Job Burnout and Safety Performance in the Hong Kong Construction Industry

Abstract

For decades the Hong Kong construction industry has been characterized by a stressful work environment and with a poor safety record. Construction personnel under prolonged job stress are more prone to making errors which can eventually lead to fatal construction accidents. Further, the job burnout experienced by construction personnel can reveal the linkage with safety performance. This study aims to investigate the impact of job burnout experienced by construction managers on safety performance. Thirty senior construction personnel attended the semi-structured interviews and each delivered a detailed account rich enough to be considered to be a case study. The findings from the interviews indicate that the effect of job burnout on safety performance is mixed and complex. Job burnout has a direct effect, no effect or an indirect effect through some mediators on safety performance. The level of involvement of individual staff and reliability of the work system also affect the degree of the linkage. Generally the contractor staff feel more stressful particularly when fatigue is an issue. Social aspects such as bureaucratization of the safety management system, under-evaluation of the contribution from safety personnel, and rivalry manoeuvring have an adverse effect. Good working relationships, quality of workforce and company organisational culture are dilutions to the burnout effect. It is worth noting that an individual’s ability to dilute and accept the burnout effect plays a key role in the final reaction. This paper, based on an exploratory study, attempts to present the impact of the effect of job burnout on safety performance and provides an innovative approach to analyse accidents based on human causes.