Improving satisfaction with construction project outcomes: The role of culture

The quest to evolve an industry that performs well requires an evolution of the process of delivery. To this end, new approaches such as lean thinking and partnering have been introduced into construction. Underlying many of these new approaches is a need for fundamental changes in the culture within the construction project organization. Many have thus called for cultural change on construction projects. In order to establish which dimensions of culture need to be changed, and the direction of such change, this research was undertaken to look for empirical evidence that such changes will lead to performance improvement. The satisfaction of participants with project outcomes was measured as a proxy for performance. Data on cultural orientations and satisfaction levels was collected through a questionnaire survey of UK contractors. Although factor analysis revealed five principal dimensions of culture - workforce orientation, performance orientation, team orientation, client orientation and project orientation - only team orientation and workforce orientation were found to lead to improved satisfaction. It is recommended therefore that more effort and resources are devoted towards improvements in these regards.