Cross-cultural communication behaviour in international engineering projects : Chinese and South African perspectives

Abstract

Past researchers and practitioners have realised that merely developing scheduling techniques is not enough to ensure successful engineering projects, and that communication behaviour is also a critical cultural issue for achieving project success. In this article, the communication behaviour of Chinese project managers is assessed in a cultural context, and the effect of communication behaviour on five project activities (project communication, negotiation, conflict solving, contract process, and team building) is evaluated. This is an empirical study that makes use of surveys to explore the cultural differences between Chinese and South African engineering project managers in respect of their communication behaviour, and the effects of those differences on the five project management activities in the construction industry. There are significant differences between Chinese and South African project managers in their communication behaviour in three project activities. However, there seems to be no significant difference between their communication behaviours in the contract process.

Navorsers en praktiserende projekbestuurders het reeds tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat skeduleringstegnieke op hulle eie nie voldoende is om suksesvolle projekte te verseker nie. Kommunikasiegedrag is ook ’n kritieke kulturele faktor wat kan bydra tot suksesvolle projekte. In hierdie artikel word die kommunikasiegedrag van Chinese projekbestuurders in ’n kulturele konteks geassesseer en die uitwerking van die kommunikasiegedrag op vyf projekbestuursaktiwiteite (projekkommunikasie, onderhandeling, konflikhantering, kontrakproses en spanbou) word geëvalueer. Hierdie is ’n empiriese studie waar steekproewe gebruik word om kulturele verskille betreffende kommunikasiegedrag tussen Chinese en Suid-Afrikaanse projekbestuurders, en die uitwerking daarvan op die vyf projebestuursaktiwiteite in die konstruksiebedryf te ondersoek. Beduidende verskille tussen Chinese en Suid-Afrikaanse projekbestuurders se kommunikasiegedrag tydens drie projekatiwiteite word aangetoon. Tydens die kontrakteringsproses skyn daar egter geen beduidende verskil in kommunikasiegedrag te wees nie.