Analysis on the culture of professionals in the Sri Lankan construction industry

Abstract

Construction industry is very significant to the Sri Lankan national economy. Therefore success in the construction industry always makes the way to success of a country. The construction industry is reliant upon human exchanges and large number of stakeholders in construction projects makes the industry prone to disputes. Because of the diversified nature of the industry, different values are held by different groups of individuals. When successfully managed, however, differences in the culture can lead to innovative business practices and faster and better learning within the organization. Keeping all aforementioned facts in mind, the research seeks to investigate what is the culture of the professionals in Sri Lankan construction industry. Many cultural concepts such as Deal and Kennedy's model, Charles Handy's model, Garath Morgan's findings and many more were studied and evaluated beforehand the selection of Hofstede's four-dimensional cultural model as the foundation concept for the research. By using the suitably adapted version of the Hofstede's Values Survey Module82 questionnaire (VSM82) and methodology, a survey was carried out among 300 construction professionals comprising Architects, Engineers and Quantity Surveyors, working within Sri Lanka to determine the cultural values of the construction industry. From this sample 180 professionals were chosen to represent the overall construction industry. Remaining 120 was divided in to two categories according to their industry of work engagement as road and building construction industry professionals. The results obtained from the 300 questionnaires were analyzed using Hofstede's four-factor approach of Power distance; Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism and Masculinity. The research revealed differences as well as similarities of the cultural characteristics of Sri Lankan construction professionals as a whole and the professionals in the building and road construction industry. The reasons for the changes as well as similarities , revealed a fascinating insight in to the professional's culture of the Sri Lankan construction industry.