Investigation of the impact of national culture on health and safety applications in international construction projects

The project team consisting of different national cultures, has the potential to directly effect health and safety practices in international construction projects. The purpose of this study is to search the impact of different national cultures on health and safety behaviours in the international construction projects in respect of Hofstede's cultural dimensions. For this study, survey questions were selected including six cultural dimensions of Hofstede; the engineers, managers and directors who have been working in international construction projects were questioned in the survey and in conclusion of the survey, the datas were analysed by using SPSS programme in order to evaluate the relationships and correlations for national culture and safety. Quantitative part of the study was the survey with 55 questions, out of demographic section, which were related to Hofstede's cultural dimensions and safety behaviours. Eighty one participants from twenty different countries participated to the survey. For the qualitative part of the study, face to face interviews were conducted with six managers from six different countries experienced in international projects.