Managing Resources and Productivity in a Culturally Diverse Environment: A Case Study on Computer-Aided Design in the Construction Industry of the United Arab Emirates

Growing competition in the construction industry has forced key players to focus on maintaining high quality and performance within their firms. An engineering consultant has a vital role in the construction market as he represents a client and facilitates the contractor during construction (Turner, 2003). This paper presents a case study of an engineering consultancy firm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is having a problem in maintaining the productivity rate of its computer-aided design (CAD) department whilst dealing with diversity issues within the organization as a whole.
The research focused on identifying the causes of the problems through analysis of reports and interviews. Firstly, the policies and incentive mechanisms of the firm were reviewed. Secondly, a series of interviews were conducted with key players within the process, including the Market Sector Manager, Head of the CAD department, Design Engineer and CAD personnel. Thirdly, the productivity rate of the CAD department was calculated from the archived project reports. Through analysis, it was found that the main causes for the decrease in the productivity of CAD department were the improper development of teams due to cultural biases, lack of clear and precise instructions on tasks undertaken and the rigidity of functional structure of the organization.