Japanese Contractors in Overseas Markets: Bridging Cultural and Communication Gaps

441 Pages·2019·7.382 MB·English

by  Kazuhito Suzuki, Low Sui Pheng

Management in the Built Environment
Series Editor: Low Sui Pheng
Kazuhito Suzuki
Low Sui Pheng
Japanese Contractors
in Overseas Markets
Bridging Cultural and Communication Gaps
Management in the Built Environment
Series Editor
Low Sui Pheng, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Editorial Board Members
Abdul Rashid Bin Abdul Aziz, University Science Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
An Min, Salford University, Salford, UK
Azlan Shah Ali, Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malaya, Department
of Building Surveying, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Faisal M. Arain, Niagara College, Makkah Campus, Welland, ON, Canada
Fang Dongping, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Gao Shang, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
George Ofori, London South Bank University, London, UK
Hamzah A. Rahman, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Javier Cuervo, Department of Management and Marketing, University of Macau,
Taipa, Macau, Guangdong, China
LiuJunying,DepartmentofConstructionManagement,TianjinUniversity,Nankai,
Tianjin, China
Oluwayomi K. Babatunde, Construction Economics & Management, University
of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Oswald Chong, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment,
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
The aim of this book series is to provide a platform to build and consolidate a
rigorous and significant repository of academic, practice and research publications
that contribute to further knowledge relating to management in the built
environment. Its objectives are to:
(1) Disseminatenewandcontemporaryknowledgerelatingtoresearchandpractice
in the built environment
(2) Promote synergy across different research and practice domains in the built
environment and
(3) Advance cutting-edge research and best practice in the built environment
The scope of this book series is not limited to “management” issues per se
because this then begs the question of what exactly are we managing in the built
environment.Whiletheprimaryfocusisonmanagementissuesinthebuildingand
construction industry, its scope has been extended upstream to the design
management phase and downstream to the post-occupancy facilities management
phase. Management in the built environment also involves other closely allied
disciplines in the areas of economics, environment, legal and technology. Hence,
the starting point of this book series lies with project management, extends into
construction and ends with facilities management. In between this spectrum, there
arealsoothermanagement-relatedissuesthatarealliedwithorrelevanttothebuilt
environment. These can include, for example cost management, disaster manage-
ment, contract management and management of technology.
This book series serves to engage and encourage the generation of new
knowledge in these areas and to offer a publishing platform within which different
strands of management in the built environment can be positioned to promote
synergistic collaboration at their interfaces. This book series also provides a
platform for other authorstobenchmarktheirthoughtstoidentify innovativeideas
that they can further build on to further advance cutting-edge research and best
practice in the built environment.
Ifyouareinterestedinsubmittingaproposalforthisseries,pleasekindlycontact
the Series Editor or the Publishing Editor at Springer:
Low Sui Pheng ([email protected]) or
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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15765
Kazuhito Suzuki Low Sui Pheng
(cid:129)
Japanese Contractors
in Overseas Markets
Bridging Cultural and Communication Gaps
123
Kazuhito Suzuki LowSui Pheng
International Division Department ofBuilding
Kajima Corporation (Japan) National University ofSingapore
Tokyo,Japan Singapore, Singapore
ISSN 2522-0047 ISSN 2522-0055 (electronic)
Managementin the BuiltEnvironment
ISBN978-981-13-7243-8 ISBN978-981-13-7244-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7244-5
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2019936290
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Preface
International construction projects have been increasing significantly in the global
construction market in recent years. As far as the Japanese contractors are con-
cerned, effective communication remains one of the critical problems to overcome
fortheirbusinessoperationsanddevelopmentininternationalconstructionprojects.
Thelowawarenesstowardsculturaldifferencesappearstobetheprincipalcauseof
dysfunctional communication with the various stakeholders related to projects that
displayed behavioursbased ondifferent culturalbackgrounds.Giventhissituation,
itispertinentfortheJapanesecontractorstoenhancetheircurrentaswellasfuture
business operations and development by increasing their awareness of cultural
differencesandappreciatingtheimportanceofimprovingeffectivecommunication.
SingaporehasbeenoneofthelargestoverseasmarketsforJapanesecontractors
formanyyears.TheJapanesecontractorshavehadalonghistoryofengagementin
the Singapore construction industry that stretched all the way back into the 1960s.
Japanese contractors have contributed significantly to infrastructural developments
in Singapore. Hence, this research conducted in Singapore can provide useful
lessons on managing effective communication for managers working for Japanese
contractors in international construction projects.
Hofstede’s national cultural framework was adopted in this present research.
Thisculturalframeworkiswidelyappliedtovariousculturalstudiesinconstruction
project management. The Hofstede’s framework has a better standing based on its
long history since the1970sandtheutilization ofalargerempiricaldata setinthe
study.Hofstede’sframeworkproposedsixnationalculturaldimensionsbyutilizing
comparative scores based on the six dimensions and nationalities. Hofstede’s
framework comprises power distance (PDI), individualism versus collectivism
(IDV), masculinity versus femininity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance (UAI),
long-term orientation versus short-term orientation (LTO) and indulgence versus
restraint (IVR).
Thispresentresearchrevealsapartoftheactualpracticesofmanagementstyles
consideringnationalculturaldifferencesrelatingtomanagersworkingforJapanese
contractors in Singapore as well as the communication weaknesses of current
management practices and styles. This present study was conducted by using
v
vi Preface
questionnairesurvey,casestudiesandvalidationexercisesbasedontheconceptual
framework where it was hypothesized that national cultural attributes could influ-
ence the management factors for communication.
The results of the questionnaire survey and case studies showed significant
relationships between differences of national cultural attributes and management
factorsforcommunicationatvaryingdegrees.Theseresultswerealsovalidatedby
the experts with work experience in the Singapore construction industry for more
than15years.Consequently,theresultsofthisresearchsuggestedthatawarenessof
nationalculturaldifferencesbasedonHofstede’sculturalframeworkwasimportant
foreffectivecommunicationinthecontextoftheconstructionindustry.Inaddition,
the recommendations for addressing the weaknesses of current management prac-
tices and styles for communication were developed based on expert opinions
obtained from interviewees in the case studies and validation exercises. Most
