How Does Culture Affect The Construction Industry

Culture really plays an important factor for an individual in making decision especially for individual that involves in construction industry. In construction industry, focusing on the payment process, involves a lot of culture and attitude that will give impact to the progress of the project. Yitmen and Taneri (2005) viewed culture as a really strong element that can determine the overall effectiveness and success of a firm because it can affects all aspects of life from the way of the interaction, the performance of work, the way they dress up and the types of decisions they made. This is strongly proven by the survey carried out by Yitmen and Taneri that showed that the cultural changes influenced the most in the performance of construction
It is true that Client normally has this kind of assumption and not fully understands the situation especially the client who does not have construction background and do not know how it works. It is the duty for the Consultant to advice such Client so that both parties can work together and achieves the ultimate goal. The Client also needs to get rid of such assumption and really oblige the contract provision when it comes to payment. It is also the question of the morality of the Client as a human because how can we actually delay the payment to the person that already done the best that they could to do their job for us. It is definitely the client responsibility to pay on time. Kho.M.Y. and Hamzah Abdul Rahman (2010) revealed another culture that being practice in our construction industry that the Contractors will accept the late payment from clients as they are always at the mercy of the clients. When it comes to payment, the Contractors are being treated like beggars. Either it is on time payment or late payment, the Contractor has just to accept as it is because they rely on the payment to continue their work and to pay for their overhead. The Contractors should stop practicing that culture and be strict when it comes to payment. It is not
Most of the Consultant put aside the preparing payment work because the work itself is a very tedious work and requires a maximum attention, because it involves the Client’s money, therefore it is understandable that why most of the Consultant tend to postpone the job. According to Wa’el Alaghbari, Mohd. Razali A. Kadir, Azizah Salim, Ernawati (2007) “From the consultant’s side, the first component that seems to be the cause of delay in construction projects is ineffective or lack of supervision, followed by slowness in giving instructions and lack of consultant’s experience”. A survey carried out by Wa’el Alaghbari, Mohd. Razali A. Kadir, Azizah Salim and Ernawati proved that the ineffectiveness of Consultant was one of the reasons of delay in a construction project. We can see that the effectiveness of Consultant with their job also play an important role in delivering a successful project. Consultant need to change their attitude in work and be more productive especially when it comes to prepare payment for Contractor because they must be paid on time to deliver a quality work. Consultant need to understand the important of preparing payment to the Contractor and not classify the work as not important compare to other works. Give payment early can prevent the