Gunning, J G and Keaveney, M (1998) A transverse examination of occupational stress among a cross-disciplinary population of Irish construction professionals. In: Hughes, W (ed.) Proceedings of 14th Annual ARCOM Conference, 9-11 September 1998, Reading, UK.
Abstract
The effect of occupational stress upon managerial and professional staff is increasingly being realized and studied. This paper presents the findings of a recent postal survey of 94 Irish Construction Professionals to evaluate the incidence and causes of occupational stress. 70% of the respondents considered that their work was having an adverse effect on their family and 55% believed that it was affecting their health. 40% have considered early retirement because of severe occupational stress, which appears to be a growing blight on Construction Professionals. The research found, not unexpectedly, that Site Managers had the most stressful roles, followed by Contracts/Project Managers and the Contractor’s Quantity Surveyors. The 4 main stressors identified were (a) volume of work, with associated time pressures, (b) administrative duties, (c) long working hours and (d) inadequate flow of communications. The research programme found that an encouraging number of Construction organizations had implemented measures to alleviate the causes of stress - these ranged from team-building exercises to specific stress-awareness programmes. An attempt was made to evaluate these initiatives, but it was found that few were really effective. Hence recommendations are put forward in this paper as to how stress management techniques might more usefully be applied to reducing occupational stress in the traditionally hardy, 'macho' culture of the construction industry. The present practice of “presenteeism”, whereby insecure employees work longer and longer hours to impress bosses and gain promotion is certainly not the answer.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction professionals; Ireland; occupational stress |
| Index terms: | project manager, promotion, exercise, construction organization, quantity surveying, stressors, survey, programme, occupational stres, construction professional, working hours, site manager, population, Ireland, duty, construction industry |
| Subjects: | practitioner, health behaviours and lifestyles, organization, profession, contractual role, data collection methods, professional development, Geography, employment law, management, industry analysis, health conditions and diseases, occupational health and safety management, project controls, demography |
| Topics: | Time Control, Contract Administration, Legal Issues, Urban Studies, Human Resources, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Information Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here