Abstract
Foreign engineering and construction professionals perceive American expatriates as lacking basic knowledge with regards to their country's language, culture, customs, politics, and corporate structures. The purpose of this study was to address the issue of whether the perceptions of foreign nationals differ by their occupations, by working relationships with American expatriates, and by the positions American expatriates held in American firms and to determine whether foreign engineering and construction professionals perceive the non-technical training American expatriates receive prior to overseas assignments as adequate. Rather than restricting the analysis to methods from only one discipline, this study was undertaken from an interdisciplinary approach. In addition, many concepts from the newly emerging discipline of construction engineering management were utilized throughout the study. The survey participants were from five companies in the following East Asian countries: Japan, Republic of China (Taiwan), and Indonesia. A questionnaire was developed to quantify and assess the perceptions of foreign nationals concerning the behavior and training of American expatriates. The data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed using the following computer programs: ABSTAT dBASE II statistical analysis, and the Statistical Analysis System (S.A.S.) developed by the S.A.S. Institute of Cary, N.C. ...
Yates-Suver, Janet Kathleen (1986). A cross-cultural evaluation of the behavior and training of American engineering and construction professionals who operate in the international marketplace. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -581345.