Lau, E and Lew, V (2011) Empowerment and job characteristics of knowledge workers: The case of Hong Kong construction industry. In: Egbu, C and Lou, E C W (eds.) Proceedings of 27th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2011, Bristol, UK.
Abstract
In construction industry as in other professional service sectors, knowledge workers have the most impact on the growth and competitive advantage of organizations. Using the case of the Hong Kong construction industry, a survey is carried out with the knowledge workers in the three functional roles of cost, design and construction. The study is to explore the relationship between empowerment and job characteristics in the construction industry. Results generally support that the construction subset, which has more autonomy in their job than design and cost subsets, are more self-empowered than others. The results inform the barriers facing empowerment and suggest that there may be opportunity to improve on job characteristics to better empower knowledge workers in the industry.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | empowerment; job characteristics; knowledge workers |
| Index terms: | construction industry, professional service, design and construction, survey, empowerment, competitive advantage, Hong Kong |
| Subjects: | contractual arrangements, organization, data collection methods, market analysis, industry analysis, management, Geography |
| Topics: | Procurement, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Organizational Design, Human Resources |
| 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