A contract manager abroad: cultural awareness in Asia

Western contract managers often enter the Asian construction sector with personal, as well as corporate ways of working that will almost certainly not be a perfect fit with both the new environment within which they have to perform and the dispersed multicultural contractual teams within which interaction is invariably necessary on large complex projects. The management style expected and required in Asia is unique and, for many, appears to be unstructured, unsystemised and autocratic, with varying strains of Chinese-based ethics and beliefs, including networking, trust, face and avoidance of confrontation heavily influencing management practices. To avoid unnecessary problems, managers need to overcome not only the obvious language difficulties but also differing corporate cultures, work methods, national cultures and beliefs. These problems can be best overcome by adopting a holistic approach, collective work style, understanding the importance of hard and soft management, and by accepting that neither the Western way nor the Eastern way is the only way to manage.