Construction is a demanding work environment. Many construction professionals experience workplace stress, leading to physiological, psychological and sociological strain effects. They adopt a ...variety of coping mechanisms to manage these effects. A purposive sample of 36 construction professionals (architects, project managers, construction managers, civil engineers and quantity surveyors) in Cape Town, South Africa, were surveyed regarding their perceptions of workplace strain effects and stress counter measures. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric tests were used for data analysis. The findings show that the highest-ranked strain effects in terms of impact were (in descending order): "frustration", "fatigue", "strain on personal relationships", "strain on professional relationships", and "anger/irritability". Male professionals identified greater fatigue and frustration effects than females; while females felt a greater lack of self-confidence. The highest-ranked coping mechanisms in terms of impact were "travel", "non-competitive sporting activity", "music", "increased caffeine intake", and "walking". Males preferred more intensive physical activities than did females. Architects experienced anxiety more frequently than other professional groups. This study confirms important strain effects experienced by construction professionals and highlights the nature and effectiveness of counter measures. Limitations of the study include its exploratory nature and small sample size. Future research should establish the associations between strain effects and coping measures, in terms of how construction organizations can better support wellbeing among their professional employees.
•JD-R model were used to depict what factors affect safety leadership.•Job characteristics and personal resources affect safety leadership via engagement.•Personal resources moderate how job ...characteristics affect engagement.
Although research has shown that safety leadership is a strong predictor of safety outcomes, it is unclear what factors lead to safety leadership. This unexplored area has hindered the development of effective interventions to promote safety leadership.This study addresses the knowledge gap by examining how job characteristics and personal resources influence construction leaders’ engagement in safety leadership based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model in positive psychology. An online survey was distributed to all managerial employees in a large U.S. construction organization, resulting in 383 valid responses. The structural equation modeling analysis indicates that job characteristics (social support, work autonomy and risk perception) and personal resources (psychological capital) significantly contribute to safety-specific transformational leadership through work engagement. Moreover, psychological capital moderates the effect of social support on leaders’ engagement in safety leadership. The implications of the present findings regarding safety leadership research are also discussed.
•Construction professionals’ work-life conflict experience is bi-directional in nature.•Work demands affect work-to-family conflict both directly, and indirectly through role blurring.•Construction ...professionals are more susceptible to work demands compared to family demands.•Construction professionals’ work-family conflict experience varies according to job position and work authority.
The demanding work environment of the construction industry has spawned many studies on construction professionals’ experiences of work-to-family conflict. Relatively less attention has been placed on family-to-work conflict. Many employees in modern organizations play a role in both work and family domains and juggle between work and family responsibilities, underscoring the need to holistically understand work-family experiences of construction professionals. This study considered the bi-directional nature of work-family conflict and proposed an integrated research model to examine the work-family interface among South African construction professionals. Data (n = 864) were collected through an online survey administered to construction professionals registered with their respective statutory councils. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to test the research hypotheses. Within the work domain, work demands (i.e., work pressure and work hours) affect work-to-family conflict, both directly and indirectly, through the boundary-spanning demand of role blurring. Regarding workplace social support, only co-worker support is negatively associated with work-to-family conflict but not supervisor support. Within the family domain, the number of young children living at home and household task demands are positively associated with family-to-work conflict, while partner support is negatively associated with family-to-work conflict. Work-to-family conflict positively affects family-to-work conflict, but not the reverse. Work demands and role blurring experienced by professionals are likely to be affected by their job position and level of work authority. The findings suggest that organizations in the construction industry should protect their employees from experiencing excessive work-family conflict through creating a socially-supportive workplace environment, providing work-family programmes that foster greater boundary flexibility, and implementing effective work design characterised by reasonable workloads and work hours.
Photographic Q-methodology was used to explore construction professionals' mental models of occupational health and safety (OHS). Sixty Australian construction professionals participated in the ...research, including 15 architects, 15 engineers, 15 constructors and 15 OHS professionals. Participants were asked to sort photographs depicting different building systems into a grid based upon their judgement of the likelihood of accidental injury resulting from the construction of each of the building systems depicted. Responses ranged from Rare (-2) to Almost certain (+2). Sorting patterns relating to eight photographs of different façade systems were analysed using Q factor analysis. Three distinct sorting pattern types were identified in the data, representing clusters of participants whose sorting patterns were similar. These sorting pattern types cut across occupational/professional groups. Interpretation of the factors revealed substantial differences between the OHS judgements made by participants in the three clusters. Qualitative explanatory information revealed participants in the three clusters used different attributes when considering the likelihood of accidental injury. These attributes shaped their sorting patterns. The results suggest shared mental models (SMMs) are unlikely to exist in construction project teams, as each individual uses their own frame of reference to understand OHS. Opportunities exist to understand these different frames of reference and create more consistent team mental models of OHS. However, incorporating a diversity of viewpoints into project decision-making is recommended in order to produce effective decision-making in the choice or specification of building systems.
