Bowen, P; Edwards, P; Lingard, H and Cattell, K (2014) Workplace stress, stress effects, and coping mechanisms in the construction industry. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 140(3): 4013059, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Many construction professionals experience high levels of stress. Workplace stress leads to psychological, physiological, and sociological strain effects. Sufferers adopt different coping mechanisms in attempts to mitigate their condition. Using an online survey, opinions were sought from architects, civil engineers, quantity surveyors, and project and construction managers in South Africa. The contribution of the research reported in this paper lies in its examination of the work stress experienced by construction professionals in a developing country characterized by economic hardship and social problems, such as inequality and crime. Most respondents experience high levels of stress at work. Architects (more than engineers, quantity surveyors, and project and construction managers) and female (more than male) professionals feel stressed. Psychological effects of workplace stress include the feeling of not being appreciated by others for a job well-done, feeling dissatisfied with one's own performance at work, and feeling tense at work. Physiological effects include disturbances to usual sleep patterns, difficulty in relaxing after hours, and difficulty in concentrating. Sociological effects include a strain on family life, social activities, and social relationships. A wide range of positive coping mechanisms (or countermeasures) is reported, including physical exercise in addition to intellectual and cultural activities. From a negative-coping perspective, consumption of alcohol is widespread, with more than one-third of respondents consuming 3-9 units/week. One in six respondents report smoking of up to 40 cigarettes/day, whereas use of narcotics (such as marijuana, cocaine, mandrax, ecstasy, heroin, and methamphetamine) at least once in the previous 12 months is reported by 1 in 20. A duty-of-care ethos suggests that appropriate and carefully targeted stress-management strategies should be implemented by organizations within the construction industry. Further research is recommended to explore the effectiveness of organizational and personal stress-management interventions.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction management; coping mechanisms; effects; labor and personnel issues; personnel management; stress |
| Index terms: | work stress, personnel, developing country, civil engineer, survey, construction manager, duty, alcohol, South Africa, consumption, exercise, quantity surveying, management strategy, engineer, effectiveness, architect, inequality, construction professional, coping, workplace stress, construction industry |
| Subjects: | contractual role, profession, data collection methods, health behaviours and lifestyles, consumer economics, psychology, performance management, management, development economics, professional development, Geography, sociology, behavioral psychology, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, International Construction, Quality Management, Human Resources, Ethics, Contract Administration |
| 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