Cultural Difference and Conflict Management - A Vietnamese-Australian and Construction Industry Case Study

Abstract

On many construction projects, conflict occurs and to varying degrees. On international projects, generally cultural differences are considered to be a potential source of conflict, and culture is considered to influence the way conflict is dealt with. To this end, the paper examines the relationship between culture and the way conflict is handled in a construction context. The paper reports an exploratory study conducted ontwo distinctly different cultural groups - Australian and Vietnamese - within the Vietnamese construction industry. Counter-intuitively, it was found that, despite predictive cultural differences between the two groups, they tended to adopt a similar integrative or collaborative conflict handling style when working together. The groups displayed cultural characteristics that were different from what is widely predicted in literature. The study results could be interpreted as showing that, in some cases, there may be no merit in adopting an East-West cultural classification; intercultural interaction appears to break down classification barriers. The findings of the paper will be useful for those engaged on international projects and dealing with people from mixed cultures.