Organisational culture of joint venture projects: a case study of an international JV construction project in Hong Kong

Organisational culture involves cognition, affect and behaviour and reflects customary thinking, feeling and acting as people learn to cope with their environment. Behaviours of organisations are dependent on the decision and business strategy of its top management and are greatly influenced by national culture. The case study investigates the organisational culture of an international Joint Venture (JV) project that pools resources from three partners with different cultural backgrounds (UK, Hong Kong and mainland China) and one funding partner which does not allocate personnel to the JV. The JV exhibits cultural characteristics which show a synergy of elements from the constituent partners but the changes/differences in culture profiles may be derived from the national culture of the dominant partner. The organisational cultures of the parent companies are consistent with their own national cultural characteristics but the JV organisational culture is highly influenced by the dominant national culture of the management team.