The impact of multicultural work teams on the management style of construction site managers

Abstract

A review of literature reveals that there has been little research in the Middle East regarding the relationship between the culturally heterogeneous work forces and the managerial style of site managers. The intention of this paper, therefore is to explore the association between the cultural diversity of work forces who are frequently drawn from more than one culture and the managerial style of construction site managers. Data were obtained from 79 site managers in 6 Middle Eastern countries. The results indicate that the association between the cultural diversity of work forces and the style of site managers was weak and failed to reach statistical significance. In particular, the results show that construction site managers tend not to adapt their style according to the types of culture encountered. The paper recommends that construction companies operating in the Middle East need to recognise and consider the cultural training as an integral part of construction management development if they are to remain competitive and successful.