Interpersonal Stressors of Hong Kong Expatriate Construction Professionals in Mainland China: An In-depth Case Study

The construction industry in Mainland China has rapidly expanded in the past decade, leading toincreasing business and work opportunities for construction professionals (CPs) there. In view of thismacro-economic development, many Hong Kong CPs have chosen to ‘move north’, and Hong Kongexpatriate CPs in Mainland China (HKE-CPs-M) are today becoming more and more common.In fact, previous literature has recognized that both HK-CPs and expatriate managers are highlysusceptible to stress. But studies on the stress management of HKE-CPs-M have been rare; still fewerare those focusing on interpersonal stressors in particular. Such studies are, however, essential to thesuccess of CPs in construction projects as well as the managerial roles of expatriate managers.In response to this lack, the current paper presents a case study on the interpersonal stress experiencedby HKE-CPs-M participating in the same construction project in Shanghai, a representative centralbusiness district in Mainland China. Eight of these HKE-CPs-M were interviewed for the study.The study results revealed five interpersonal stressors encountered by HKE-CPs-M, including thepersonal traits of local colleagues, the professionalism of the locals, language barriers, poorworkgroup relationships, and home-work conflicts. Further study is still needed to cross-validate thequalitative results of this case study using a quantitative large-scale survey study on HKE-CPs-M.