Lingard, H; Francis, V and Turner, M (2010) It’s about time: The impact of fluctating work hours on the work-life balance of project-based construction workers. In: Egbu, C (ed.) Proceedings of 26th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-8 September 2010, Leeds, UK.
Abstract
A diary data collection method was used to collect data from project-based construction workers in a large civil engineering construction project in Melbourne, Australia. Data capturing the number of hours worked and satisfaction with work-life balance were collected for 21 consecutive weeks. A strong correlation was found between hours worked each week and participants' work-life experiences. Weekly work hours were found to be significantly negatively correlated with satisfaction with work-life balance. Work intensification leading up to a major project milestone coincided with a dramatic reduction in participants' satisfaction with work-life balance, suggesting that project events have a significant impact upon the work-life experiences of project-based workers. Further, recovery opportunities in the form of regular Rostered Days Off coincided with higher levels of work-life balance satisfaction. It is proposed that construction organizations use the naturally fluctuating workloads implicit in project work to 'build' recovery opportunities into project schedules.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | human resource management; work hours; work-life balance |
| Index terms: | work-life balance, human resource management, Australia, workload, major project, recovery, satisfaction, construction worker, diary, construction organization, construction project |
| Subjects: | management, Geography, project delivery, production management, practitioner, operations management, data collection methods, strategic project management, organization |
| Topics: | Geographical Context, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Human Resources, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
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