 Geert Hofstefe’s Dimensions Of Cultural & Edward T.

Hall’s
Time Orientation
 Hofstede classified a county's cultural attitudes as five dimensions
 Power Distance Index (PDI)
 Shows the difference between people in a society.
 Difference in authority, power, influence.
 It also determines how formal and informal people in a
culture are and how they interact.

 Individualistic/Collectivistic in Comparison
 Individualist
In society, everybody is supposed to take care of
himself/herself.
Everybody has a right to a private life.
Belief is placed in individual decisions.
 Collectivist
In society, people are born into extended families or
clans who protect them in exchange for loyalty.
Private life is invaded by organizations and clans to
which one belongs.
Belief is placed in group decisions.

 Masculinity/femininity in comparison
 Masculinity
A culture in which the dominant values in society are
achievement, heroism, assertiveness, money and material
rewards for success.
 Femininity
A culture in which the dominant values in society are
cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life.

 Uncertainty Avoidance in Comparison

 Strong Uncertainty
The uncertainty inherent in life is felt as a continuous
threat that must be fought.
Time is money.
There is great concern with security in life.
There is a need for written rules and regulations.
 Weak Uncertainty
 The uncertainty inherent in life is more easily
accepted and each day is taken as it comes.
Time is free.
There is more willingness to take risks in life.
There should be as few rules as possible.

 Long-term Orientation
focuses on the degree the society embraces, or does not embrace,
long-term devotion to traditional values.
Country Example :
 China
 Hong Kong
 Taiwan
 Japan
 South Korea
 Thailand
 Singapore
 Bangladesh

 Monochronic
 Things are done in a linear fashion.
 One activity at a time.
 Time schedules and plans are important.
 An appointment is treated seriously.
 Concentrate on the job.
 Are low-context and need information.

 Polychronic
 Things are done in a nonlinear fashion.
 People tend to do several things at the same time.
 Schedules and plans are less important.
 Are committed to people and human relationships.
 Have strong tendency to build lifetime relationships.
 Are high-context and already have information.
 Cultural Acumen For The Global Manager : Lesson From Project
Globe
 Globe : Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Effectiveness
Attempt to develop an empirically based theory to describe,
understand, and predict the impact of specific cultural variables
on leadership and organizational processes and the effectiveness
of these processes

 Nine Basic Cultural Dimensions From The Globe Project

 Assertiveness
How confrontational and dominant shoulf individuals be en
social relationships?
 Future Orientation
How much should people delay grafitication by planning
and saving for the future?
 Gender Differentation
How much effort shoul be put into minimizing gender
discrimination and role inequalities?
 Uncertainty – Avoidance
How much should people rely on social norms and rules to
avoid uncertainty and limit unpredictability
 Power Distance
How much unequal distribution of power should there be in
organizations and society?
 Individualism or Collectivism
How much should leaders encourage and reward loyalty to
the social unit, as opposed to the pursuit of individual
goals?
 In-group Collectivism
How Much Pride and loyalty should individuals have for
their family or organization?
 Performance Orientation
How much should individuals be rewarded for improvement
and excellence?
 Humane Orientation
 How much should society encourage and reward people for
being kind, fair, friendly, and generous?
 The Need For Global Leader
American corporation are facing increasingly global employees,
customers, suppliers, competitors, and creditors. But the
increasing connection does not mean that cultural differences are
disappearing or diminishing. Globalization opens many
opportunities for business, but it also creates major challenges.
An importing challenge is understanding and appreciating cultural
values, practice, and subtleties in different part of the world. All
expert in international business agree that to succeed in global
business, managers need the flexibility to respond positively and
effectively to practices and values that may be drastically different
from what they accustomed to. It requires the ability to open to
others idea and opinions.
 Organizational Culture
 Ouchi
Is one of the outstanding scholars to arouse peoples’ attention to
the importance of employees ’commitment and the unitary vision
for the companys’ success, by arguing that emphasis on certain
humanistic values contributes to the companys’ economic
performance. These values include employee-concern and
consensual decision-making which, generally, characterize
Japanese enterprises

 Testing Stage
There a lot of testing to make C-E linkage model. eventually,
culture research findings are not entirely consistent with one
another, and sometimes even contradictory. Due to the complex
nature of the constructs of “organizational culture” and
“effectiveness”, there is a lack of an integrative and
comprehensive framework for C-E (culture - effectiveness)
research.

