Hong Kong being an international city and a gateway to Mainland China has an obvious
geographical advantage. Many foreign establishments have been providing professional services in
different sectors of the building and construction industry, notably architects, surveyors and engineers.
Although Hong Kong's culture appears to be rooted in Chinese Culture, her history prior to 1997 as a
British colony has made her in many ways very different from Chinese in China or Taiwan. During
inter-cultural encounters, when cultural differences were not properly dealt with and understood, it
could lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary conflicts. Things are worse in construction industry,
which has always been plagued with conflicts and disputes. The focus of this study is on how culture
has influenced the way conflicts are managed in a Multinational Engineering Consulting Firm (MECF)
with regional offices in United Kingdom (UK), United States (US), Hong Kong (HK) and China (CN).
This is further compared with Engineers from Members of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers
(MHKIE).
In order to address the research question stated above, this research study aims to do the
following:
• Examine the cultural dimensions in measuring and comparing their differences from
Engineers of different origin / country.
• Examine and identify the correlation of culture and conflict management strategies from
Engineers of different origin / country.
• Examine and identify the correlation how English language competency influence one's
conflict management strategies.
• Examine and identify the most likely cause of conflict from the multinational engineering
consulting firm environments.
• Enhance the Engineer / Project Management Practitioner's conflict management skills
The methodology adopted for this research paper was Literature Review, Hypotheses
Setting, Questionnaire Development, Questionnaire Field Survey, Hypothesis Testing and Project
Implementation adopting the Diagnose, Design, Deliver and Evaluate Model. Hypotheses have been
developed and proposed through extensive literature review. Hofstede's (1980, 1991, 2001a) five
dimensions of national culture and English Competency have been adapted as the independent
variables to examine what constitutes MECF-HK Engineers' culture and its relative positioning with
other cultures such as MECF-UK, MECF-US and MECF-CN. Then for a systematic study of the
conflict management strategies, Putnam & Wilson's (1982) Organizational Communication Conflict Instrument (OCCI) has been adapted as the dependent variables to represent the behavioural choices
that people from different cultures made during conflict situations. This study attempted to investigate
how Culture and English language competency impact MECF Engineers. The Field Survey included
both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This was done through a questionnaire survey done over
four different phases and a focus group discussion. The survey has collected 27 respondents from
Hong Kong Airport Authority's (HKAA) Project Service Unit (PSU), 283 from MHKIE, 263 from
MECF (79 from Hong Kong Office, 100 from UK Office, 47 from US Office, 37 from China Office).
The first three phases of the Questionnaire Survey was conducted from February to November in 2007.
The fourth phase was then conducted from April to August in 2010. The qualitative focus group
discussion also took place in April 2010.
The results indicated that Conflict Sources relating to Scheduling, and Cost were found to
be common and ranked amongst the top three for all four Countries. Furthermore, Communication
and Leadership came close in third and fourth for all four countries. Similar to MECF, the MHKIE's
conflict sources indicated that Scheduling, Communication and Costs were three of the top four
ranking sources of conflict and Resource Allocation came in third.
Hofstede's Culture Dimension Scores were compared with the data collected from
MECF-HK, MECF-CN, MECF-UK, and MECF-US. Findings from this research study were similar
to those of Hofstede's published findings except for Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance Indices.
It was also observed that there was a general grouping between MECF-HK with MECF-CN and
MECF-UK with MECF-US in the Cultural Dimensions. MECF-HK and MECF-CN can be classified
as large power distance, collectivistic, feminine, large uncertainty avoidance and long term oriented
cultures. MECF-UK and MECF-US on the other hand are considered as weak power distance,
individualistic, masculine, weak uncertainty avoidance and short-term oriented cultures.
Simultaneous multiple regression was conducted to investigate the best linear
combination of independent variables, Hofstede's culture dimension and English competency, for
predicting the dependent variables, Putnam & Wilson's OCCI. When all six independent variables
were included, the equation formulated provided a high R Square value, showing a large effect size,
indicating the model accounted for a high variances for the dependent variables. Subsequently, a
hierarchical multiple regression for each groups was performed to identify the variance of each
independent variables. ANOVA and subsequent post hoc pairwise tests were conducted for all the
variables.
Results have also shown that MECF-HK and MECF-CN utilized more Non-
Confrontation Strategy and less Control Strategy than MECF-UK and MECF-US. On the other hand,
it is a reverse for MECF-UK and MECF-US, where they utilize more Control Strategy and less NonConfrontation Strategy in comparison with MECF-HK and MECF-CN. The empirical results
obtained in general provided evidence to support the proposed hypotheses for Non-Confrontation and
Control Strategy usage from different Cultures.
Findings from this research have indicated that the MECF-HK Engineers utilizes more
Non-Confrontation Strategy. Yet other recent researches have shown that well managed conflicts can
be functional and constructive. This led to the project implementation on constructive conflict
management workshop. The project was conducted in four phases; Diagnosis, Design, Delivery and
Evaluation (DDDE), over a period of three months. This allowed the participants to learn about the
cultural differences between different countries, importance of communication, conflicts and
constructive conflict management. It provided a control environment for the participants to practice
and utilize their conflict management skills. Post workshop evaluation has confirmed that the
participants were able to utilize more Control Strategy during conflict situations than prior to the
workshop. The project implementation provided a good reference for MECF with a systematic ways
to organize and deliver conflict management training and workshops. It also provided a platform to
validate that conflict management strategies can be learnt and further enhance the construction /
positive conflict managements skills.
This research study provided empirical data for the understanding of cultural differences
and English competency level and how they influence conflict management strategies in MECF from
UK, US, HK and CN. This research also provided evidence that cultural values are the predominant
factors influencing conflict management strategies. Understanding these factors, this research also
provided a tested framework for implementing a constructive conflict management workshop and
further empirical study on cultural differences and conflict management strategies.
| Date of Award | 15 Feb 2011 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - City University of Hong Kong
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| Supervisor | Kong Bieng CHUAH (Supervisor) |
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