Browsing by Author "Samaraweera, AUAA"

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    item: Conference-Full-text
    Conceptual framework for understanding construction project culture: a literature review
    (Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Samaraweera, AUAA; Sandanayake, YG; Senaratne, S; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
    Complex human behaviours and thoughts bound by the complex construction activities have made the topic “construction project culture” an ambiguous area in the construction management literature. Despite of a several few attempts, definition of the construction project culture still remains as an area to be unveiled. This paper attempts to provide a conceptual framework for understanding construction project culture by highlighting few questions to be answered in the process of defining a project culture. The initial question raised is; ‘what cultural manifestations in deed represent construction project culture?’ next; ‘how does construction project culture exists: its structure?’ and, finally; ‘how does construction project culture emerges?’. These questions have been answered by an extensive literature review emphasising; underlying assumptions to give the true representation of construction project culture which is structured in sub-cultural groups that could be analysed in integrated, differentiated and fragmented perspectives and arguing its emergence to be with the project team efforts of answering internal integration and external adaptation problems of the project team itself. Further research of this paper will aim developing methodological frameworks to carry out empirical studies to answer the highlighted research questions and to bring empirical evidence to what the construction project culture is.
  • Thumbnail Image
    item: Conference-Abstract
    Conceptual framework for understanding construction project culture: a literature review
    Samaraweera, AUAA; Sandanayake, YG; Senaratne, S
    Complex human behaviours and thoughts bound by the complex construction activities have made the topic “construction project culture” an ambiguous area in the construction management literature. Despite of a several few attempts, definition of the construction project culture still remains as an area to be unveiled. This paper attempts to provide a conceptual framework for understanding construction project culture by highlighting few questions to be answered in the process of defining a project culture. The initial question raised is; ‘what cultural manifestations in deed represent construction project culture?’ next; ‘how does construction project culture exists: its structure?’ and, finally; ‘how does construction project culture emerges?’. These questions have been answered by an extensive literature review emphasising; underlying assumptions to give the true representation of construction project culture which is structured in sub-cultural groups that could be analysed in integrated, differentiated and fragmented perspectives and arguing its emergence to be with the project team efforts of answering internal integration and external adaptation problems of the project team itself. Further research of this paper will aim developing methodological frameworks to carry out empirical studies to answer the highlighted research questions and to bring empirical evidence to what the construction project culture is.
  • Thumbnail Image
    item: Thesis-Abstract
    Framework for analysis of cultural basic assumptions of public sector construction projects
    Samaraweera, AUAA; Sandanayake, YG
    Cultural differences cause conflicts among construction project participants, deterring success of the projects. Understanding such different cultural manifestations could help removing misunderstandings among sub-cultural groups and removing formal irrationalities. Among different cultural manifestations, basic assumptions better explain a cultural context as unconscious psychological processes in mind, which conceptualise culture as a root metaphor as opposed to culture as a variable. Knowledge on basic assumptions could help to predict the behaviours of project participants in a given situation, contributing for better negotiations, change management and conflict management among team members. Thus, this research aims to develop a methodology to determine the public sector building construction project culture in Sri Lanka, by analysing underlying basic assumptions. The literature synthesis based on construction and management literature led to define construction project culture and identify a methodology to derive basic assumptions by extending Value Orientation Theory (VOT). Positioning this research in interpretive research paradigm, descripto-explanatory case study was adopted as the research strategy. Three public sector building construction projects were selected as the cases, using theoretical sampling strategy. Construction project culture was considered as the main unit of analysis. Cases were restricted to traditional method contracts, which were commonly used in Sri Lankan public sector building construction projects. Team setting of the selected projects consisted of public sector clients, public sector consultants and private sector contractors. Nine semi-structured interviews, observation of two progress review meetings and documentation review per case were used for data triangulation. During data collection, responses for internal integration and external adaptation problems of each project were questioned and observed. Code based content analysis was used in data analysis. Patterns of underlying basic assumptions were derived to determine the basic assumptions of each dominant sub-cultural group of contractor, consultant and client pertaining to eleven cultural dimensions. More insight into the construction project culture could be reached through the analysis of basic assumptions in integration (shared view of basic assumptions), differentiation (basic assumptions shared only in sub-cultures) and fragmentation (ambiguities in basic assumptions) perspectives. A guide to determine basic assumptions of public sector building construction projects in Sri Lanka was designed by mapping the identified basic assumptions with ten key features of external cultural setting. This research mainly contributed to the existing knowledge domain of construction project culture. It demonstrated how VOT could be used to extract basic assumptions to understand construction project culture. Research findings highlighted the possible conflicting and consistent/compatible basic assumptions among client, contractor and consultant, which could bring in negative and positive implications to project. The guide designed could be effectively used for project decision making during change initiatives, conflicting situations and negotiation processes. Further research of this study suggested a longitudinal study along the construction project life cycle, to understand how basic assumptions emerged from new learnings and transformation of culture happened to understand the dynamism of culture.
  • Thumbnail Image
    item: Conference-Full-text
    Understanding project culture in construction: a literature synthesis
    (2012-06) Samaraweera, AUAA; Senaratne, S; Samaraweera, A.U.A.A., & Senaratne, S. (2012). Understanding project culture in construction: a literature synthesis. In S. Senaratne & Y.G. Sandanayake (Eds.), Global challenges in construction industry (pp. 314-322). Ceylon Institute of Builders. https://ciobwcs.com/downloads/WCS2012-Proceedings.pdf; Senaratne, S
    Construction industry being a project-based industry, understanding nature of project culture is of paramount importance. Culture at project level seems less researched; possibly due to understanding of project culture seems a tedious task since it is being shaped through different levels of cultures; national, industrial, organisational, professional and many other factors situational to a given project team. However, recent past shows some studies attempting to elaborate project culture in construction context. Some researchers tend to identify construction project culture through theories of organisational culture. This paper attempts to understand nature of project culture in construction through these extant literatures and also reveals limitations of these studies. Further, the study identifies some unique features related to a construction project, which challenges identifying a unique culture at project level in construction. These main unique features include: the fixed duration of the project; adoption of traditional method of procurement; entrance of key members to the project from time to time and effective communication. Further research will aim to explore this aspect fully in the light of these challenges