 Developing The C-E Linkage Model

In the study of organizational behaviour, one of the traditional
theories is the S-O-R (StimulusOrganism-response) sequence
which has been applied by Liu and Walker in the modelling of the
construction procurement process in terms of the B-P-O
(behaviourperformance-outcome) cycle. Given the idea that
organizational culture is the “software of the mind” that is shared
by organizational members, it influences the cognition and
perception of its members, guides their behaviours, integrates its
internal processes to ensure the ability to survive and adapt to the
environment. Therefore, it is postulated that organizational
culture can be taken as the “stimulus” for the adoption of various
behaviours in the organization.

 SCHEMA THEORY
ased on a detailed review of the social cognition literature,
Markus and Zajonc conclude that schema theory is the most
 useful and pervasive perspective on the mechanics of social
cognition. Many definitions appear in the current literature.
However, the definition offered by Marshall might be the most
comprehensive:
“A schema is a vehicle of memory, allowing organization of an
individuals’ similar experiences in such a way that the individual
can easily recognize additional experiences that are also similar,
discriminating between these and ones that are dissimilar; can
assess a generic framework that contains the essential elements
of all these similar experiences, including verbal and nonverbal
components; can draw inferences, make estimates, create goals,
and develop plans using the framework; and can utilize skills,
procedures, or rules as needed when faced with a problem for
which this particular framework is relevant”.
As implied from the above definition, schemas serve as mental
maps which enable individuals to orient themselves within their
experimental terrain and guide interpretation of the past and
present, as well as expectation for the future.

 The seven functions listed below is the most comprehensive

summary from Taylor and Crocker :
 Providing a structure against which experience is mapped
 Directing information encoding and retrieval from memory
 Affecting information processing efficiency and speed
 Guiding filling gaps in the information available
 Providing templates for problem solving
 Facilitating the evaluation of experience
 Facilitate anticipating of the future, goal setting, planning,
and goal execution

 Research Objective
 To examine if the relationship between organizational
culture and effectiveness is reciprocal and whether
organizational culture is both an asset and a liability,
depending on its positive or negative impact, on
organizational effectiveness.
  the following research objective relating to the Chinese
state-owned construction enterprises

 Research Design
 The first stage comprises preliminary case studies of
selected Chinese construction enterprises with the purpose
to test and choose from two culture measuring instruments,
i.e., OCI – Organisational Culture Inventory and OCAI –
Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument
 A)The second stage comprises a major survey of state-
owned construction enterprises using OCAI to assess their
organisational culture profiles and cluster analysis is applied
to analyse that sample into groups.B) An organizational
effectiveness survey instrument is developed for measuring
performance effectiveness of the same enterprises in stage
2(a)
 The third stage adopts a qualitative research approach by
means of case studies selected from stage 2 to identify
specific culture variables predominant in particular
environmental contingencies contributory to performance
effectiveness, thereby, to indicate future directions for
research in organisational culture change.

 Empirical Result
 The first stage comprises preliminary case studies of
selected Chinese construction enterprises with the purpose
to test and choose from two culture measuring instruments,
i.e., OCI – Organisational Culture Inventory and OCAI –
Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument
 A)The second stage comprises a major survey of state-
owned construction enterprises using OCAI to assess their
organisational culture profiles and cluster analysis is applied
to analyse that sample into groups.B) An organizational
effectiveness survey instrument is developed for measuring
performance effectiveness of the same enterprises in stage
2(a)
  The third stage adopts a qualitative research approach by
means of case studies selected from stage 2 to identify
specific culture variables predominant in particular
environmental contingencies contributory to performance
effectiveness, thereby, to indicate future directions for
research in organisational culture change.

