You are not logged in You are not logged in to this journal. Log In

Journal of Construction Engineering and Management / Volume 133 / Issue 10 / TECHNICAL PAPERS / Labor and Personnel Issues

LOG IN or SELECT A PURCHASE OPTION:

Improving Employees’ Work-Life Balance in the Construction Industry: Project Alliance Case Study

J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 133, 807 (2007); doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2007)133:10(807) (9 pages)

Helen Lingard, Ph.D.1, Kerry Brown, Ph.D.2, Lisa Bradley, Ph.D.3, Caroline Bailey, Ph.D.4, and Keith Townsend, Ph.D.4

1Associate Professor, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT Univ., Victoria, Australia. E-mail: helen.lingard@rmit.edu.au
2Professor, School of Management, Queensland Univ. of Technology, Queensland, Australia.
3Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Queensland Univ. of Technology, Queensland, Australia.
4Senior Research Fellow, School of Management, Queensland Univ. of Technology, Queensland, Australia.

View MapView Map

(Submitted 31 January 2006; accepted 2 February 2007)

Work-life conflict has a damaging effect on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, productivity turnover, and absenteeism. On an individual level, work-life conflict is associated with employee burnout, mental health issues, substance abuse, and diminished family functioning. Thus, work-life balance is an important issue to the construction industry, in terms of both organizational effectiveness and occupational health. Long and inflexible work hours are the most consistent predictor of work-life conflict among construction employees, particularly those working on-site or in a project office. There is considerable resistance to the adoption of new ways of scheduling work within the industry. This paper describes the post hoc evaluation of a compressed work week (reducing the length of the working week, but increasing the length of the working day) in a case study project alliance in Queensland, Australia. Quantitative and qualitative data are presented to demonstrate the beneficial impact of the initiative on employees’ work-life balance. The evaluation provides prima facie evidence that alternative work schedules can improve construction employees’ work-life balance, creating benefits for construction employees and organizations. The paper concludes that project alliances provide an ideal environment in which work-life balance initiatives can help to create high-performance work systems in the construction sector.

© 2007 ASCE

Article Outline

  1. Introduction
    1. High-Performance Work Systems
    2. Work-Life Balance Practices
  2. Research Aims and Objectives
  3. Case Study Project
    1. Project Delivery Strategy
    2. Scope of Construction Work
  4. Research Methods
    1. Research Design
    2. Intervention
    3. Questionnaire Survey
    4. Semistructured Interviews
  5. Results
    1. Survey Data
    2. Interview Data
    3. Comparison with Control Group Interviews
    4. Perceptions of Project Alliancing
  6. Discussion
    1. Limitations and Future Research
  7. Conclusions

KEYWORDS

RELATED DATABASES

To view database links for this article, you need to log in.

ARTICLE DATA

Permalink
http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2007)133:10(807)

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:

0733-9364 (print)  
1943-7862 (online)

Publisher:

ASCE

For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.

For access to citing articles, you need to log in.


Tables (3)

Access to article objects (figures, tables, multimedia) requires a subscription; log in to view available files.
(Access to supplementary files, where available, is free for this journal.)


Close

Your Recent History Recent History Help

Recently Viewed

  1. Improving Employees’ Work-Life Balance in the Construction Industry: Project Alliance Case Study
  2. Building Constructive Innovation Networks: Role of Relationship Management
  3. Approximate Derivation of Critical Buckling Load
close