Abstract:

As the resilient built environment is identified as one of the key players in achieving sustainability goals, adopting sustainable construction practices is an impending need for the industry. With the increasingly global construction market, project management is prudent people management from diverse groups to deliver collaborative, innovative, and sustainable solutions. As such, intercultural communication, arguably the most important soft skill to drive collaboration, is often omitted from the prevalent college-level construction management curriculum. A qualitative study was designed to evaluate the perspectives of students and practitioners on the influence of intercultural communication on project delivery using Hofstede's (1980) communication model and Goffman's (1959) Impression Management theory. With the support of industry partners, decisional problems from an actual construction project were introduced for a semester project in the project management class. Students were divided into groups, and each individual assumed the role of a stakeholder in the project. For each project milestone, communication between the group and the owner (the instructor) was required to obtain a unique solution. Responses were also collected from construction managers through semi-structured interviews. The results demonstrate the significant gap in understanding intercultural communication and the necessity to integrate communication theories in construction education and management practices.

Keywords:

Intercultural Communication, Construction Management Curriculum, Collaborative Management.