 Measuring Instrument-OC AI
 The first stage comprises preliminary case studies of
selected Chinese construction enterprises with the purpose
to test and choose from two culture measuring instruments,
i.e., OCI – Organisational Culture Inventory and OCAI –
Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument
 A)The second stage comprises a major survey of state-
owned construction enterprises using OCAI to assess their
organisational culture profiles and cluster analysis is applied
to analyse that sample into groups.B) An organizational
effectiveness survey instrument is developed for measuring
performance effectiveness of the same enterprises in stage
2(a)
 The third stage adopts a qualitative research approach by
means of case studies selected from stage 2 to identify
specific culture variables predominant in particular
environmental contingencies contributory to performance
effectiveness, thereby, to indicate future directions for
research in organisational culture change.

 Conclusion
Three important factors that shape the culture of an organization
have acquired the consensus of culture scholars, summarized as :
 The societal or national culture within which an
organization is physically situated;
 The vision, management style and personality of an
organizations’ founder or other dominant leader; and
 The type of business an organization conducts and the
nature of its business environment.
 Developing An Innovation Assessment Tool For Construction
Companies
 Review of Assessment Models and Tools
There are several tools/models, which have been used for the last
few years to selfassess organisations’ performance and capabilities.
These assessment tools or models have different underlying goals
and definitions.
For example, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in the
UK and the Construction Excellence have produced Construction
Industry Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that underpin a
number business excellence models (CE, 2005). The KPIs were
successful in promoting the use of a performance measurement
within the construction industry (Beatham, 2003).
In recent years the power of Information Communication
Technology (ICT) has driven large and SMEs companies from all
sectors to search for ways of monitoring and improving
performance (Neely and Hii, 1998).
Of these assessment tools, most conceive organisational
improvements in general as supporting innovation, some of them
are under development and some are being used on a commercial
basis.
However, the assessment tool that is most relevant to this study
after appropriate modification is Verdict (Verify End-user e-
Readiness Using a Diagnostic Tool) (Ruikar, 2005).
Verdict is an internet based e-readiness application that assesses
the overall e-readiness of end-user construction companies for
using ecommerce technology.
But there is a missing parameter from Verdict that is IR investment
which is one of the main determinants of innovation or technology
in any industry.

 Key Determinants of Innovation in The Construction Industry

 Leadership
They are expected to be able to; identify and overcome the
basic barriers to innovation; create and deploy proven
internal marketing principles to better incubate innovative
projects; maintain a culture of continuous play etc.
 Management
Innovation is extremely complex and involves the effective
management of a variety of different activities. To do so,
 management must believe in innovative practices and take
such strategic measures sufficient to save its adoption. This
must therefore be addressed in the tool.
 People
The UK construction industry has long experienced
difficulties in meeting its skill requirements. Given the right
atmosphere or culture, ‘innovation will not readily take place
without the right people being drawn to it’ (Sturges et al.,
1999). The people factor accounts for the social and cultural
aspects related to the people within an organization and are
important to its success.
 Process
According to Sexton and Barrett (2003) the process of
innovation means a series of actions and reaction forces
which include management support (action), resistance to
change from the staff/people (reaction), allocation of capital
to purchase needed technology (action) and lack of
appropriate work routines to coordinate and channel the
innovation activity (reaction).
 IR Investment
The amount of investment funding available for construction
research has been declining steadily in recent years and is
estimated to be less than 0.5% of the construction sector’s
spending. By comparison aerospace invests 11%, automotive
over 9% and pharmaceutical up to 13% of their revenues on
research (ICE, 2003).
 Technology
The technology factor covers all aspects relating to
information and communication technology (ICT) and its
capability of coordinating different activities within and
cross organizations and also across industries (Laudon and
Laudon, 2002). Electronic tools for sharing information,
including e-mail, intranets and knowledge management
systems dramatically enhance people's ability to represent,
organize and apply knowledge and ideas (Kao, 1997).

