Cross-Cultural Management and Quality Performance: Chinese Construction Firms in Nigeria

449 Pages·2015·11.831 MB·English

by  Yomi Babatunde, Sui Pheng Low (auth.)

Yomi Babatunde · Sui Pheng Low
Cross-Cultural
Management
and Quality
Performance
Chinese Construction Firms in Nigeria
Cross-Cultural Management
and Quality Performance
Yomi Babatunde Sui Pheng Low
(cid:129)
Cross-Cultural Management
and Quality Performance
Chinese Construction Firms in Nigeria
123
YomiBabatunde Sui PhengLow
ConstructionEconomics and Management Department of Building
Universityof theWitwatersrand National Universityof Singapore
Johannesburg Singapore
South Africa Singapore
ISBN 978-981-287-361-3 ISBN 978-981-287-362-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-362-0
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014958657
SpringerSingaporeHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
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Preface
China’s economic reforms have seen the country engaging with the rest of the
world, particularly resource-rich countries, to meet its huge resource needs and to
attract foreign direct investments. China has developed its construction industry’s
competitiveness from its need to service the world’s most populous and urbanized
nation. Chinese construction firms (hereinafter referred to as Chinese firms)
undertakeinfrastructureconstructioninalmostallthe55Africancountries.Nigeria
hasbecomeChina’sfourthlargestinvestmentpartnerandthesecondlargestexport
marketinAfrica.Nonetheless,Chinesefirmsfacechallengesinthequalityoftheir
construction services in Nigeria. Consequently, cross-cultural differences between
Chinese and Nigerians and corresponding impacts on the perceptions of quality of
construction services need to be investigated.
By integrating two perspectives including Hofstede’s five national cultural
dimensions (NCDs) and the eight quality management principles toward total
quality management (TQM) implementation, this book develops and presents a
conceptualframework(CF)toachievetheresearchaim.TheCFisunderpinnedby
the bi-directional and culture-specific relationship between national culture and
TQM implementation. The theoretical framework developed postulates that
Chinese firms that are able to identify and manage differences in the influences of
national culture on TQM implementation are perceived as firms with good quality
performance in Nigeria.
The empirical findings presented in this book were generated from fieldwork
conducted in Nigeria. The research methods were based on questionnaire survey,
Delphi technique, and case studies; data collection instruments were purpose-
designed questionnaires for different stages of the study; and data were collected
using e-mail, face-to-face interview, and observations. In total, 48 and 80 com-
pleted questionnaires were, respectively, received from the Chinese and Nigerians
withpriorworkingexperiencewitheachotherinNigeria.Atthedataanalysisstage,
relative rank revealed customer focus, leadership, and people involvement as the
top-3rankedsignificantTQMprinciplestoachievinggoodqualitybothamongthe
Chinese and Nigerians.
v
vi Preface
Further,FriedmantestsrevealednosignificantdifferenceamongtheChineseon
the perceived significance of the TQM principles and NCDs to achieving good
quality in their firms and among the Nigerian firms. Among the Nigerians,
Friedmantestsonlyrevealedasignificant difference intheirperceivedsignificance
of the TQM principles to achieving good quality in their firms, but no significant
difference in their perceptions for the Chinese firms. Using the frequency of ranks
1–3,theWilcoxonranksumtestsshowedthatthereisasignificantdifferenceinthe
perceivedinfluences ofTQM principlesand NCDs onquality management among
the Chinese and the Nigerians. The study also found a significant association
betweenHofstede’sNCDscoresforChinaandNigeriaandtheirperceptionsofthe
influence of national culture on TQM implementation.
Following2-roundsurveysamongtheChineseandtheNigerians,30pairseach
ofimportantTQMandNCDattributes,beingculture-specificTQM,weregenerated
among the Chinese (presented as Matrix 1A) and Nigerians (presented as Matrix
2A),ofwhich18pairswerefoundtobecommon(presentedasMatrix3)aftercross
analysis. Following a 3-round Delphi and four case studies and triangulating the
resultsofthesurvey,Delphiandcasestudies,the18commonpairs(aspresentedin
Matrix 3) were analyzed thematically. Matrix 3 consists of 10 pairs relating to the
statedneedsoftheNigeriansandthebasicrequirementsoftheChineseinNigeria;
4 pairs were found relating to the implied needs of the Nigerians and the strategic
abilities of the Chinese in Nigeria, and the last 4 pairs were found relating to the
potential needs of the Nigerians and risk appetites of the Chinese in Nigeria.
Matrix 3 as presented was developed into a model based on the thematic cate-
goriesforvalidationwithadditionaltwocasestudiesthatconfirmedtheprediction,
predictive capability, and effectiveness of the 18-pair model. The quality man-
agement assessment matrix (QMAM) developed in this book underpinned the
model. It is recommended that the Chinese firms in Nigeria adopt the model for
strategicdecisionmakingonthestatedneeds,impliedneeds,andpotentialneedsto
minimize conflicts related to their quality. Other non-Chinese firms can also adopt
the model for insights into important considerations when engaging with the
Chinese and the Nigerians. The QMAM developed and presented in this book can
beadoptedbyfutureresearcherstoinvestigatetheculture-specificTQMframework
involving some another countries to further complement and validate the QMAM.
Keywords Chinese, Conflict, Construction, Model, National culture, Nigerians,
Service quality performance, Total quality management
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Research Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Knowledge Gap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Research Aim and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4.1 Research Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4.2 Research Scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4.3 Research Methodologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5 Research Significance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5.1 Book Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Review of Literature on TQM and National Culture . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 International Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Quality Management and Quality Management System. . . . . . . 12
2.2.1 Quality Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.2 Total Quality Management (TQM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.3 ISO 9000 and TQM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.4 The Future of TQM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 Culture, National Culture, and National Cultural Dimensions. . . 15
2.3.1 Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.2 Forms of Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.3 National Cultural Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.4 Hofstede’s Sixth National Cultural Dimension. . . . . . . . 18
2.4 Culture as a Source of Conflict in International Construction. . . 19
2.4.1 Managing Culture in International Construction. . . . . . . 19
2.4.2 Cultural Misunderstandings in International
Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.4.3 Interaction Between Culture, Perceptions,
and Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4.4 Conflict Intensities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4.5 Conflict-handling Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
vii
viii Contents
2.5 National Culture and TQM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5.1 Influence of National Culture
