Dual Impact of Cultural and Linguistic Diversity on Project Network Performance

Abstract

As the design and construction industry globalizes, it becomes increasingly important to understand the impact of cultural and linguistic differences on performance. Researchers have recently begun examining issues associated with design and construction globalization. However, there is little empirical evidence of how differences in national culture and language affect performance in global project networks. This paper presents the results of an experiment comparing the performance of multicultural and monocultural simulated project networks over time. We found cultural and linguistic diversity to have a dual impact. We observed such diversity to have a negative impact on initial performance; however, culturally and linguistically diverse project networks studied achieved better adaptation performance on average. The results suggest that, although there are initial performance liabilities, sustained interaction of culturally and linguistically diverse networks may ultimately result in multicultural networks outperforming monocultural networks. This finding has implications for the effective design and management of global projects. It also contributes a new theoretical perspective to ongoing theoretical debates on cross-cultural performance.