 Concluding Comments
A number of assessment tools/models have been discussed and an
innovation assessment model iCon is proposed as part of this
research to help construction companies assess their innovation
capabilities. The model is to initiate a process leading to the
effective implementation of a strategy/best practice guidelines.
Fairclough (2002) critically suggested that it is important that a
better mechanism be developed for defining the industry’s long
term research needs. This lack of innovation and research can be
explained by the lack of recognition of a number of key
determinants of innovation in construction industry, such as
leadership, management, people, processes, IR investment and
technology.
 Organizational Culture In Finland
 Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument
 The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument or
OCAI, is a tool based on the theory about Competing Values
Framework developed by American researchers Kim S.
Cameron and Robert E. Quinn
 The theoretical model is based on several indicators of
effectiveness, which differentiate from each other by two
dimensions, hence forming four main clusters.
First criteria of effectiveness emphasizes flexibility,
discretion, and dynamism from stability, order and
control.
The second dimension differentiates an internal
orientation, integration and unity from external
orientation, differentiation and rivalry.

 Clan & Adhocracy

 Clan, these types of organizations are like extended families
that have shares values and goals. The employees are
committed to the company as well as the company to its
employees. The work is done by teams that can have quite
autonomous roles and the customers are seen as partners.
 Adhocracy, Young organizations have typically this culture.
In adhocracy culture, the environment forces the
organizations to be very flexible in their actions. Employees
are motivated to be innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial.
Unlike market culture, the power has been separated
between individuals and teams.

 Hierarchy & Market

 Hierarchy, which is very typical for organizations in the
public sector and relatively old organizations. This type used
to be the ideal form of organization, because it is stable and
consistent. However, the relatively faster changing
environment emphasizes nowadays other cultural elements.
 Market, The activities are externally oriented, but the power
is centralized unlike in Adhocracy. The effectiveness of this
type of company is viewed through, for example,
profitability and market shares. The main values are
competitiveness and productivity, which are measured also
 between the organizational units and even between
individuals.

 Finnish National Culture

 Culture is the unique dominant pattern of shared beliefs,
assumptions, values, and norms that shape the socialization,
symbols, language and practices of a group of people. The
attitudes and approaches that typify the way staff carry out
their tasks. Culture is developed and transmitted by people,
consciously and unconsciously, to subsequent generations.
 Finns are very homogenous group from their ethnical
background. According to Hofstede’s survey (1980), which
has been conducted already several decades ago Finns have
low power distance, medium uncertainty avoidance, high
femininity compared to masculinity and Finns are more
individualistic than collectivistic.
 The overall development in Finland has closely followed the
development in Western neighbors Sweden and Norway.
During the 1990 Finland took the leading position in
business on the coat-tails of Nokia. Already during the 1980,
the influence of US has been strong in Finland. Finnish
culture has moved towards more individualistic, masculine
and risk taking dimensions.

 Conclusion
 The overall organizational culture in Finnish construction
companies, based on this study, is very market oriented.
 People in the industry would like the culture be as the CLAN
culture.
 Market and Hierarchy cultures are usually relatively stronger
than Adhocracy and Clan cultures.
 Safety Culture
 What prompted the interest in safety culture?
 The safety culture approach emerged when certain major
events could no longer be explained by individual behaviors
alone, and thus it became necessary to understand the part
played by the organization.
 Awareness of the “safety culture” concept gradually spread
to the academic community, institutions, companies, and
consulting firms, sometimes with a limited appreciation of
the complexity of the underlying notions.
 Overly simplistic understandings of safety culture and of the
possibilities that exist for changing it will not produce the
desired outcomes. This document aims to clarify the key
concepts and point out the main pitfalls.

 Certain ways of doing and thinking which were widely shared

within the organization were incompatible with safe operations
Due to the organization’s culture, the decisions made by the
various actors did not grant sufficient importance to safety.
Awareness of the “safety culture” concept gradually spread to the
academic community, institutions, companies, and consulting
firms, sometimes with a limited appreciation of the complexity of
the underlying notions. Overly simplistic understandings of safety
culture and of the possibilities that exist for changing it will not
produce the desired outcomes. This document aims to clarify the
key concepts and point out the main pitfalls.

 What is Safety Culture?

The safety culture is a set of practices (ways of doing) and a
mindset (ways of thinking) that is widely shared by the members of
an organization when it comes to controlling the most significant
risks associated with its activities It is forged gradually by the
interactions between people and it continues to evolve.

