CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1       Background of the Study
            Quantity surveying firms are service based firms that manage financially related issues for clients in the construction industry (Abidin, 2011), using infrastructural cost and value management expertise (Olanipekun, Aje and Abiola-Famemu, 2013). In quantity surveying firms, employee Quantity Surveyors provide the expertise, acknowledge and skill relied upon for service delivery. This indicates their importance to the performance of quantity surveying firms which is in line with Espejo (2000); Lawrence and Lorsh (1967). The quantity surveying firms are organizations where the Quantity surveying is being practiced. One of the contexts in which organization can be studied is their cultural effect. As opined by Zhang and Liu (2006), there are factors that are seen to permeate organisation life and influence every aspect of organization operation and one of such is organization culture. National culture defines the way employees’ tasks and interact with each other in an organization. The cultural paradigm comprises various beliefs, values, rituals and symbols that govern the operating style of the people in their company.
            Corporate culture binds up the workforce together and provides a direction for the company. In time of change, the biggest challenge for any organization may be to change its culture, as the employees are already accustomed to a certain way of doing things (Ojo, 2003). The dominant culture is organizations depends on the environments in which the company operates, the organizations objectives, the belief system of the employees and the company’s management style. There are many national culture such as highly bureaucratic and well-structured organizations typically follow a culture with extensive controls. Employees follow standard procedures with strict adherence to hierarchy and well-defined individual roles and responsibilities.
            Numerous factors are converging that make teaching and learning in cross-cultural and multicultural contexts more commonplace. Expanding world trade and globalization of industry, finance, and many professions are creating a world in which cross-cultural interactions occur more frequently than at any time in the past (Friedman, 2007). As well, increasing specialization within many professions has led to a widely dispersed audience for targeted education and training. Professionals wishing to stay current or students wanting to develop specialized skills that match the needs of a rapidly changing world demand access to proper educational opportunities, even if this requires international travel or distance learning approaches (Berge, 2007). Simpler and cheaper telecommunications, in particular, fuel a growing willingness to teach and learn across cultures. Advances in Internet technologies and applications make open and distance learning a fully viable alternative to traditional education, creating a natural environment for the development of effective virtual learning communities.
But contrary to the growing flatness that Friedman (2007) reports, cultural diversity remains apparent among learners, perhaps owing to deeply rooted cultural values and modes of thinking that are difficult to separate from learning processes (Nisbett, 2003). A growing appreciation of cultural diversity is demonstrated by more than its acknowledgement and tolerance, but also by a desire to preserve that diversity as a valuable asset for addressing the many challenges faced by the global community now and in the future. Additionally, one can recognize a strong desire to preserve diversity in response to the threat of loss of cultural identity in the face of globalization and because of the benefits of community cohesiveness through unique cultural expression (Mason, 2007). The growing need for educational access leads students rightly to demand culturally adaptive learning experiences that allow full development of the individual (Visser, 2007). As noted by Pincas (2001), students entering into professional education in a multicultural context not aligned with their own culture can experience significant conflict. This conflict arises not only in regards to incompatible teaching and learning styles, but also because the growing “professional self” struggles to maintain both a connection to the local culture in which the student eventually intends to work and a connection to the learning environment. Accordingly, instructional providers, including instructors and instructional designers, especially those working in online environments and struggling to maintain sufficient presence and student engagement, should develop skills to deliver culturally sensitive and culturally adaptive instruction (Gunawardena & LaPointe, 2007). This article provides a summary and consolidation of useful existing literature to aid in developing these skills. Although culture has begun to be addressed in the field of Instructional System Design (ISD), it is still too often overlooked or undervalued (Henderson, 1996; Rogers, Graham, & Mayes, 2007; Thomas, Mitchell, & Joseph, 2002; Young, 2007). If education and instructional design are inherently social processes (Schwier, Campbell, & Kenny, 2004), then instructional providers can no longer take a neutral position in developing their courses and materials. For instruction to do the best for students, instructional providers must be cognizant of the cultures of their learners and how those cultures manifest themselves in learning preferences (Nisbett, 2003).