See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/337937735

Job Stress Characteristics of Chinese Engineering Design Professionals: A

Case Study of Suzhou

Conference Paper · December 2019

CITATIONS READS

0 141

3 authors, including:

Riza Yosia Sunindijo

UNSW Sydney
87 PUBLICATIONS   1,135 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

An integrated collaborative FM framework for post-occupancy evaluation of higher educational facilities View project

HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Riza Yosia Sunindijo on 15 December 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Job Stress Characteristics of Chinese Engineering Design
Professionals: A Case Study of Suzhou
Shang Zhang1*, Riza Yosia Sunindijo2, Shane Galvin3

Abstract: Previous research on psychological stress in the construction industry tends to focus on
professionals working in construction organizations. The psychological stress problem among
engineering design professionals (architect, structural designer, etc.) has been overlooked in the
existing stress literature, despite their significant contributions to construction projects and the
construction industry. Hence, the aim of this study is to: (1) identify the job stressors of
engineering design professionals; (2) measure the stress level of engineering design professionals;
and (3) explore the stress coping behavior of engineering design professionals. In order to achieve
these research objectives, a questionnaire was distributed to engineering design professionals in
Suzhou, China, in which 57 valid questionnaires were obtained. The statistical analysis results
showed that the most significant job stressors of engineering design professionals are meeting
project quality requirements, salary expectation, client's requirement, and fast delivery of design
work. The majority of engineering design professionals in Suzhou experience a high level of stress,
with over 14% of them suffering from a very high level of stress. The most popular approaches
adopted by engineering design professionals to cope with stress are traveling/vacationing,
exercising, and communicating with family/friends. The research findings are valuable to assess
the current stress situation of engineering design professionals in China.
Keywords: Job Stress; Stressors; Stress Level; Coping Behavior; Engineering Design
Professionals; Suzhou; China

1*Shang Zhang
Corresponding author, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, China.
Email:zhangshfan@mail.usts.edu.cn.
2Riza Yosia Sunindijo
University of New South Wales, Australia.
3Shane Galvin
University of South Wales, UK.
1. Introduction
The construction industry has been recognized as a high-stress sector globally. About 70% of the
construction professionals working in the industry suffered from anxiety, stress and depression [4].
Engineering design is one of the critical processes in the overall life-cycle of a construction project.
Due to the rapid development of the Chinese construction industry, the engineering design has
increasingly grown into a significant business, which attracts a large amount of talents working in
this field. In 2018, 44.73 million employees were employed as professional engineering designers
and geological surveyors, and the total amount of new design contracts for engineering projects in
China is RMB 66.64 billion [27]. Engineering design professionals take full liability for the
quality of design work, which has a significant influence on project objectives. Fierce business
competition, high demand from employers for fast delivery of design work, heavy workload, and
complexity of modern engineering projects cause engineering design professionals to live a
fast-paced, unbalanced, and unhealthy life, characterized by stressful meetings, frequent business
traveling arrangements, extended working time, and poor work-life balance. All these factors have
negative impacts on their physical and mental health as well as their quality of life [31].
Although a number of studies have explored the stress issue of various types of professionals
working in the construction industry, such as Kamardeen and Sunindijo [12], Bowen et al. [3] and
Leung et al. [17], limited research has focused on investigating the extent of psychological stress
among engineering design professionals. Research has found that the personal characteristics
moderate job stress [12]. As such, the psychological stress of engineering design professionals is
worth investigating, considering the specific nature of the engineering design work and the
significant contributions of engineering design professionals to the construction industry. In order
to fill this knowledge gap, this study sets out the following research objectives: (1) identifying the
job stressors of engineering design professionals; (2) measuring the stress level of engineering
design professionals; and (3) identifying the stress coping behavior of engineering design
professionals.

2. Literature review
2.1 Stressors in the construction industry
According to Leung et al. [16], the stressors of construction professionals can be categorized into
four areas: personal stressors, job stressors, organizational stressors, and physical stressors.
Personal stressors are normally related with the individual's personality, for example Type A (e.g.
aggressive, competitive, impatient, self-critical, hostile, etc.) or Type B personality. In this case,
people with Type A personality tend to be more easily influenced by stress than those with Type B
personality [7]. According to Haynes and Love [10], in Australia, heavy workload, long working
hours and insufficient time spent with family are identified as the three most significant stressors
experienced by construction project managers. In China, the job stressors of employees in a
fitting-out company mainly include work environment, salary, work crisis, work overload,
working hours, work-family conflicts, organizational structure and cultural climate, and career
development [32]. In another study by Lv [25], the primary job stressors of Chinese construction
professionals are construction project requirements, career development, interpersonal
relationships, organizational climate, task requirements and work environment.
Quality, time, and cost are recognized as the traditional triangle objectives of construction
projects. In the modern Chinese construction industry, employers have become more sophisticated
and as a result significantly improved the benchmarking threshold on the successful delivery of
construction projects. For example, in addition to tight quality and cost control on the engineering
design product, employers pay more and more attention on the fast delivery of design work,
innovative solutions to design problems, and safe operation of the facilities. As a consequence, it
is very common that engineering design professionals work overtime and exhaustedly to meet
these demands.

