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The construction industry has been criticized, in many countries around the world, for not keeping pace with developments in the rest of the economy. One of the key issues the construction industry needs to address is how to become “customer oriented”. This paper argues that the concept of customer orientation in construction has been influenced by the passive approach to product definition adopted by professional advisors and consultants. The paper will examine the current knowledge of the customer orientation concept and present a research model that can be used to examine the effectiveness of current practices in providing satisfactory products and services to customers. The paper will report the results of an investigation into the effectiveness of existing methods, practices and philosophies deployed by organizations involved in construction in identifying customer needs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of cultural competence on the ability of project managers to lead international development projects successfully.

An empirical qualitative research was applied and a case study approach was chosen. In this case, the researcher followed an international project manager amongst the Maasai people in Kenya for six weeks. In addition to field observations, this study conducted 12 in-debt interviews and arranged several informal focus groups to discuss observed issues cross-culturally.

Findings indicate that the cultural competence supports a process that might increase the awareness and knowledge of contextual factors that can improve the project managers’ ability to establish relationships, communicate and approach challenges and opportunities more effectively.

There is very little research on the issue of multi-culturalism in the non-government development project environment. The outcome of this research is expected to stimulate further interest in the subject and encourage far-reaching research, which can provide a reliable future guide for PM’s and other decision makers in international non-government development projects.