IMPLEMENTATION OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURAL PRACTICES AMONGST MULTINATIONAL CONSTRUCTION FIRMS IN SOUTH-EASTERN NIGERIA

Purpose: Culture is a set of learned mores, values, beliefs, attitudes, and a vital Critical Success Factor (CSF) that impacts project success or failure. The major challenges facing Multinational Construction Firms (MCF’s) working across borders are being able to develop cultural practices that balance global competitiveness and multinational flexibility. Hence MCF’s must develop cultural sensitivity and ability to manage and leverage learning to build future capabilities. Therefore, this study aims to assess the level of implementation of organisational culture amongst MCF’s in the South-Eastern region of Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach: 307 well-structured questionnaires and 20 semi-structured interviews were administered to construction professionals and firm representatives randomly sampled amongst MCF’s across the South-Eastern States of Nigeria. Data analysis was through frequencies, percentile, Mean Item Score (MIS), and Kruskal-Wallis H Test. Findings: The study found that maintaining cultural standards and adhering strictly to due process (MS = 4.73), integrating the various subsystems of the organisation (MS = 4.52), and making significant changes to the organisation (MS = 4.47) were the top three (3) ranked overall Organisational Cultural Practices (OCP’s) implemented by MCFs. The study also found that 7.14% of OCP’s had very high level while 92.86% had high level of implementation. There is significant difference as firm location has great influence on the extent of implementation of OCP’s among MCFs. However, the desired very high level implementation has not been met across all States in the South-East region of Nigeria. Research limitations/Implications: The limitations include the insecurity situation in the South-Eastern region of Nigeria hindering frequent inter-State traveling of the researchers, difficulty in assessing staff and material documents from MCF’s during the questionnaire and interview session, and difficulty in assessing confidential information from MCF’s by non company management staff. Practical implications: The study recommends that MCF’s ensure a very high level of implementation of OCP’s is attained by directing the decisions and behaviour of management and employees, and focusing on excellent planning and control techniques (knowledge management) in the individual States of the South-East region of Nigeria. Originality/value: The study complements existing literature on the subject area by bridging research gap on the level of implementation of OCP’s amongst MCF’s in the South-Eastern region of Nigeria.