ANALYZING THE EFFECTS OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY ON PROJECT PERFORMANCE IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Abstract

Every client, stakeholder, and project team member involved in a construction project has success as their top priority. However, construction projects frequently cost more than expected, take longer to complete, and don't even meet quality standards. Although it has a bad reputation, the construction business is very important to the economy of the nation, thus it should be made sure that it performs better than it presently does. According to recent research, extra factors linked to people and their interactions in teams may significantly affect project effectiveness, in addition to the technical factors that are typical for influencing construction project performance. “Given the nature of contracting, where joint ventures and partnerships seem to be prominent, culture and cultural differences appear to be one of the significant concerns that need to be dealt with and handled effectively if projects are to be successful”. Therefore, the study aimed at highlighting the effects of cultural diversity on project performance in the construction industry. Because culture is regarded as a "soft" issue, empirical measurement of it is challenging. "Communication, trust, knowledge sharing, and integration" were the four cultural variables that were examined and selected to be compared to the five conventional project outcomes of project performance “time, cost, quality, safety, and productivity". 203 participants from construction projects in Colombo, Kaluthara, and Polonnaruwa district received structured questionnaires. The study's findings demonstrated that cultural diversity and project performance were related and that cultural variance affected the success of construction projects.