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Dr. M.K.Trivedi, Dr. R.K.Kansal, Manoj Sharma / International Journal of Engineering
Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 2, Issue 4, July-August 2012, pp.1377-1381
Cultural Risk Assessmentin Construction Projects Using
Analytic Network Process
Dr. M.K.Trivedi, Dr. R.K.Kansal, Manoj Sharma
Departmentof civil Engg. Madhav Institute of Technology, Gwalior

Abstract:
The aim of this paper is determining the CULTURE AND CULTURAL RISK –
cultural risk factor of construction projects. The According to the definition of Edward B
risk involved in construction projects has been Taylor, “ Cultural taken in its wide ethnographic
identified and arranged in a systematic sense is that complex whole which includes
hierarchical structure. This paper is to define knowledge , belief ,art ,morals ,law , custom and
cultural risk, identify its sources and build a any other capabilities and habits acquired by man
model for the assessment of cultural risk related as a member of society.” The UNESCO defines
to construction projects. An analytic network cultural as the “ set of distinctive spiritual , material
process (ANP) MODEL, Which may be used as , intellectual and emotional feature of society or a
a decision support tool for cultural risk social group and that it encompass , in addition to
assessment will be developed. art and literature , lifestyle , ways of living together
Key words:AnalyticNetwork process, Cultural , value systems and beliefs “.Kroeber and
risk, Multi-Cultural Environment, Construction Kluckhohn (1952). Compiled a list of more than
project 200 differentdefinitions of culture in their book. In
this study , the term culture is used to reflect the
Introduction– beliefs , customs ,habits and ways of conducting
To analyze risk from a project point of business in a society that will have an impact on
view, it is essential to identify how the project is hone a construction project is conducted and
likely to be impacted by the country factor and the manages risk is defined as any event factor that
specific market condition ( Hastak and Shaked, involves either uncertainty or vagueness that may
2000 ). The studies focus on the political risk have an impact on project objectives.The risk
assessment on the expense of the cultural risk culture in construction project represents the sum
coupled with working in a multi-cultural of spiritual cultural, system culture, behavior
environment. The first approach considers the culture and material culture formed in project
overall effect of socialcultural, and religious management gradually, which should be accepted
difference as part of the country risk, while the and followed by all members. Risk culture will
other takes into account the effect of cultural bring new ideas, new thinking ways, and form an
differences on the working environment. One of open, flexible method of risk of risk management
the comprehensive models is ICRAM – I to drive the members to participate in risk
(International construction risk assessment model – management. Risk culture is an invisible hand
I)which was developed by Hastak&Shaked (2000). which can improve the cohesion and
The model analyzes risk of working in international competitiveness.
markets in three levels: Macro level, market level,
project level. The study also uses AHP and Methodology -
considers cultural differences as a risk factor The study was carried on through the following
without elaborating the sources of cultural main steps.
differences. There are some studies which analyzed (1) Risk identification of cultural risk factor
cultural Conflicts in some detail, an e.g. of which is associated with international construction
Baba (1996) .The conducted studies mainly analyze through literature review and experience.
cultural risk at the country level and do not (2) Developing a network structure that intender
consider the impact of cultural risk on either the risk factors and international between
market or project level indicators (Hastak&Shaked, them.
2000) therefore the aim of the study is to develop a (3) Conducting brain storming sessions and
comprehensive model for the assessment of using ANP to calculate the contributions of
cultural risk related to construction project which each risk factor to the overall cultural risk.
are performed in multi-cultural environmental. (A) Identification of cultural risk factors –
Cultural risk will be define and sources of cultural Risk may be seen as source, consequence or
risk will be identified will be developed using probability of occurrence of a negative event .
analytic network process (ANP). In consistency results from mixing the
different perspectives of risk (Dikmen and

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Birgonul, 2006). The literature related to Shaked, 2000 ) were tried to be integrated into
international construction was reviewed to a comprehensive model. Identified risk factor
identify the potential source of cultural risk, were the first category included the risk factors
Individual sources of cultural risk cited in associated with host country and the other one
different research studies ( Pheng and Yuquan with the project environment
2002 , Han and Diekmann 2001 , Hastak and

Development of the conceptual model:

Project Cultural Risk

Project & Construction Environment
Country Risk Specific Risk

Cultural Risk
Cultural Risk Related to Social Cultural Risk Related to Project
Related to Cultural Environment and Construction Environment
Distance

The term “ cultural Distance” adopts the national cultural framework proposed by Hofstede who specifically
examined the role of national culture in work-related values and information system design.Hofstede
constructed his frame work on a review of sociological and anthropological,theories and work (Harvey and
Francis, 1997).These are risk factors related specifically to the project in a specific country (Hastak and Shaked,
2000).The influence of the country risk (Cultural Distance and Social Environment) on the identified project
risk factors is also included in the model.