 The safety culture is not something that is specific to each

individual; rather, it is a characteristic of a group or of the entire
organization
 An individual can, when performing their duties, have a
general attitude that is more or less attentive to safety. But
 the word culture is used to refer to the practices and beliefs
that are shared by a group of people.
 Individual behavior is influenced by different social groups:
the team, the occupational group, the country, the ethnic
group, the entity (work establishment or unit), the company.
Every human group develops a culture.

 The first questions to focus on when considering the safety culture

of a company or entity are therefore:
 What are the risks that most threaten the organization? The
answer is obviously different for each specific situation
(some entities are more at risk of falls from height, others of
fire, explosions, electrical risk, violence against staff, etc.).
 Is this vision of the most serious risks and of the way to
ensure safety widely shared by the organization’s members?
Do forms of “collective blindness” exist concerning certain
risk categories?
 Do the organization’s safety efforts target the most serious
risks first?
 Has the organization given itself the means to assess its level
of preparedness with regard to the most serious risks?

 Identification and integration of the factors necessary in order for a

human activity to be conducted efficiently and safely :
 individuals (skills, state of health, etc.),
 the work group (quality of the groups and discussions,
sharing of information and knowledge, solidarity, etc.),
 the working environment (the extent to which it is designed
to take into account human characteristics and the tasks
required),
 the living organization (particularly the role of managers, the
involvement of employees in setting the rules, a participative
approach to handling problematic situations…).

 How about company culture or organizational culture?

Because we could be discussing the culture of an industrial group,
a branch, an entity, etc., in the remainder of this document we will
use the term organisational culture rather than company culture.
Depending on the context, our readers can replace it by “company
culture”, “business unit culture”, and so on.
 Safety Culture
 What is a safety culture?
The product of individual and group values, attitudes,
competencies, and patterns of behavior that determines the
commitment to an organization’s health and safety programs.

 Where do we fit in?

 Production First Safety Culture – Get the product out the
door as fast as you can. It doesn’t matter how safe people
are, or how many injuries they have. The almighty dollar
rules this mentality.
High injury rates
Low worker morale
High worker Turnover
Rarely compliant
“It’s not MY job!” Mentality
 VPP and SHARP sites – These are the companies with top
notch safety cultures.
Low Injury and Illness Rates
High worker morale
Low worker turnover
“That’s how we used to do it” mentality
Always looking to improve their safety

 Safety as a Core Value, and not a priority

One of the best places to start is setting Safety as one of your Core
Values. Core values are what you live and breathe every day.
These are the beliefs that define who you are and how you react
during certain situations.

 Management Commitment
 Managers and supervisors set the tone for your safety
culture. The leadership team MUST “talk the talk” AND
“walk the walk.”
 The leadership team allocates resources – people, time, and
invests money in their teammates, demonstrating their
commitment to safety. Leaders know that safety adds value
to the company.
 Establish and enforce high standards for performance. As a
leader in your company, you get the behavior that you
 accept. If you accept shortcuts and bend safety rules to meet
production deadlines, you are setting your team up for
failure.
 The fastest way to destroy a safety culture’s credibility is
through a leadership team’s disregard for the safety rules.

 Empowerment
Empower individuals to successfully fulfill their safety
responsibilities to themselves, their family, and their coworkers.
 Everyone holds themselves and each other accountable for
safety!
 Give your teammates the authority to stop unsafe behavior
without fear of negative repercussions.
 Encourage your people to correct unsafe conditions as soon
as possible. There is no better time to fix something than as
soon as it is identified.
 Provide multiple options for your team to report unsafe
conditions and/or behaviors – Safety Teams, Anonymous
Suggestion Boxes, Open Door Policies, behavior based
programs

 Communication
 Build TRUST! Do what you say you will do, when you say
you will do it!
 Ensure timely and appropriate responses to identified
hazards reported by your teammates. Have an action plan in
place to address and remove the hazards.
 Reinforce current safety practices through ongoing teammate
coaching and discipline, where necessary.
 Ongoing training demonstrates lessons learned from
incidents and educates new and existing teammates in proper
safety techniques and procedures.

