Noopur (2025) Identifying the stressors hindering performance in the Indian construction industry: An empirical investigation. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 32(2), pp. 1053-1073. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Purpose: This study attempts to analyse and rank the impact of work-related issues arising within the Indian construction industry in the context of the existing pandemic. Furthermore, this is the first attempt to provide strategies to overcome issues among a workforce that is highly contractual in nature and is currently witnessing the uncertainties of the pandemic's aftermath. To the best of the author's knowledge, few studies have highlighted the combined analysis of job insecurity, psychological stress and emotional exhaustion in the Indian construction industry. Design/methodology/approach: The "Best Worst Methodology" (BWM) has been used in this study to analyse and rank the key factors that eliminate negative characteristics among contractual construction employees. The BWM, outlined by Rezaei (2015, 2016), is a popular "multi-criteria decision analysis technique" due to its advantage of consistent results and lesser pairwise data requirements. Findings: The study identified and ranked the socioeconomic impact of the three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic on construction sector employees in the Indian subcontinent. The results indicate that job insecurity has the most prominent impact, which ultimately produces psychological stress and emotional exhaustion among employees. Originality/value: To achieve the objective of identifying and prioritising the criteria of adverse socioeconomic impacts during the pandemic and outlining plans of action for the construction industry, ten experts (civil engineers/managers) from ten different construction projects were involved in a mixed-method case study, which has never been explored in the Indian construction sector.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | best worst method; COVID-19 pandemic; emotional exhaustion; job insecurity; psychological stress |
| Index terms: | manager, COVID-19, stressors, strategy, civil engineer, methodology, construction project, construction sector, pandemic, prioritizing, case study, construction employee, investigation, construction industry, multi-criteria decision analysis, psychological stress |
| Subjects: | health risk and incident analysis, management, industry analysis, decision analysis, health conditions and diseases, profession, data collection methods, production management, research methods, practitioner |
| Topics: | Project Management, Health and Safety, Risk Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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