Understanding project culture in construction: a literature synthesis

Abstract

Construction industry being a project-based industry, understanding nature of project culture is of paramount importance. Culture at project level seems less researched; possibly due to understanding of project culture seems a tedious task since it is being shaped through different levels of cultures; national, industrial, organisational, professional and many other factors situational to a given project team. However, recent past shows some studies attempting to elaborate project culture in construction context. Some researchers tend to identify construction project culture through theories of organisational culture. This paper attempts to understand nature of project culture in construction through these extant literatures and also reveals limitations of these studies. Further, the study identifies some unique features related to a construction project, which challenges identifying a unique culture at project level in construction. These main unique features include: the fixed duration of the project; adoption of traditional method of procurement; entrance of key members to the project from time to time and effective communication. Further research will aim to explore this aspect fully in the light of these challenges