The impact of stress on the performance of a project manager in the construction industry

Abstract

I am going to undertake my dissertation project on the fundamental significance of how imperative it is to a have an effective communication network which free-flows directly from the Project Manager (PM) through to each of the other various professionals during the lifecycle of a project. This documentation will also indicate how communication flows in the Construction Industry (CI) commencing from the clients initial Design Stage right up to the Hand Over phase of the project and my main intentions are going to be obtaining as much information on how stress can impact the performance of a PM and the influence it will partake during a project. (Walker, 2015) states that…” The list of activities tends to stress the inanimate parts of a project…which can only achieved by working through people. A vital important part of project managers is therefore concerned with listening and talking with the members of the project team.” Therefore the PM is a vital component of having a practicable chance of finishing the project to the available budget, permitted quality and agreed timeframe because the project will be vulnerable if they are stressed which will interrupt the easy flow of vital data to other professionals, reduce the level of effective communication and danger their well-being. So it is vastly significant to try and identify how this can be resolved, establish if they can be any means of fulfilling the gap of work overload and most importantly deduct the level of work related stress to the PM to allow a vigorous project.
For us to determine the true impact of how stress affects the performance of the PM during tasks, we first need to outline what stress is discretely and the (Health and Safety Executive, 2007) states that…”Stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them. There is a clear distinction between pressure, which can create a ‘buzz’ and be a motivating factor, and stress, which can occur when this pressure becomes excessive”. This openly indicates that individuals are open to finite amount of pressure whether if it is personal or work-related but will struggle and be not capable of keeping current with boundless altitudes of pressure if it is consistently applied to them. So it is highly essential for any individual whether employer or employee to be scheduled to undertake a certain amount of tasks or activities at a time because (Lazarus, 1966) also states that…“Stress arises when individuals perceive that they cannot adequately cope with the demands being made on them or with threats to their wellbeing”.
This sentence relates with (Health and Safety Executive, 2007) and indicates that the nature of stress itself is ought to make individuals minds contemplate that their intended activities or duties are a lot to accomplish which could then result in their characters breaking down and become depressed. This will manifestly result in immensely affecting the individuals well-being as they may react differently such as; beginning to have sleepless nights, devouring less opinions throughout verdicts, labouring dangerous working environment and a lot of extra hours to be up to date with the workload, having vague anticipations when communication with others and most importantly being unhappy with their occupation. However, stress itself is generally becoming an escalating key worry in the construction business as the industry is beginning to boom up from the last recession which is therefor commercially rising the amount of tasks for diverse professionals to embark on during a project, reducing the possibility of Sub-contractors to undertake big projects cause of the scope of work and work fulfilment heights is being decreased due to the amount of workload of data which is being transferred during the projects lifecycle.
I personally intend to reduce or eliminate the high levels of stress that occurs to the PM in the CI as workplace stress will acquire a negative influence on the health and well-being of not just a PM but any employee, as well as obtaining a destructive impact on output and incomes. Although they are a reasonable amount of Stress Management toolkits provided by the (Health and Safety Executive, n.d.) on their website, work related stress remains a huge matter for the PM as they are sometimes bombarded with an overload of vast amount of diverse information to gather and notify other operatives during projects. This will risk achieving the projects objectives of not only erecting the scheme to the agreed quality, but to the arranged time and available budget as well because they will be high reliance on the type of data being passed over. In view of all the above data, there is a convincing need to investigate and embark on a study to recognise the obstacles on why work related stress continues to impact the performance of a PM.