Job burnout among construction engineers working within consulting and contracting organizations

Abstract

This research investigated and compared the experience of job burnout among 249 construction engineers working within consulting and contracting organizations in Hong Kong. The most widely recognized model of burnout, comprising emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and diminished professional efficacy was found to be valid. The sample in this study scored highest in all three dimensions of burnout among nine other occupations in national samples, with engineers working within contracting organizations reporting higher levels of burnout than their fellow engineers working within consulting organizations. The results of the study also showed that burnout attributed largely to stressors associated with job conditions and working environments. In particular, qualitative overload and lack of promotion prospects were found to be the major predictors of job burnout among engineers working within consulting organizations; whereas long working hours, role conflict, role ambiguity, and lack of job security accounted mostly for the burnout among engineers within contracting organizations. This suggested that intervention strategies targeting minimizing burnout, such as job redesign, should be devised with reference to the type of the engineering organizations. © 2009 ASCE.