recommendationscouldberegardedasordinalandbasicpracticesformanagement.
Hence, these research results could provide useful lessons for the Japanese con-
tractors in Singapore.
While this book focuses on Japanese contractors in Singapore, we hope it can
provide readers with a better appreciation of the need to bridge cultural and com-
munication gaps when contracting organizations, regardless of their nationalities,
venture into overseas markets.
Tokyo, Japan Kazuhito Suzuki
Singapore Low Sui Pheng
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Background of Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Research Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Aim and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Research Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Research Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6 Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.7 Research Significance and Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.8 Structure of Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 Japanese Construction Industry and Exports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 The Japanese Construction Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 The Japanese Construction Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.2 Licenced Contractors in the Japanese Construction
Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2.3 Subcontract System in the Japanese Construction
Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.4 Employment in the Japanese Construction Industry . . . 20
2.2.5 Safety in the Japanese Construction Industry . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 Overview of Japanese Contractors in the Japanese
Construction Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4 Japanese Contractors in the Overseas Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.1 The Overseas Construction Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.2 Overview of Japanese Contractors in the Overseas
Construction Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.4.3 Japanese Contractors in the Singapore Construction
Market. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4.4 Future of Japanese Contractors in the Overseas
Construction Market. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
vii
viii Contents
2.5 Problems Faced in Communication and Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.5.1 Construction Business Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.5.2 Project Team Members’ Interpersonal Traits
and Attitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5.3 Human Resource Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3 The Construction Industry and International Firms
in Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 The Singapore Construction Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.1 The Singapore Construction Market. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.2 Licensed Contractors and Contractor Registration
System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.3 Employment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.4 Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.5 Green Building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.2.6 Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.3 Foreign Contractors in the Singapore Construction Industry . . . 49
3.3.1 The Roles and Impacts of Foreign Contractors. . . . . . . 49
3.3.2 Chinese Contractors in Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.3.3 Korean Contractors in Singapore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3.4 Japanese Contractors in Singapore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.4 Future of the Singapore Construction Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.4.1 Policies on the Development of Infrastructures. . . . . . . 55
3.4.2 Land Use Concept Plan in Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.4.3 Land Transport Master Plan in Singapore . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.4.4 Planning for Underground Facilities in Singapore. . . . . 57
3.5 Problems Faced in Communication and Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4 National Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2 The Meaning of Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.1 Definitions of Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.2 Levels of Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.2.3 National Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.3 National Cultural Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.3.1 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.3.2 Fons Trompenaars’ Cultural Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.3.3 Schwartz’s Cultural Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.3.4 The GLOBE’s Cultural Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.4 Selection of National Cultural Framework for This Research. . . 71
4.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Contents ix
5 Communication Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2 The Meaning of Communication in Construction . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2.1 Definitions of Communication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.2.2 Theoretical Model of Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.2.3 Level of Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.2.4 Internal and External Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.2.5 Formal and Informal Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3 Communication Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.3.1 Factors Facilitating Informal Communication. . . . . . . . 87
5.3.2 Organization Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.3.3 Leadership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3.4 Team Building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.3.5 Initial Interactions with People from Different
Cultures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.3.6 Communication Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6 Conceptual Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.2 Theoretical Model of National Culture and Communication . . . 99
6.3 Hofstede’s National Cultural Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.3.1 Power Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.3.2 Individualism Versus Collectivism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.3.3 Masculinity Versus Femininity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.3.4 Uncertainty Avoidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.3.5 Long-Term Orientation Versus Short-Term
Orientation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
6.3.6 Indulgence Versus Restraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.4 Management Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.4.1 Organizational Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6.4.2 Leadership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.4.3 Team Building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.4.4 Initial Interaction with People from Different
Cultures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6.4.5 Communication Media and Environment . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.5 Conceptual Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7 Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7.2 Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7.3 Research Model Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
7.4 Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128