Building resilience among construction professionals in New Zealand: A study of major stressors and stress reduction strategies

Abstract

Retaining and replacing skilled professionals can be problematic within high-performance construction teams. The onus cascades upon fledgling, inexperienced individuals to embrace these high-stress responsibilities. Previous studies have highlighted the influential role that stress plays as an antecedent to burnout. Emotional fatigue, depersonalisation and a lack of personal achievement all sprout from the burnout syndrome. This project was undertaken as an inductive approach to theory development and employed a cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire. The study population comprised of construction professionals within the New Zealand construction industry. Convenience sampling was used to collect data from 266 New Zealand Site Safe members and their industry partners utilising a survey software called Qualtrics to address the research question. Through the use of a Likert scale, the mean values of the data were used to construct a table that incorporated combined stressors and their stress reduction strategies. “What stresses do construction professionals experience and what recommendations can be concluded to change workplace behaviour to reduce burnout?” The data was then used to construct a table that incorporated combined stressors and their stress reduction strategies. This research identified the contributing stress factors and their respective remedies to make changes in the New Zealand construction environment. The findings noted that various factors within the different clusters were indicative of high workplace stress, the strongest cluster being individual job demands. Other clusters highlighted factors such as managerial behaviour, organisational leadership and the economy as significant contributors. Transparent and clear communications between all staff levels proved to be the strongest moderating factor as a stress reduction remedy. The respondents indicated that a change in their sleeping patterns also created fatigue that leads to burnout. The contribution of this paper and contribution of this research lies in presenting the most significant current stressors in the New Zealand construction industry and aligning them with stress reductions strategies.