challenges. The study carried out a comprehensive literature review followed by qualitative research approach for data collection. Eight foreign professionals working in the Sri Lankan construction industry were interviewed to identify challenges faced by them and mechanisms to overcome those challenges. Code based content analysis using NVivo was used for data analysis. To overcome the challenges of the cross-cultural work environment and complete the project successfully, project leaders should identify and analyses the major challenges of foreign professionals in the construction industry. Lack of the requirements of the construction projects and non-development condition of the country was the most important concern of foreign professionals which affected the entire construction projects process in Sri Lanka. This research identified challenges under language, culture, construction safety, project management, construction standards, construction technology, construction process, contractual agreements, construction output, professionals training period, income problems, facilities at work, working hours, job stress, physical work condition, foods problems, weather and environmental issues. The study finally proposed strategies to overcome above identified problems under three categories, i.e. (a) foreign professionals themselves (b) construction organizations and (c) the government.