 How to Build a Strong Culture

 Define Roles and Responsibilities
 Communicate the Company's Vision and Mission
 Empower your team
 Give them the authority to correct unsafe behaviors and
conditions.
 Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
  Strive to be better today than you were yesterday!
 Safety Culture
 BENEFITS OF SAFETY CULTURE APPROACH
 Strategic
Greater congruence between the company’s strategic
decision-making and the reality at the sharp end.
 Balance
More balanced positioning of middle management between
what feeds downward from upper management and what
feeds upward from the sharp end.
 Integration
Improved integration of human, organisational factors and,
an improvement in material and psychosocial working
conditions
 Feeling
Increase in professionalism and in the feeling of “a job well
done” at different levels of the organisation.
 Relations
Improvement in relations between the chain of command
and employees.
 Innovation
Continuous improvement and innovation, through increased
participation.

 THE RISKS OF OVERSIMPLIFICATION

 Behaviour
“The safety culture is the general behaviour of workers,
which is not safe enough and needs to change” The safety
culture concept encompasses the shared ways of doing and
thinking at all levels of an organization
 Management
“The safety culture is the importance which top management
grants to safety in relation to productivity” The company’s
top management is a major contributor to the safety culture
 Root
“A safety culture can be changed quickly; it’s just a matter
of deciding to do so” The shared ways of doing and thinking
that make up the culture of an organization are deeply rooted
in its history.
 Consensual
 “The safety culture is a consensual issue” Even though all
actors might wish to avoid serious accidents, action taken to
change the safety culture is not consensual by nature

 COMPANY CULTURE
 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
It is impossible to understand the safety culture of a
company without looking more broadly at its culture.
Indeed, large organisations, such as corporations, trade
unions, public services, and non-governmental organisations,
develop their own culture. We call this an organisational
culture.
 CHARACTERISTIC
An organisational culture possesses most of the general
characteristics of a culture presented in the previous chapter:
it fosters ways of doing and ways of thinking, espouses
certain values and is underpinned by implicit assumptions.
 Changing The Safety Culture
 Numerous Prerequisites
 A conviction that the issue needs to be addressed urgently
 Time; top management’s commitment must be sustained
long term and a coherent change process must be in place
which will withstand staff turnover.
 Actor mobilisation
 Get the adjustment variable right
 Introduce only the changes that are necessary
 Get positive criticism without being complaisant

 Different Stages
 Acknowledging that a change is needed; The initial
realisation that a change is needed may be the consequence
of undesirable events (an accident, social tensions), external
requirements (regulations, regulatory authorities), warnings
from employee representatives, the arrival of a new manager
influenced by a different culture, etc.
 Sharing the vision of the strengths and weaknesses of the
current
 organisation
 Defining the programme
 Managing different time frames
 Programme deployment
 A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ETHICAL PERCEPTIONS
OF MANAGERS AND NON MANAGERS
 RESEARCH METHADOLOGY
 Quenstionnaire
 Quenstionnaire were distributed to working individuals on
the mass transit system and in shopping centers in Hongkong
and completed on the spot
 The questionnaire were set in Cantonese and considered of
two parts .The first part was made up of 28 vignettes
describing a variety of ethically quenstionable situations ,21
of these were adapted from the studied of Conroy and
Emerson(2004),Smith and Oakley(1997) and Longnecker
etal(1989)
 The remaining vignettes were added by the authors to
address ethical issues of particular concern in Hongkong

 FACTOR ANALYSIS
 A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation
was used on the 28 items that assessed the ethical
perceptions
 Five factors were generated from the factor analysis :
managing people and product,illegal and dubious
practices,consumer,safety,coun terfeiting issues, and gift
giving

 DEONTOLIGICAL VIEWS
 In studying ethical orientations,deontoligical theories are
widely used
 Deontological evaluation is a process in which ethical
decisions are made based on duties and obligations

 CONCLUSIONS
 In studying ethical orientations,deontoligical theories are
widely used
 Deontological evaluation is a process in which ethical
decisions are made based on duties and obligations
 Ethical Behaviour in The South African Construction Industry
 Forms of unethical behavior
 Unfair conduct
Unfair conduct may occur in competition, in contracts, and
in business practice.
 Collusion
Collusion is contrary to the principles of free competition. It
benefits only the parties to the collusive agreement at the
expense of those not privy to the arrangement.
 Fraud
Fraud is forms of corruption. Fraud in contract performance,
fraud in an audit inquiry.
 Bribery
Bribery is a form of corruption. It is prone to payments and
gifts.