A research model was proposed investigating the relationships between work demand, role blurring, work-to-family conflict, and health and wellbeing consequences, and the model was tested on ...registered South African construction professionals. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyze the data collected from an online survey. The research results show that work pressure is a salient antecedent to all role blurring activities, i.e. after-hours work contact, pre-occupation with work, and multi-tasking between job tasks and family tasks whilst at home. Work hours directly predict work contact but indirectly affect pre-occupation and multi-tasking via the mediating role of work contact. All role blurring activities are positively associated with construction professionals' experience of work-to-family conflict, which subsequently leads to depression and sleep problems. The results also show that depression affects the quality of sleep and construction professionals are likely to use alcohol consumption to cope with sleep problems. However, depression was found to be negatively associated with alcohol consumption, which calls for a more fine-grained analysis of the relationship. The study highlights the importance of appropriate work design with manageable workloads and reasonable work hours, and the promotion of boundary tactics for reducing work-family role blurring and conflict experienced by construction professionals.
Construction workers in South Africa are an at-risk group for HIV/AIDS. Substance misuse, other than alcohol, is associated with poor decision-making, risky lifestyle behaviour, and non-use of ...condoms. Substance misuse is also associated with harmful and hazardous alcohol consumption and depression. The Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) is a widely used screening tool to detect drug abuse. The present study examines both the psychometric properties of the DUDIT and the prevalence of drug abuse among construction workers. A field study involving 496 male workers at 18 construction sites of seven construction companies in the Western Cape province of South Africa, was undertaken. Descriptive statistics, reliability, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to determine the prevalence of substance use, and the dimensionality, reliability and construct validity of the DUDIT. Approximately 10% of participants reported some form of substance use. Four hundred and sixty-seven employees (94.2%) were determined not to have drug-related problems (DUDIT score < 6). Of the at-risk employees (score >5), 5.0% (n = 25) were classified as 'possibly having a drug-related problem' (score 6-24) and 0.8% (n = 4) as 'possibly highly dependent on drugs' (score 25 or more). Of the 47 employees who reported drug use, 29 (61.7%) were classified as having a medium to high risk in relation to drug use. The internal consistency of the DUDIT was very good. The DUDIT reported a one-factor factorial structure, and the model fit indices indicated good model fit to the data. All factor loadings were significant, but there was some evidence of collinearity. Concurrent validity was demonstrated. DUDIT items 1 and 10 require further investigation due to their poor performance compared to the other items. The contribution of these two items needs to be investigated using item response theory (IRT).
Transactional and transformational safety leadership have been repeatedly found to be important for safety. Yet how transactional and transformational leadership behaviours are most effectively ...demonstrated can be dependent on the context and industry. Using an ethnographic approach, supervisor safety leadership was explored across eleven construction sites in Australia. The findings revealed that, within the construction site context, contingent reward, idealised influence, and management-by-exception behaviours demonstrated by supervisors closely aligned with their definitions in Full-Range Leadership Theory (FRLT). These three types of leadership behaviour reflect observation of supervisors' positive actions, which included: praising workers for good safety performance; proactively anticipating and attending to safety issues; and consistently leading-by-example with safety, even at times of significant production pressure. Other theoretically described dimensions of leadership behaviour, i.e. individual consideration, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation, were not directly reflected in observed supervisors' behaviour in the way they are conceptualised in FRLT. The existence of a good supervisor-worker relationship enabled workers to comfortably raise safety issues, think creatively about how to undertake work safely, and talk to their supervisor if they were experiencing personal problems. These are motivational, intellectual, and empathetic elements of leadership, which do not directly align with the way leadership behaviours are conceptualised in mainstream FRLT. The study suggests that, in the construction worksite context, leadership behaviours may take a form that differs from theoretical ideal types and that ethnographically attained insights into supervisors' interactions with workers can contribute to understanding transformational and transactional leadership in practical terms.
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