Public Administration Perspective

Investigating the Impact of Cultural Elements of Institutional Environment on Construction Megaprojects' Performance

Document Type : Research Article (with quantitative approaches)

Authors

Tarbiat Modares University

Abstract

Megaprojects have an important effect in economic growth of countries. But many of them fail, and face problems such as cost overrun, delay, financial failure, negative impact on environment and surrounding society. One the basic and fundamental reasons of megaprojects' poor performance is the impact of cultural factors of institutional environment of megaprojects. In this paper, the impact of various cultural factors on the performance of some of Iranian megaprojects in the fields of oil, gas, petrochemical plants, dams and urban tunnels are studied, the most of which are financed by public budget and are implemented by governmental (or public sector) contractors, so they may be considered as a temporary governmental organization. This research was conducted by grounded theory strategy through interview of 19 managers and senior engineers, and the cultural factors are extracted and a model is presented for this impact. The findings of the study shows that the cultural variety of staff and managers, cultural issues of the staff, and also the cultural differences of different nationalities and Iranian ethnics, such as difference in calendar and time zones of actors' origin countries (difference in weekends and new year holiday), Staff Solitary life while stationed in project camp and the personal and societal consequences of camp life (such as alcohol and drug use, prostitution, etc.) and their work-personal life conflict, cultural diversity of staff, religious and ethnic prejudice, local society culture, local workers culture and communication problems (language and accent differences) have impact on megaproject's performance and shall be considered in planning of these projects.

