Abstract:
Complex human behaviours and thoughts bound by the complex construction activities have made the
topic “construction project culture” an ambiguous area in the construction management literature.
Despite of a several few attempts, definition of the construction project culture still remains as an area
to be unveiled. This paper attempts to provide a conceptual framework for understanding construction
project culture by highlighting few questions to be answered in the process of defining a project culture.
The initial question raised is; ‘what cultural manifestations in deed represent construction project
culture?’ next; ‘how does construction project culture exists: its structure?’ and, finally; ‘how does
construction project culture emerges?’. These questions have been answered by an extensive literature
review emphasising; underlying assumptions to give the true representation of construction project
culture which is structured in sub-cultural groups that could be analysed in integrated, differentiated
and fragmented perspectives and arguing its emergence to be with the project team efforts of answering
internal integration and external adaptation problems of the project team itself. Further research of this
paper will aim developing methodological frameworks to carry out empirical studies to answer the
highlighted research questions and to bring empirical evidence to what the construction project
culture is.
Citation:
Samaraweera, A.U.A.A., Sandanayake, Y.G., Senaratne, S. (2014). Conceptual framework for understanding construction project culture: a literature review. In Y.G. Sandanayake, N.G. Fernando & G.I. Karunasena (Eds.), Sustainability and development in built environment: the way forward (pp. 116-126). Ceylon Institute of Builders. https://ciobwcs.com/downloads/WCS2014-Proceedings.pdf