Multinational Engineering Consortia: Selecting Team Members

Abstract

Increasingly in our integrated global economy, civil engineers are being assigned as team members in multinational consortia. Trying to work effectively in a cross-cultural setting is stressful and potentially debilitating; hence, care must be taken to select team members capable of adapting successfully to cultural change. Various predictors of success are provided to assist North American firms in selecting engineers and their families for international assignments. In addition, a number of steps are suggested to ease their transition into the multinational team and adaptation to the host country. Civil engineering programs at universities and professional development provided by technical societies can contribute to improved multinational consortia by “internationalizing” their offerings. This step reduces ethnocentrism and promotes a deeper respect for the needs and approaches used by engineers from other cultures.