 Research Methods
 The South African opinion survey involved a random
selection of potential participants from the available listings
of professional consultants and main contractors. The
professions represented included architects, quantity
surveyors, consulting civil engineers and contractors.
 193 questionnaire packages were sent out to contractors
(55), architects (50), quantity surveyors (45) and engineers
(43). The firms were selected using a stratified, random
sample.
 According to Vee and Skitmore (2003), this is an indication
that most respondents had some form of ethical
infrastructure to guide them in making decisions, for judging
their ethical content and to guard them against unethical
behaviour.

 Result
 Collusive tendering
72% of the respondents report having
had some contact with collusive tendering practices . The
most common forms of collusion are cover pricing, bid
cutting, hidden fees and commissions.
 Bribery
 41% of respondents had witnessed or experienced bribery in
the workplace.
 Professional Negligence
93% of architects and 96% of quantity surveyors,
respectively, stated that they had experienced or observed
instances of professional negligence.
 Unfairness Behaviour
The responses derive from individual survey respondents.
Unfairness behaviour witnessed or experienced by the
various respondent groups.

 Conclusion
 The opinion survey shows that there are significant areas of
concern regarding ethical standards practised within the
South African construction industry.
 The range of ethical problems evident includes collusion,
bribery, negligence, fraud, dishonesty and unfair practices.
 The unethical behaviour reported in this study could emanate
from competing ethical choices in relation to meeting the
company goals associated with economic and financial
targets.
 Isolating Cultural and National Influence on Value and Ethics
 Explanation
 Conceptually, cross-cultural comparative studies seek to
obtain valuable insights into human behavior by testing
‘‘context-embedded relationships’’ using data collected from
several countries. The studies is categorized as search for
universal knowledge.
 This study is taking an assumptions that culture is neither a
charateristic of individual or of nation states, but rather a
chrateristic of a large group of people conditioned by
similiar background, education, and life experiences. Using
nationality as surrogate for culture research in diverse
countries is methodologically incorrect

 Cultural and National convergence perspective

 If culture is the predominant source of influence,we would
expect to observe more similarities between Chinese in the
PRC and Chinese-Americans than between Chinese-
Americans and Caucasian-Americans.
 If nation is the predominant source of influence, we would
expect to observe more similarities between Chinese-
Americans and Caucasian-Americans than between Chinese
in the PRC and Chinese-Americans.

 Method
Primary feature of this study is a design that better controls cultural
and national differences. The differences between Chinese and
American cultures lead such a design to be a strong test of the
impact of cultural differences. The different institutional,
economic, and social systems between the two countries also make
them ideal for testing national differences. This study incorporated
a third sample that ‘‘bridges’’ the two national samples, namely a
sample of Chinese-Americans in the United States. The response of
chinese-americans may shed considerable insight on the hypothesis
that is investigated.

 Survey Design
This study is focused on hofstede cultural dimensions. The
questions is like High versus Low Power Distance, Masculinity
versus Femininity, Collectivism versus Individualism, and
 Uncertainty Avoidance. Furthermore this study also add 5th
dimension which Hofstede called confucius dynamism based on
confucian values. Confucian values emphasize the importance of
education, obedience to authority, interpersonal harmony, loyalty
to the family, kinship affiliation and individual responsibility

 Result
 Scheffe test is used to compare differences among the mean
responses for the three groups. This test allows pair-wise
comparison, which gives more fine-tuned information about
the differences between the different groups.
 Group 2 (Chinese-Americans) had the highest mean scores,
implying that overseas Chinese, although far away from
their homeland, exhibit more distinctive Chinese cultural
value traits than their counterparts in the PRC, the home of
Chinese cultural values.
 Group 1 and Group 2 the respondents shared most of the
cultural attributes,Specifically, the Chinese-American
respondents were more anxious to preserve their cultural
tradition and avoid confrontations than their counterparts in
the PRC.

