Coping Strategies among Construction Professionals: Cognitive and Behavioural Efforts to Manage Job Stressors

Abstract

Construction professionals are constantly exposed to varying stressors in their working environment and are likely to experience a high level of job burnout. Burnout threatens the mental and physical health of individuals and also decreases levels of job satisfaction and productivity. Research relating to managing job burnout has so far concentrated mainly on identifying job-related factors which are associated with burnout. Coping strategies affect the cognitive and behavioural efforts an individual exerts on stressful encounter and are considered to be moderators of burnout. This exploratory study investigated the coping behaviour of construction professionals in their working environment. It was designed to provide fundamental knowledge in deriving the most effective coping strategies for job stressors in the Hong Kong construction industry. A web-based questionnaire was adopted and a total of 342 valid responses were received. Factor analysis revealed that the coping behaviours observed could be satisfactorily described by four dimensions: Rational Problem Solving, Resigned Distancing, Seeking Support/Ventilation and Passive Wishful Thinking. Among these four coping dimensions, Rational Problem Solving was found to be used most frequently and to be explained by the most significant percentage variance. On-going research based on these findings will attempt to identify the most effective coping strategies associated with low levels of burnout.