Improving employees' work-life balance in the construction industry: Project alliance case study

Improving employees' work-life balance in the construction industry: Project alliance case study

Lingard, H, Brown, K, Bradley, L, Bailey, C and Townsend, K 2007, 'Improving employees' work-life balance in the construction industry: Project alliance case study', Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, vol. 133, pp. 807-815.

Document type:	Journal Article
Collection:	Journal Articles

Title	Improving employees' work-life balance in the construction industry: Project alliance case study
Author(s)	Lingard, H Brown, K Bradley, L Bailey, C Townsend, K
Year	2007
Journal name	Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume number	133
Start page	807
End page	815
Total pages	9
Publisher	American Society of Civil Engineers
Abstract	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.
Subject	Building Construction Management and Project Planning
Keyword(s)	Family Conflict Performance Impact Productivity Commitment Policies Systems Support
Copyright notice	© 2007 ASCE
ISSN	0733-9364

Citation counts:	Cited 10 times in TR Web of Science Cited 13 times in Scopus Article \| Citations
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