Identifying and ranking the occupational stressors and developing a TOPSIS framework for project managers in Iran to cope with occupational stress

Occupational stress (OS) is the result of the accumulation of stressors and the interaction between working conditions and individual needs and personality. Owing to the nature of the construction industry, the levels of technical and social complexities are high in projects, and this causes tensions and stress specifically for employees who take management positions. Moreover, as construction is widely affected by political and economic instability and external environmental factors, project management often needs to overcome an extra amount of stress that endangers their mental and physical health. The devastating impacts of excessive stress can be observed in the project manager’s personal life, projects progress and consequently on the performance of construction organisations. This research has refined and prioritised the stressors by interviewing project managers and administering a survey using the RII technique. Moreover, stress coping strategies have been proposed and ranked by therapists using the Delphi technique that includes two iterations of interviews and one iteration of weighting the coping strategies for each stressor by implementing the TOPSIS method. The outcome is presented in a framework that can improve the understanding of project managers in Iran on occupational stress and strategies to overcome excessive stress in construction projects.