CONSTRUCTION WORKER SATISFACTION

For many years, studies have been done on how job satisfaction is related to
productivity. Even though the country's largest industry, few behavioral studies have
not been directed toward construction. The following is the result of a study that was
conducted on the issue of job satisfaction as it relates to construction productivity.

Relationship Between Productivity and Job Satisfaction

For the construction industry, it was discovered that a productive job created high job
satisfaction while a nonproductive job (one which fell behind schedule) produced
dissatisfactions at all levels of the management/worker chain. This relationship is
inverse to the one found in an office or factory setting which states that high job
satisfaction leads to greater productivity. This inverse relationship is believed to be
due to the very nature of construction. In construction, a worker, through his own
efforts, produces a highly visible, physical structure in which great satisfaction comes
from its completion. Therefore, jobs that are well-planned and run smoothly produce
great satisfaction while jobs with poor management (with scheduling and planning
problems), create great dissatisfaction. This illustrates the relationship between job
satisfaction and productivity since well-managed jobs are generally more
productive. In construction, higher productivity means seeing the final result sooner
which in turn creates job satisfaction.

Why Work Is Satisfying

In order to make a construction project more productive, and therefore, more
satisfying, it was important to determine what made work satisfying for various
individuals from the Owner to the Apprentice.

1. The Owner and the Project Manager are most satisfied with a job in which there is
a profit being made, the customer is satisfied, and the project is on schedule. Other
factors not as important in creating a satisfying job, are good workmanship and a
tangible physical structure.

2. The Superintendent and Forman are also aware of profit, but profit does not result
in job satisfaction as much as for the Owner and Project Manager. The main satisfiers
to a job for the Superintendent are keeping with the schedule, meeting the challenge
of running and completing a project, and good workmanship. It also helps if there are
good work relationships with and within a crew.

3. The Journeyman and Apprentice are the least worried about profit and
schedule. Workers get most of their satisfaction from the completion of tasks, a good
hard day of productive work, and knowing they were a part of a tangible physical
structure. They also state that good social work relations add to their work
satisfaction.

Means For Increasing Job Satisfaction

In order to increase job satisfaction for everyone involved in a construction project,
one must be aware of not only what their own needs are but those needs of those
above and below them. The following outlines some of the mans for increasing job
satisfaction.
Increasing Satisfaction of Owners and Project Managers:
1. Timely Feedback--Timely job progress reports and effective cost reporting can help
finish the project on schedule for a profit.
2. Plan Rather than Restructure Job Content--Worker productivity is increased by
better planning not changes in work assignments after something goes wrong.
3. Effects of Change Orders--Worker morale can be affected if many changes are
made. One might say, 'Why should I build something well if it's going to be torn out
again?' Mitigating these effects will help to keep up productivity and workmanship.
4. Insuring Good Workmanship--Good work satisfies the customer which will in turn,
satisfy the Owner and Project Manager.
5. Identification With Goal of Building Structure--Somehow the final goal of a
finished structure keeps the project together. Everyone is satisfied since they feel a
part of the process.

Increasing Satisfaction of Superintendent and Foreman:

1. Challenging Work and Its' Relationship to Job Decision Making--Satisfaction
comes from the challenge of running work. This will depend on whether management
delegates enough responsibility and puts enough faith in its people to make those
decisions.
2. Effective Field Planning and Management Support--The Superintendent and
Foreman must have enough foresight to make sure they get the equipment and
materials they need to keep the
job running smoothly. Management must give support in updating schedule and
delivering the goods when needed.
3. Sharing Cost Information--If the Superintendent and Foremen are given cost
information on a regular basis, they may be helpful to management in achieving
profitability.
4. Identification With the Building Physical Structure
5. Developing Good Crew Relations--This includes relations between a single crew as
well as relations between the trades.

Increasing Satisfaction of Journeymen and Apprentices:

1. Accomplishing Task--Continuous feedback on daily workmanship and production
is most important.
2. Identification With Building of Physical Structure
3. Maintaining Good Crew Relationships

Construction satisfaction comes from the identification with being part of constructing
a unique structure. To insure and increase satisfaction, management efforts should
concentrate on good planning at all levels so workers can be productive. With high
productivity, everyone wins! Workers are satisfied at all levels, customer is satisfied,
and profits can be realized.

CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTIVITY AND JOB DISSATISFACTION

John Borcherding and Clarkson Oglesby also studied job dissatisfaction
and found each level of authority has roughly the same
dissatisifers. Borcherding and Oglesby reported these findings in the June
1975 issue of American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of the
Construction Division in an article titled "Job Dissatisfaction in
Construction Work". Job dissatisfaction can be one factor that will
increase costs, produce time delays and generally reduce productivity on
most types of projects. The essence of their findings was that each level
of authority has roughly the same dissatisfiers.

Five specific problems were found through many interviews with owners,
project managers, supervisors, foremen and journeymen. These included
union problems, poor engineering, company mistakes, lack of support
from superiors, and dealing with unqualified persons.

Owners' Views
Owners encounter numerous problems dealing with unions that increase
costs and cause delays. Union practices and policies are uncontrollable
by the owner, therefore it is important for the owner to work with the
unions not against them. Profits are small on projects any mistake by the
company or individual can be dissatisfying to the owner. These mistakes
can be avoid or minimized by having qualified people available with full
support to fix problems. Customer dissatisfaction can lead to payment
problems and dealing with unqualified persons of powerful
positions. Owners must delegate work to those who efficiently carried it
out in a flexible manner. Also owners must develop relations early in the
project with those who could pose a threat to the project, i.e. inspectors,
and city officials so problems can be quickly resolved.

Project Managers' Views

Project managers' (PM) dissatifers differ from those of the
owner. Company or personal mistakes, like missing items in estimates,
cause dissatisfaction for PM. Errors and mistakes can be avoid or
minimized by pre-planning and less last-minute decisions. Also, full
support by the owner will help relieve the pressures if cost and schedule
problems develop. Poor engineering can be resolved by pre-planning and
having full engineering support available to solved problems quickly. Poor
supervisors can affect the production and profitability on all parts on a
project. Supers should be carefully selected and those with weak skills
should be retrained.

Superintendents Views'
Superintendents dissatifers are similar to the PM's' as both are up and
down the ladder. Poor organization between the GC's super and sub-
contractors' supers can cause a lot of problems. The line of authority
should not be handed down from high level management. This would
impose an inflexible working requirement that will hamper productivity.
Supers must work out the integration of trades through cooperative
attitudes and weekly meetings. Another dissatifier is constant criticism
from the home office to increase productivity. If management wants to
critique a supervisors performance the good and bad should be fairly
evaluated and told to the super. Full support by upper management will
reduce the pressure on supers. Other dissatsfers is poor engineering,
union problems and personal mistakes. Preplanning and good rapport
relationships with unions and employees will help super alleviate these
problems. Supers should always keep an eye out for new, qualified
employees.

Foreman Views'
Uncooperative or unqualified workers slow down jobs, increase costs and
reduce quality. Foreman should work for job satisfaction for union
workers and keep tabs on possible new qualified, cooperative workers.
Hazing and other harassment practices can produce a bad attitude on an
employee(s). Foreman should work to eliminate these practices and
separate out those with bad attitudes to work along. Foremen need to
forecast any problems ahead of time so management and engineering has
sufficient time to response. In tune, management need to give full support
to the foremen. Union problems also plague the foremen. All levels of the
contractor management must make the commitment to work with unions
not against them.

Journeyman and Apprentices' Views

Journeyman are the ones who do actually perform the construction
work. Management purposed is to organized them and materials to
execute the work efficiently. Dissatisifers are poor interpersonal relations
with other employees or supervisor, poor quality or unproductive work
performed by their crew, unfair job assignment or the work itself. It is
important the skilled, experience employees are teaching the
inexperienced workers in an encouraging, fair manner. Job assignment
are divided up equally and rotate the assignments where
possible. Tedious and difficult "dirty" jobs are required and someone
needs to do them, but this dissatisfiers that can be minimized.

Dissatisifers can be minimized by pre-planning to identify errors or

probable problems and then solving them in the home office. Also, all
individuals should forecast ahead to identify potential problems. Union
problems will occur, success PM and owners should not have these
problems conflict with the construction work. And finally, interpersonal
relationship between all group should be well established before any
problem develop.