PERSONAL VALUES OF CIVIL ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS IN THE STRATEGIC DECISIONS OF CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES

Civil engineers and architects are often involved in strategic decisions in their company. Because professionals’ personal values affect their decisions, the question of whether there is a difference between the personal values of civil engineers and architects should be of interest to construction companies. Construction companies can be in a better position to improve their strategic decision making processes if they have access to this information. Although the personal values of individuals have been explored by several researchers, studies that explore the personal values of civil engineers and architects are limited, particularly in association with strategy-making. This study attempts to fill the gap. The objectives of the study are (a) to understand which personal values are considered to be important by civil engineers and architects, (b) to explore the existence of significant differences between civil engineers’ and architects’ personal values, and (c) how the differences/similarities affect strategic decision making in construction companies. The most cited personal values in the literature were identified and a questionnaire survey was administered to civil engineers and architects to seek information about their personal values. The Mann-Whitney U test was performed on the collected data to verify whether a significant statistical relationship exists between civil engineers and architects’ personal values. The results suggest that some of the personal values of civil engineers are statistically different from the personal values of architects, but some are not.