Construction projects involve comprehensive tasks, complicated processes and multistakeholders
(e.g., project managers, architects, quantity surveyors, structural engineers, civil
engineers, etc.). Meanwhile each project is unique and involves a lot unpredictable tasks,
tight and urgent time flame and complicated workgroup cooperation. Therefore, the
construction industry has long been recognized as a stressful industry in which a great deal
of stress is placed on various construction professionals. According to the study by the
Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB 2006), stress has already been recognised as a general
phenomenon for professionals in the construction industry in which nearly 70 percent of the
construction professionals had found themselves suffering from stress, anxiety and
depression directly due to their work. In addition, more than half of the construction
professionals felt that the construction industry is comparatively far more stressful than it
was five years ago. These statistics, admittedly, show how extensive stress is in the
construction industry nowadays.
However, the relationships between stressors, stress, coping behaviour and work
performance deviate from individual to individual due to the different development
background, work natures, work environment and so on. One of the most determining and
original factors leading to these deviations is the ‘values’ of the individuals (Chiu and
Kosinski, 1995; Bond and Forgas, 1984; Chiu, 1992; Hofstede, 1991). Values are the roots
of every perception and behaviour of individuals (Chiu and Kosinski, 1995). And they are
usually shaped by ones’ cultural background. People who grow up and live in different
cultural environments have different values, thus, leading to different behaviour, including
their perception of stressors, the adoption of coping behaviour in provoking stressful
saturations and the self-evaluation of performance. Therefore, the Chinese values of Hong
Kong construction professionals (HKC-Ps), who work and live in Hong Kong, are
hypothesized to have certain impacts on the stress management process of the individual
HKC-Ps. The intimate relationships between various stressors, stresses and performance of
HKC-Ps have long been recognised (Leung, 2004; Leung and Lam, 2004; Leung et al.,
2005a, 2005b, 2006a, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c; Yip, 2008; Sommerville
and Langford, 1994; Loosemore and Waters, 2004; Haynes et al., 2004). This study aims at
investigating the impacts of Chinese values on the stress management process of HKC-Ps.
Based on the extensive literature reviews, a set of questionnaire surveys was designed and
distributed to the HKC-Ps. 140 sets of collected data were adopted in the study, including
those from HKC-Ps, who work in a variety of construction disciplines, including project
managers, quantity surveyors, engineers, architects, etc. Quantitative data analysis methods,
including factor analysis, reliability test, Pearson correlation, multiple regression analyses
and curvilinear multiple regression analyses, were applied by SPSS 15.0.
Based on the factor analyses, four types of Chinese values (interpersonal integration,
conservative personality, social conventions and work-related ethos), three task stressors
(work overload, work underload and role ambiguity), two organizational stressors (poor
organizational structure and poor working environment), an interpersonal stressor (poor
relationships with others), six kinds of coping behaviour (planful problem solving, positive
reappraisal, social support seeking, accepting of responsibility, escapism and emotional
discharge) and three performances (task performance, interpersonal performance and
organizational performance) were identified.
An inclusive Chinese values-stressors-stresses-performances structural equation model was
further developed by Lisrel 8.7. From the model, it is found that (i) social conventions have
negative effects on role ambiguity and poor relationship with others; (ii) conservative
personality has positive effects on role ambiguity and poor relationship with others; (iii)
work-related ethos leads positively to work overload, task performance and organizational
performance, but negatively to work underload and poor relationship with others; (iv)
interpersonal integration contains positive influences on the interpersonal performance of
HKC-Ps; (v) poor working environment induces physiological stress; (vi) role ambiguity
induces burnout; (vii) poor relationships with other induces objective stress of the individual
HKC-Ps; (viii) work overload induces objective stress and burnout; (ix) burnout induces
physiological stress; (x) objective stress worsens interpersonal performance of HKC-Ps; (xi)
burnout worsens the organizational performance but enhances the interpersonal performance;
(xii) physiological stress worsens the interpersonal performance of the individual HKC-Ps;
and (xiii) emotional discharge alleviate the negative impact of objective stress on
interpersonal performances. In accordance with the results revealed from the model,
recommendations on both the personal and organizational aspects were made.
| Date of Award | 2 Oct 2008 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - City University of Hong Kong
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| Supervisor | Mei-yung LEUNG (Supervisor) |
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