PERSONALITY TRAITS AND CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE OF PROJECT MANAGERS AS PREDICTORS FOR PROJECT SUCCESS

Abstract

In an increasingly globalised world, interactions with foreign workers become a necessity in the construction industry. Cultural intelligence (CQ) affects the performance of people in dealing with cross-cultural interactions. Personality traits are intrinsic and can also affect such interactions. The problem is that how personality traits affect cultural intelligence is not known. It is also not known if these two factors factilite or hamper performance of a project. The purpose of this study is to find out the association between personality traits, cultural intelligence and project performance and to recommend strategies for improving cultural intelligence levels of project managers. Using a two-pronged research design – questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews, this study finds that respondents with high CQ had personality traits such as extraversion, conscientiousness and neuroticism. It was also found that project managers with low CQ manage projects that have high schedule overruns; project managers with high CQ managed to achieve cost savings while those with low CQ had cost overruns; quality of the projects were similar regardless of the CQ scores; and owner satisfaction for project managers with high CQ was slightly higher. It was found that conflicts mainly arise due to poor communications and that the level of initiative amongst foreign workers needs to be improved. Strategies for managing foreign workers include explanation; employee motivation; election of representative; and use of visual aids. This study concludes that personality traits and cultural intelligence can act as predictors of project success. It also serves as a guide in dealing with cross-cultural encounters for sub-contractor firms.