on TQM Implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5.2 National Culture and TQM Implementation. . . . . . . . . . 25
2.5.3 Case Studies of TQM Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.5.4 Future Directions of TQM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 Construction Industry in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Overview of China. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2.1 International Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.2 Demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.3 Climate and Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.4 Legal System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3 Development of the Construction Industry in China . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.1 Overview of China’s Construction Industry. . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.2 Domestic and International Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.3 Major Players in China’s Construction Industry. . . . . . . 35
3.3.4 Challenges in China’s Construction Industry. . . . . . . . . 35
3.3.5 Project Management in China’s
Construction Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4 Foreign Investments in China’s Construction Industry. . . . . . . . 37
3.4.1 Key Drivers for Foreign Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4.2 The Chinese Market and Considerations
for the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4.3 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Threats (SWOT) of China’s Market. . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.5 Chinese Firms’ Development and Strategies
in Overseas Market. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.5.1 China’s Export of Construction Services. . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.5.2 Chinese Overseas Business Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.5.3 Chinese Special Economic Zones Strategy . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.5.4 Chinese Differentiation Strategy from Other
Foreign Firms Overseas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4 Construction Industry in Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2 Overview of Nigeria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.1 International Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.2 Demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.3 Climate and Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.4 Legal System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Contents ix
4.3 Development of the Construction Industry in Nigeria . . . . . . . . 48
4.3.1 Overview of Nigeria’s Construction Industry. . . . . . . . . 48
4.3.2 Domestic and International Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3.3 Major Players in Nigeria’s Construction Industry. . . . . . 50
4.3.4 Challenges in the Nigerian Construction Industry. . . . . . 51
4.3.5 Project Management in Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.4 Foreign Investments in Nigeria’s Construction Industry. . . . . . . 53
4.4.1 Key Drivers for Foreign Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.4.2 Nigeria’s Market and Considerations for the Future . . . . 53
4.4.3 Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Threats (SWOT) of the Nigerian Market. . . . . . . . . 54
4.5 Nigeria’s Export of Construction Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.5.1 Nigeria’s Globalization Tendencies
and Construction Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5 Appraisal of the Relationships Between the Chinese
and the Nigerian Construction Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.1 Brief Comparison of the Chinese and Nigerian Markets . . . . . . 59
5.2 Historical Development of Relationships Between
China and Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 Diplomatic and Economic Relations Between
China and Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.4 Foreign Direct Investments of Chinese Firms in Nigeria . . . . . . 61
5.5 Operations of Chinese Firms in Nigeria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.6 Quality of Services by the Chinese Firms in Nigeria . . . . . . . . 64
5.7 Cross-Cultural Differences Between the Chinese
and the Nigerians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6 Conceptual Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.1 Culture-quality Conflict Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.2 Quality Dynamics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.2.1 Organizations Defining Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.2.2 Customers Defining Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.2.3 Establishing Standards for Quality—The International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) Approach. . . . . . 70
6.2.4 Establishing Standards for Quality—ISO and TQM . . . . 71
6.2.5 Proposed Quality Dynamics Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.3 Cross-cultural Influences on Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.3.2 Conflicts Within a TQM Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
x Contents
6.4 Cross-cultural Quality Implementation Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.4.1 A Firm’s Competitiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.4.2 Porter’s Diamond Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.4.3 Applicability of Porter’s Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.4.4 Global Competitiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.4.5 Competitiveness, Productivity, and Quality . . . . . . . . . . 77
6.4.6 Quality and Productivity in the Construction
and Non-construction Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.4.7 Implications for International Construction
and Proposed Cross-cultural Quality
Implementation Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.5 Proposed Quality Management Assessment Matrix. . . . . . . . . . 81
6.5.1 TQM and National Culture Between
Two International Firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.5.2 Identifying Significant TQM Principles and National
Cultural Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
7 Research Design and Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.2 Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.2.1 Common Research Designs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7.2.2 Adopted Research Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7.3 Data Type, Source, Location, and Accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7.3.1 Primary Data and Secondary Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7.3.2 Adopted Data Type, Source, Location,
and Accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.4 Unit of Analysis and Selection of Study Elements . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.4.1 Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.4.2 Adopted Unit of Analysis and Selection
of Study Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.5 Data Collection Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.5.1 Variables and Measurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.5.2 Methods of Data Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7.5.3 Adopted Methods of Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
7.6 Data Collection Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.6.1 Data Collection Instrument and Pilot Testing. . . . . . . . . 107
7.6.2 Survey Questionnaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.6.3 Delphi Survey Questionnaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.6.4 Round 3 Delphi Survey Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.6.5 Case Study Interview Questionnaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113