IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/conmgt/v28y2010i10p1085-1098.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The rhythms of project life: a longitudinal analysis of work hours and work-life experiences in construction

Author

Listed:
  • Helen Clare Lingard
  • Valerie Francis
  • Michelle Turner

Abstract

A diary data collection method was used to collect data from project-based construction workers in a large civil engineering construction project in Melbourne, Australia. Data capturing the number of hours worked, satisfaction with work-life balance and capacity to complete required tasks at work and at home were collected for 21 consecutive weeks. A strong correlation was found between hours worked each week and participants' work-life experiences. Data were subjected to time series modelling procedures and weekly work hours were found to significantly predict participants' capacity to complete tasks at work and at home, but not their satisfaction with work-life balance. The impact of work leading up to a major project milestone was found to increase the predictive capacity of the time series models, indicating that project events have a significant impact upon the work-life experiences of project-based workers. The period of intense work prior to the milestone (the opening of a new ramp on to an operating freeway) contributed significantly to an immediate reduction in capacity to complete tasks at home. Further time series modelling revealed that recovery opportunities associated with workers taking a short, temporary break from work can also contribute to improved work-life balance. It is proposed that construction organizations use the naturally fluctuating workloads implicit in project work to 'build' recovery opportunities into project schedules.

Suggested Citation

  • Helen Clare Lingard & Valerie Francis & Michelle Turner, 2010. "The rhythms of project life: a longitudinal analysis of work hours and work-life experiences in construction," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(10), pages 1085-1098.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:28:y:2010:i:10:p:1085-1098
    DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2010.480977
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01446193.2010.480977
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01446193.2010.480977?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Monica Lindgren & Johann Packendorff, 2006. "What's New in New Forms of Organizing? On the Construction of Gender in Project‐Based Work," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 841-866, June.
    2. Alain Asquin & Gilles Garel & Thierry Picq, 2010. "When project-based management causes distress at work," Post-Print hal-02312557, HAL.
    3. Helen Lingard & Valerie Francis, 2005. "Does work-family conflict mediate the relationship between job schedule demands and burnout in male construction professionals and managers?," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7), pages 733-745.
    4. Helen Lingard & Valerie Francis, 2004. "The work-life experiences of office and site-based employees in the Australian construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(9), pages 991-1002.
    5. Brigid van Wanrooy & Shaun Wilson, 2006. "Convincing the toilers?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(2), pages 349-368, June.
    6. Alain Asquin & Gilles Garel & Thierry Picq, 2010. "When project-based management causes distress at work," Post-Print halshs-00688860, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peter Moore & Martin Loosemore, 2014. "Burnout of undergraduate construction management students in Australia," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(11), pages 1066-1077, November.
    2. Albert P. C. Chan & Yang Yang & Tracy N. Y. Choi & Janet Mayowa Nwaogu, 2022. "Characteristics and Causes of Construction Accidents in a Large-Scale Development Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-25, April.
    3. Guangdong Wu & Yue Wu & Hongyang Li & Chenglong Dan, 2018. "Job Burnout, Work-Family Conflict and Project Performance for Construction Professionals: The Moderating Role of Organizational Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Guangdong Wu & Kaifeng Duan & Jian Zuo & Jianlin Yang & Shiping Wen, 2016. "System Dynamics Model and Simulation of Employee Work-Family Conflict in the Construction Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, October.
    5. Jiming Cao & Cong Liu & Yubin Zhou & Kaifeng Duan, 2020. "Work-to-Family Conflict, Job Burnout, and Project Success among Construction Professionals: The Moderating Role of Affective Commitment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-22, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. An, Nan & Qiang, Maoshan & Wen, Qi & Jiang, Hanchen & Xia, Bingqing, 2019. "Contribution of project managers’ capability to project ending performance under stressful conditions," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 198-209.