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Cultural Risk Factors
Criteria Sub-Criteria Risk Factors Description
Cultural Risk Power Distance The nature of human relationships in term of
Related To hierarchy.
Cultural Uncertainty It is concerned with how cultures adopts to
Distance Avoidance changes and cope with uncertainty.
Tradition This factor considers the risk of working where
different traditions may exist
Country Risk Cultural Risk Language Language barrier is the risk related to the
Related to languages of the host country
socio Legislation This factor is related to the risk associated with
Environment the traditional methods used for solving dispute
factors and the ruling law in case of conflicts.
Religion Risks due to religious between the contract and
the host country.
Construction Working in different cultures may lead to
Project & Cultural Risk Method and inability to make use of the previous experience
construction Related to Resources of the contractor which is risk related to
environment project and construction methods and resources.
specific risk construction Requirements This may be due to the adoption of different
environment standards or un specify regulation

ANALYATIC NETWORK PROCESS importancewhere a score of 9 indicates dominance of
MODEL : the component under consideration over the
In this study based on the conceptual model, an ANP comparison component.. Once the pairwise
model is developed as a decision support tool for comparison is completed for the whole network, the
cultural risk assessment. ANP is a general theory of vector corresponding to the maximum eigenvalue of
relative measurement used to derive composite the constructed matrices is computed and a priority
priority ratio scales from individual ratio scales that vector is obtained. The priority value of the
represent relative measurements of the influences of concerned element is found by normalizing this
elements that interact with respect to control criteria. vector. In this assessment process, a problem may
This step aim to perform pair-wise comparison occur in the consistency of the pair-wise
among the risk factors. In ANP, pair wise comparison comparisons. The consistency ratio provides a
of the element in each level is conducted with respect numerical assessment, If the calculated ratio is less
to their relative importance towards their control than 0.10, consistency is considered to be
criterion.ANP has been adopted to facilitate several satisfactory. The conceptual model is imported to the
multi-criteria decision-making problems such as ANP software, Super Decision (developed by
project selection ( Lee and Kim 2000, Meade and Adams, W.J. and Satty, R.W.),and the pairwise
Presley 2002, Cheng and Li 2005, Dikmen comparison matrices have been prepared and solved
et.al.2007) Satty (2005) has suggested a scale of 1 to using this software. The aim of constructing pairwise
9 while comparing two components. A score of 1 matrices is to find out the relative weight of the
indicates that the two options have equal identified risk factors.

The fundamental scale for making judgments (Saaty,2005).
Intensity of important Definition Explanation
1 Equal importance Two activities contribute equally to the objective
2 Weak importance
3 Moderate importance Experience and judgment slightly favor one activity over another
4 Between moderate and
strong
5 Strong importance Experience and judgment strongly favor one activity over
another
6 Between strong and
very strong
7 Very strong importance An activity is favored one activity over another is of the highest
possible order of affirmation
8 Very, very strong
9 Extreme importance The evidence favoring one activity over another is of the highest
possible order of affirmation

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In the assessment process, a problem may occur Several authors have suggested the required
regarding the consistency of the pairwise algorithms to calculate CR (Cheng and Li, 2005). It
comparisons. The consistency ratio (CR) provides a is assumed that if the calculated consistency ratio is
numerical assessment of how inconsistent these less than 0 .10, consistency is considered to be
evaluations might be (BU-Qammaz et al.,2006). satisfactory (Saaty, 2003).

Comparisons with respect to country risk node in sub-criteria social environment factors.
Language Legislation Religion
Tradition 1/5 1/7 4
Language 1/2 5
Legislation 8

There are three super- matrices un-weighted super of a control hierarchy or network of criteria and sub-
matrix, weighted super- matrix and the limit super criteria that control the interactions in the considered
matrix associated with the network. The un system. The second component of the ANP is a
weighted super matrix contains the local priorities network of influences among the elements and
derived from the pair-wise comparison throughout clusters. The network is dependent on the criterion,
the network. The weighted super matrix is obtained as for each criterion the network of influence is
by multiplying all the elements in a component of different, and a super matrix of limiting influence is
the un weighted super matrix by the corresponding computed for each control criterion. Then, each of
weight. The limit super matrix is derived by raising these super matrices is weighted by the priority of
the weighted super matrix to its powers and its control criterion and the results are synthesized
multiplication process is discontinued when the through addition of all the control criteria (Saaty,
number becomes the same for all columns. 2003).In this study, all calculation were performed
Development of the Analytic Network Process by Super Decisions software. Computations
Model with the Super DecisionSoftware: priorities Command was used to determine the
The ANP is implemented in the software super priorities of all the nodes in the network. The final
decision. It was demonstrated that the ANP is a weights obtained as a result of these calculations.
compound of two essential parts. The first consists
Important weights of cultural risk factors as obtained from ANP
Risk Factor Weights
Traditions 0.1138
Language 0.0755
Religion 0.0630
Uncertainty Avoidance 0.0507
Requirements 0.0770
Legislation 0.0872
Power Distance 0.0770
Construction Methods and Resources 0.0668
The obtained weight indicates that the most critical to report universally accepted views on major
risk factor related to cultural differences. Traditions reasons of cultural risk but to propose a framework
are risk factor related to the behavior of people and for cultural risk assessment. The proposed model
legal practices in the host country. These results can be used by professionals as a decision-support
represent that the factor which are directly related tool, where we can utilize the suggested weights for
to the working environment are considered more the specified risk factors.Risk culture has a direct
important than the other factors that do not have a impact on the effectiveness of risk management;
direct influence on the project specific even the success or failure of project management.
environment. The social environment factors have Risk culture can change the member’s inherent
slightly more influences on the working concept and guide them to enhance the risk
environment than the cultural distance factors. resistance of the project. Risk culture construction
must not ignore team member’s body role in the
CONCLUSIONS: project.
In this study, a comprehensive conceptual
model was developed to identify the cultural risk
sources and an application of ANP was
demonstrated as a cultural risk assessment tool in
construction projects. The aim of this paper is not

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References-

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