Lim, H W and Ma, X (2026) Improving mental wellbeing of project supervisors: Shifting from project-focused to process-focused construction practices. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 152(1): 04025229, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Project-based construction work has been characterized by frenetic and demanding working conditions, causing excessive stress and burnout among construction supervisors. This study explores how the transition from project- to process-focused approaches in prefabrication affects supervisors' mental wellbeing through the lens of the job demand-control-support (JDSC) model. An ethnographic study was conducted over a two-month period at a modular off-site construction factory in Melbourne, Australia, to capture supervisors' experiences during this transition through shadowing, observation, and interviews with managers, supervisors, and workers. Hybrid thematic analysis revealed that this transition transforms psychosocial work factors in complex ways. Job demands are alleviated through reduced temporal, workload, and relational pressures but are restructured with new multiproject coordination demands. Job control is redistributed, with increased process-specific control offsetting reduced project-wide decision autonomy. Social support is enhanced as process-focused operations foster greater interdependence. The findings demonstrate specific buffering mechanisms, with process-specific control mitigating temporal and workload demands, while social support buffers against the relational demands that emerge from diminished project-wide decision autonomy. These findings refine the JDCS model by highlighting the dynamic and sometimes contradictory interactions between psychosocial factors during work transitions. They offer deeper insights into how evolving work approaches in prefabrication shape supervisors' mental wellbeing, with valuable theoretical and practical implications.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | ethnography; job demand-control-support; mental health; prefabrication; stress; supervisor |
| Index terms: | Australia, manager, mental health, working conditions, project supervisor, ethnography, prefabrication, well-being, thematic analysis, interaction, workload, job control, off-site construction, buffer, construction work, interview, interdependence, coordination, job demand, burnout, supervisor |
| Subjects: | methods and analysis, mental health and wellbeing, organizational analysis, behavioral psychology, building construction, occupational health and safety management, health conditions and diseases, data collection methods, practitioner, financial risk, management, employment law, operations management, Geography, qualitative and interpretive research |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Roles and Professions, Geographical Context, Human Resources, Cost Management, Project Management, Construction Technology, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Legal Issues |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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