    2. Alain Asquin, 2012. "L'hypofirme, fabrique de projets hypermodernes," Post-Print halshs-00958166, HAL.
    3. Helen Clare Lingard & Valerie Francis & Michelle Turner, 2010. "Work-family enrichment in the Australian construction industry: implications for job design," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(5), pages 467-480.
    4. Guangdong Wu & Yue Wu & Hongyang Li & Chenglong Dan, 2018. "Job Burnout, Work-Family Conflict and Project Performance for Construction Professionals: The Moderating Role of Organizational Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-20, December.
    5. Guangdong Wu & Kaifeng Duan & Jian Zuo & Jianlin Yang & Shiping Wen, 2016. "System Dynamics Model and Simulation of Employee Work-Family Conflict in the Construction Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, October.
    6. Yan Chen & Feilian Zhang & Yan Wang & Junwei Zheng, 2020. "Work–Family Conflict, Emotional Responses, Workplace Deviance, and Well-Being among Construction Professionals: A Sequential Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Stefano Armenia & Rosa Maria Dangelico & Fabio Nonino & Alessandro Pompei, 2019. "Sustainable Project Management: A Conceptualization-Oriented Review and a Framework Proposal for Future Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-16, May.
    8. Juras, Ana, 2019. "Competency Profile of Project Team Members – Interplay with Team Dynamics and Project Success," 7th International OFEL Conference on Governance, Management and Entrepreneurship: Embracing Diversity in Organisations (Dubrovnik, 2019), in: 7th International OFEL Conference on Governance, Management and Entrepreneurship: Embracing Diversity in Organisations. April 5th - 6th, 2019, Dubrovn, pages 272-286, Governance Research and Development Centre (CIRU), Zagreb.
    9. Junwei Zheng & Guangdong Wu, 2018. "Work-Family Conflict, Perceived Organizational Support and Professional Commitment: A Mediation Mechanism for Chinese Project Professionals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-23, February.
    10. Alexander Styhre & Per-Erik Josephson, 2007. "Coaching the site manager: effects on learning and managerial practice," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(12), pages 1295-1304.
    11. Guangdong Wu & Zhibin Hu & Junwei Zheng, 2019. "Role Stress, Job Burnout, and Job Performance in Construction Project Managers: The Moderating Role of Career Calling," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-20, July.
    12. Jiming Cao & Cong Liu & Yubin Zhou & Kaifeng Duan, 2020. "Work-to-Family Conflict, Job Burnout, and Project Success among Construction Professionals: The Moderating Role of Affective Commitment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-22, April.
    13. Evelyn Micelotta & Marvin Washington & Iva Docekalova, 2018. "Industry Gender Imprinting and New Venture Creation: The Liabilities of Women’s Leagues in the Sports Industry," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(1), pages 94-128, January.
    14. Ferratti, Gustavo M. & Sacomano Neto, Mario & Candido, Silvio E.A., 2021. "Controversies in an information technology startup: A critical actor-network analysis of the entrepreneurial process," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Yavuz Korkmazyurek, 2022. "Does Project Citizenship Behavior Leads Network Expansion? Gender-Based Comparison," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    16. Natalie Galea & Abigail Powell & Martin Loosemore & Louise Chappell, 2020. "The gendered dimensions of informal institutions in the Australian construction industry," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1214-1231, November.
    17. Saleem Gul & Muhammad Nouman, 2009. "Time Flux: An Examination Of Non-Temporal Considerations In Projects," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 1(1), pages 40-46, April.
    18. Sage, Daniel & Dainty, Andrew & Brookes, Naomi, 2013. "Thinking the ontological politics of managerial and critical performativities: An examination of project failure," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 282-291.
    19. Jiming Cao & Cong Liu & Guangdong Wu & Xianbo Zhao & Zhou Jiang, 2020. "Work–Family Conflict and Job Outcomes for Construction Professionals: The Mediating Role of Affective Organizational Commitment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-24, February.
    20. Augustsson Gunnar & Rasmusson Maria, 2018. "Regular and Temporary Employees in Project Organized Business Pay Different Attention to Preconditions for Learning," Organizacija, Sciendo, vol. 51(2), pages 97-110, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:28:y:2010:i:10:p:1085-1098. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RCME20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.