Qi Liang

Impact of Job Stressors and Stress on the Safety Behavior and Accidents of Construction Workers

AbstractConstruction workers (CWs) are usually exposed to various job-related hazards while working on construction sites, especially when there is a lack of appropriate equipment, working without support, or being forced to work quickly. All these can induce serious stress and lead to dangerous situations at work. Hence, to prevent CWs from injury, this study sets out to investigate the relationships between job stressors, stress, safety behavior, and accidents. A survey of CWs was carried out using statistical tools to analyze the data. Five job stressors, two different types of stress, and safety behavior among CWs were identified using factor analysis. The results of the correlation and regression analyses showed that (1)xa0physical stress is predicted by job certainty, co-worker support, and safety equipment, while psychological stress is predicted by both supervisor support and job certainty; (2)xa0supervisor support and physical stress predict safety behavior; and (3)xa0the risk of accidents can be reduc...

Improving Public Engagement in Construction Development Projects from a Stakeholder's Perspective

AbstractPublic engagement (PE) involves multidisciplinary stakeholders contributing their perspectives to a project in order to achieve a common goal. However, it is not easy to take the needs and wishes of stakeholders into account while balancing their diverse power and interests in the engagement process. The unbalanced distribution of power and interests inevitably causes conflict during engagement with multiple stakeholders. Research on how to improve PE performance from a stakeholder’s perspective is still in its infancy. This study used a survey to investigate the complicated relationships between stakeholder’s power, interests, conflict, and project satisfaction. The results showed that different forms of power and interest influenced final satisfaction with PE projects either directly or indirectly, through conflict. The PE organizers are encouraged to include more representatives from different groups of stakeholders in the team decision-making process to enable active engagement with their inte...

Analysis of the Relationships between Value Management Techniques, Conflict Management, and Workshop Satisfaction of Construction Participants

AbstractThe benefits of value management (VM) are becoming more prominent in the contemporary construction industry. VM techniques aim to identify project goals and achieve participant satisfaction. However, because of incompatible objectives, values, and goals among participants involved in construction projects, conflicts will inevitably arise during the workshop process, which directly affects workshop satisfaction. Most research studies have focused on the known impact of VM techniques (i.e.,xa0hard VM) on workshop satisfaction, ignoring the moderating effects of conflict management (i.e.,xa0soft VM) on this relationship. Hence, this study aimed to fill this knowledge gap by using a questionnaire survey to investigate the complicated relationships between VM techniques, conflict, and satisfaction. The findings indicate that (1)xa0pre-workshop, function analysis, and evaluation techniques relate to workshop satisfaction via conflict management in the workshop; (2)xa0both function analysis and creativity techni...

Focus Group Study to Explore Critical Factors for Managing Stress of Construction Workers

AbstractConstruction workers (CWs) are directly responsible for the success of any construction project. However, the construction industry is stressful, which may significantly affect CWs’ perform...

Development of a Stressors–Stress–Performance–Outcome Model for Expatriate Construction Professionals

AbstractGiven the globalization of the construction industry, there are increasing numbers of expatriate construction professionals (ExCPs). The work practices and living environment are different ...

Development of a mindfulness–stress–performance model for construction workers

Construction workers contribute to the success of projects on sites full of hazards and risks. Working in the construction industry is very stressful for them, while stress can impair their performance and safety. Mindfulness has been regarded as effective to manage stress and improve performance in general, while there is constant argument on the mindfulness characteristics. In addition, the effect of individual mindfulness characteristics on construction workers’ stress and performance still remains unknown. Therefore to fill in the research gap, a questionnaire survey was administered among construction workers. Nine mindfulness characteristics (framed into three theoretical categories), three stress types and three kinds of performance were identified. The results show that mindfulness characteristics indirectly improve construction workers’ performance by relieving their stress: (1) objective stress is mitigated by observation; (2) emotional stress is relieved by observation and awareness, and impairs construction workers’ organizational performance; and (3) physical stress is reduced by awareness, and worsens safety performance. Mindfulness characteristics also directly improve construction workers’ performance, namely description and observation enhance working performance; and awareness improves safety performance. However, the study interestingly found that the mindfulness attitude group has no effect on construction workers’ stress and performance, while decentering even harms their safety performance. The implications underlying the findings are discussed. Several recommendations are made for mitigating stress and improving performance. The mindfulness characteristics are grouped into theoretical categories, and the effects of each mindfulness characteristic on the stress and performance of construction workers are identified.

The Roles of Motivation and Coping Behaviours in Managing Stress: Qualitative Interview Study of Hong Kong Expatriate Construction Professionals in Mainland China

Driven by fast-growing economies worldwide, the number of international construction projects is booming, and employing expatriates has inevitably become a strategy used by construction firms. However, stress arising from expatriate assignments can lead to early return, assignment failure, and staff turnover, causing in significant losses to an organisation. Extensive research has focused on the effectiveness of coping behaviours in relation to stress. However, studies investigating the antecedents of coping are rare. The limited studies to date tend to focus on content-based motivations (identifying what), instead of on how coping behaviours can be motivated in the stress management process (identifying how). Focus on expatriate construction professionals (ECPs) is further limited. Hence, this study aims to investigate from a process theory perspective the role of motivation in the stress management process. Using a qualitative interview study approach, involving 22 in-depth interviews, this study first identifies the content of motivation, coping behaviours, performance, and stress in the context of Hong Kong ECPs working on cross-cultural projects in China; it then unveils and explains the associations between the identified variables. Based on the results, stakeholders are recommended to review pre-departure training, so as to ensure that key elements such as personal awareness of stress (cognitive, affective, and physical), expectancies of coping strategies on stress (adaptive or maladaptive), and expectancies of the influence of stress on performance are covered.