Construction project manager ways to cope with stress at workplace

Abstract

Health and safety issues at workplaces need to be addressed in ensuring the construction sector in our country is free from health and safety problems. Safety issues are often being trumpeted however health issues have been less emphasized even though these issues actually are more significant and could have large impact on the construction industry. Only a handful of workers know that health issues could result in various negative effects to themselves and organization. One of the health issues that can result in various problems is stress at workplace. Stress could result in various health problems and if being kept long enough it could cause death. Therefore, a study on workplace stress among the construction project manager was conducted to examine the ways they cope with the stress at workplace. The primary data had been collected from the questionnaire surveys on the project managers within the construction industry. The data then were analyzed using the percentage score, average index analysis and the diagram such as bar chart had been be used to visualize the results from the analysis. From the findings, many project managers thought stress at workplace exist, however this issue is being marginalized and only 30% of respondents acknowledged experience stress in their workplace. This problem existed in the Malaysian construction industry however lack of awareness on this issue has resulted in no action taken. Organizational factor was the main factor that causes these problems in our construction industry. Weakness in planning within organization was the sub factor that triggers the stress problem among project manager. Finally, the survey indicated that there were three ways often being practiced by the project manager to handle stress which were good planning in organization, effective communication between employee and always thinking positively.