 Conclusion
The purpose of this study is to propose an analytical framework
that isolated the role of cultural and national differences in order to
test their relationship to various individual level variables. This
contextualapproach addresses a number of important theoretical
and methodological issues. Theoretically, the contextual approach,
by employing a hybrid design, offers new insights into the debate
on the role of cultural and national effects. Empirically, this design
is able to distinguish between cross-cultural andcross-national
differences, enabling many of the so-called ‘‘cross-cultural’’
differences reported by previous studies to be re-evaluated. In other
words, ‘‘the reliance on nation or culture as a ‘black box’ is
abandoned in favor of a more precise specification of theoretical
relationships’’
 ETHICS IN TENDERING AUSTRALIA EDITION
 Classification of approaches to ethics
What is right and wrong conduct depend on the judges. There have
been almost as many moral theories as there have been moral
theorists. A classification can be done into two major groups: by
the scope of the works examined and on the basis of the
underlaying principle.

 The Scope of Ethics

Ethics as an intellectual pursuit has produce both normative and
positive works.

 Ethical Theories classified by their philosophical principles

 Metaphysical: absolute and consider moral principles as
derivatives of some define law where no human input
require.
 Rational ethics are either pluralistic (they accept the
possibility of a multitude of alternative existing alongside
each other) or relative (accepting the culture of different
moralities for different places and times).

 Major Ethical Issues in Tendering in Australian Construction

Industry
 Withdrawal
Tenderers have the right by Australian law to withdraw a
firm
firm offer before the closing of tender and a formal
acceptance of that price is made. This is to accommodate
tenderers late discovery of:
Major Miscalculation
Lack of Interest
Lack of technical expertise.
In order to avoid possible over-commitment, or just in greed,
contractors may seek to withdraw the tender for the less
lucrative contract.
 Bid Cutting
In theory at least, bid cutting can take place at any
point in the project delivery process and can be
exercised by any of the contract parties involved.
 This can be either passive, by simply asking for
prices, or active, by negotiation from the basis of
either an original quote or a potential supplier.
Bid cutting by the main contractor might be regarded
as improper if the lowered costs of subcontracting are
not passed on the principal in some way. Similarly, a
subcontractor in this situation could feel exploited.
 Cover Pricing
Cover prices are quotes tendered which have been provided
at a rate specially designed to lose a tender but which appear
to be competitive.
The major reasons for the issuing of cover prices appear to
be:
Little interest in contract
Lack of resources to complete the work.
Not enough time to compile a detailed tender
A desire to remain considered for future sales
Little chance of winning due to the large number of
firm competing in the same contract.
 Compensation of Tendering costs
The cost of tendering is a recognized expense which
many would argue represents a large proportion of
general overhead cost.
Whether or not a tender is bona fide can be difficult to
know, especially in selective tendering. If principals
have to reimburse tenderers, it is possible that
tenderers could find some way of making a profit by
obtaining an over-reimbursement.
To be fair to all players, payment for estimating
services in lump sum and especially open tendering
might not be practical unless the contractor was
required to submit its own bill of quantities.
One of the fundamental discussion of this report is
whether or not it is commonly acceptable in the
industry to load tender prices with fees which will be
used to directly compensate unsuccessful tenderers.
Another possibility is for principals to provide
compensation to tenderers in the event of an
abandoned or postponed contract.
 Collusion
 Collusion tendering occurs when a number of the several
firms that have been invited to tender agree between
themselves either not to tender, or to tender in such a manner
as not to be competitive with the other tenderers.
The main reasons for the practice are:
An even distribution of work for all involved
A means of entering what is an apparently bona fide
bid
A means for discussion and agreement over illicit
profit making such as amount for cover prices, secret
fees or unsuccessful tenderer’s fees.
It is contrary to the principles of free competition. It benefits
only the parties to the agreement at the expense of the
agreement at the expense of those outside.
 Codes of Tendering
The ethical principles in tendering are formally prescribed in
the codes of conduct related to the tendering process.
The codes are designed to achieve a balance between what is
right and what is common-sense for each individual project.