Keywords

  1. - Anantatmula, V. S. (2010). Impact of cultural differences on knowledge management in global projects. VINE, 40(3/4), 239-253.
  2. - Anantatmula, V. S., & Thomas, M. (2010). Managing Global Projects: A Structured Approach for Better Performance. Project Management Journal, 41(2), 60-72.
  3. - Ankrah, N. A. (2007). An Investigation Into the Impact of Culture on Construction Project Performance. (PHD), University of Wolverhampton.
  4. - Arbabi, H., Danaee-fard, H., Sobhiyah, M.H., Aarabi, S.M. (2015). Explanation of the Alignment of Strategic Control and Project Management Elements and its impact on Project Performance. Journal of Business Management Perspective, 21(1), 49-67.
  5. - Bjørseth, S. V. (2013). The Impact of Cultural Differences on Project Management in the Norwegian Oil and Gas Industry. (Masters), Dublin Business School, Ireland.
  6. - Chen, P., Partington, D., & Qiang, M. (2009). Cross-Cultural Understanding of Construction Project Managers’ Conceptions of Their Work. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 135(6).
  7. - Danaee-fard, H., Delkhah, J., Kiaee, P. (2017). Identifying and prioritazing of constraints for development of public-private partnership. Journal of Business Management Perspective, 29(1), 33-49.
  8. - Dehdashti Shahrokh, Z., & Mahdieh, O. (2015). A pattern for coordination of communication, conflict and organizational culture and its relation with performance. Journal of Governmental Management Perspective., 2015(4), 113-134.
  9. - Faghihi, A., Vaezi, R., Aghaz, A. (2011) Bureaucracy and Culture in Iran. Iranian journal of management sciences, 19, 1-32.
  10. - Farasatkhah. M. (2016). Qualitative research method in social science, emphasizing on grounded theory method.Tehran: Agah.
  11. - Flyvbjerg, B. (2014). What You Should Know About Megaprojects and Why: An Overview. Project Management Journal, 45(2), 6-19.
  12. - Galvin, R. (2014). How many interviews are enough? Do qualitative interviews in building energy consumption research produce reliable knowledge? Journal of Building Engineering. doi:10.1016/j.jobe.2014.12.001.
  13. - Ghouchani, F., Badrizadeh, M. (2011) . Studying Impact of Organizational Culture on Establishment of Information Systems. The Journal of Governmental Management Perspective, 7(3), 81-95.
  14. - Golini, R., Kalchschmidt, M., & Landoni, P. (2014). Adoption of project management practices: The impact on international development projects of non-governmental organizations. International journal of project management, 2014. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.09.006
  15. - Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How Many Interviews Are Enough?: An Experiment with Data Saturation and Variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59-82. doi:10.1177/1525822X05279903.
  16. - Iranmanesh, S.H., Shakhsi-Niaei, M., Durandish Yazdi, M.A. (2018). A Decision Support System for Stakeholder Management during Different Project Phases considering Stakeholders’ Personality Types and Available Resources (The Case of Behsama Web-Based Information System). Journal of Information Technology Management, 9(4), 679-700.
  17. - Jafari, T., Hosseingholipour, T., Alaie, H. (2017). Ethical Leadership in Project Oriented Environments. The Journal of Ethics in science and Technology. 2017; 11(3), 116-124.
  18. - Kivrak, S., Ross, A., Arslan, G., & Tuncan, M. (2009). Impacts of cultural differences on project success ın construction. Paper presented at the 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, Nottingham, UK.
  19. - Kuusisto, J. (2012). Essays on managing cultural impacts in multinational projects (PHD), Aalto University School of Business, Finland.
  20. - Levitt, R. E., & Scott, W. R. (2016). Institutional Challenges and Solutions for Global Megaprojects. In B. Flyvbjerg (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Megaprojects: Oxford University Press.
  21. - Lima, N., & Patah, L. A. (2016). Cultural Issue and its Influence in the Management of Global Project Teams Future Studies Research Journal, 8(1), 90-112.
  22. - Mahalingam, A., & Levitt, R. E. (2007). Institutional theory as a framework for analyzing conï‌‚icts on global projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 133(7), 517-528.
  23. - Miller, R., & Lessard, D. R. (2000). The Strategic Management of Large Engineering Projects: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  24. - Ng., A. K. Y., Velasco-Acosta, A. E., & Wang, T. (2015). Institutions And The Governance Of Transport Infrastructure Projects: Some insight from the planning and construction of the CentrePort Canada Way. Research in Transportation Business & Management, 14(2015), 25-33.
  25. - North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  26. - Omidi, M., Razavi, H. Mahpeykar, M.R (2010), Choosing Project Team Based on Efficiency Criterias by Promethee Method. Journal of Industrial Management Perspective, 1(2010), 113-134.
  27. - Orr, R. J., & Scott, W. R. (2008). Institutional exceptions on global projects: A process model. Journal of International Business Studies, 39(2008), 562-588.
  28. - Ozorhon, B., Arditi, D., Dikmen, I., & Birgonul, M. T. (2008). Implications of Culture in the Performance of International Construction Joint Ventures. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 134(5), 361-370.
  29. - Sanaiei, A., Amiri, F., Ganjibidmeshk, O. (2012). The Relation between Organization Marketing Competence and Project Management Success in Construction Companies. Journal of Business Management Perspective,10(4), 9-29.
  30. - Scott, W. R. (2014). Institutions and Organizations: Ideas, Interests, and Identities (Fourth ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  31. - Strauss, A., Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research (1st ed.). Thousands Oaks, Ca: Sage
  32. - Suddaby, R. (2010). Challenges for Institutional Theory. Journal of Management Inquiry, 19(1), 14-20.
  33. - Toor, S., & Ogunlana, S. O. (2010). Beyond the ‘iron triangle’: Stakeholder perception of key performance indicators (KPIs) for large-scale public sector development projects. International journal of project management, 28(2010), 228-236.
  34. - Vafakhah, S., Yarahmadi, M., Tamjid Yamchelou, A. (2018). Investigating the Effect of Organizational Culture Types on Human Resource Management of Project Process. Human Resource Management Researches 10(2) 49-72.
  35. - World Bank. (webpage). PPP conversion factor, GDP (LCU per international $). from Worldbank http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PPP
  36. - Yin, R. K. (2003). Application of Case Study Research, . New Delhi: Sage Publication.
  37. - Zhang, S., & Liang, X. (2008, November 21-23, 2008). Culture Studies in International Construction Contracting: an Overview. Paper presented at the International Conference on Multi-National Construction Projects:“Securing high Performance through Cultural awareness and Dispute Avoidance”, Shanghai, China.
Public Administration Perspective
Volume 10, Issue 2 - Serial Number 38
2019
Pages 15-39