2.2 Psychological stress

Generally, psychological stress happens when individuals encounter a discrepancy between the
expectations that other people have on them and their actual ability to meet these expectations [8].
Meanwhile, according to the job demand-control (JDC) model [13], the most stressful situation
happens when the work is assigned with high levels of job demand and low levels of job control.
Research by Johnson et al. [11] illustrated that the job support from colleagues or supervisors can
effectively reduce the negative influence of stress on workers' health. Conversely, poor
relationship with colleagues can lead to stress and low level of performance [24].
A number of instruments are available in measuring the stress level of individuals, and
typically these instruments use a series of questions which allow the respondents to self-evaluate
positive or negative feelings that they experience. One such instrument is the Gmelch’s
rustout-burnout (RO-BO) syndrome. In this inventory, a set of questions are used to measure the
indication of an individual's rustout or burnout status, based on the self-report evaluation of the
positive or negative signs of the respondent's stress [9]. In reality, stress also stimulates the
physical action of human body because of the protective and health-promotion functions [24],
which means it tries to overcome a stressful situation through physiological adjustments [18].
When they are not reverted to the normal condition, physical stress can cause a series of
physiological disorders, such as fatigue, headaches, and insomnia [26].

2.3 Coping behavior

A variety of techniques and tools can be employed to manage the psychological stress. At an
individual level, the stress may be alleviated through healthy diet, regular exercise, cognitive
technique, and relaxation training [23]. At a team or organizational level, based on the JDC model
[13] and JDCS (job demand-control-support) model [11][28], reducing work related demand,
offering sufficient control on task implementation and providing strong support from the
colleagues and supervisors are effective to reduce stress in the workplace. Another study by
Cooper[5] also illustrated that strong support from colleagues or supervisors can alleviate job
strain effectively, and serve to mediate the impacts of job distress. In addition, recreational
activities, lifestyle training, consulting programs for emotional or career development were also
found to be able to effectively treat serious stress problems at the organizational level [20].

3. Research method
A questionnaire was designed based on previous research discussed in the literature review section.
Furthermore, considering the specific nature of the engineering design work and the Chinese
culture, the questionnaire draft was presented face-to-face to nine engineering design professionals
in Suzhou for comments and suggestions. The basic profile of the professionals is presented in
Table 1.
Table 1 Profile of professionals in the pilot study
Interviewee Years of experience Discipline
Interviewee1 10 Architect
Interviewee2 6 Architect
Interviewee3 3 Structural designer
Interviewee4 11 Technical manager
Interviewee5 5 Structural designer
Interviewee6 4 Electrical designer
Interviewee7 3 Structural designer
Interviewee8 1 Architect
Interviewee9 2 Landscape designer

Through this process, some additional stressors were included, for example, the safety requirement
of the design proposal. The questions measuring the stress level were also revised based on their
experience and understanding. In terms of the coping behavior, they suggested to focus on the
investigation of individual strategies and leave an open space for respondent's input regarding the
coping strategies at the organizational level, since much fewer measures are available at their
organizations according to their experience. In addition, they also strongly suggested that the
 number of questions in the survey should be reduced, since engineering design professionals are
usually very busy and they will become impatient when they spend too much time on answering
the survey questions. Considering the above factors, the survey instrument was finalized and is
presented in Table 2.
Table 2 Structure and questions of the survey instrument
Item Question
Age (Q1)
Gender (Q2)
Basic profile of the respondents Years of working experience (Q3)
Discipline (Q4)
Working time in hours/day and hours/week (Q5)
Over-time work (Q6), High work load (Q7), Client's requirement
Stressors
(Q8), Salary expectation (Q9), Quality requirement (Q10), Progress
(Likert 5-point scale; 1 means strongly disagree, 3
requirement (Q11), Cost control requirement (Q12), Innovative
means neutral, 5 means strongly agree)
solution (Q13), Safety requirement (Q14).
Stress level Single-question measurement (Q15)
(Likert 5-point scale; 1 means strongly disagree, 3
means neutral, 5 means strongly agree) Multi-question measurement: Physical measurement
(Note: single-question measurement result was cross (Uncomfortable Q16, Fatigue Q17), Emotion measurement
validated with the multi-question measurement to derive (Emotion instability Q18, Impatience Q19), Lack of concentration
more reliable findings) (Q20).
Coping behavior Exercise (Q21), Traveling/vacationing (Q22), Communication with
(Note: The respondents can choose maximum three family/friends (Q23), Smoking/drinking alcohol (Q24), Playing
standard answers from the survey to represent their three games (Q25), Consulting a psychologist (Q26).
most popular coping strategies, and write down specific
Open question
additional coping strategies in the space provided)

In the first half of 2019, the questionnaire was randomly distributed either face-to-face or online to
seventy engineering design professionals in Suzhou, one of the most developed cities in China. In
2018, its gross domestic product was RMB 1,860 billion, while its gross construction output was
RMB 236.7 billion. In total, fifty-seven valid questionnaires were obtained, which represents a
response rate of 81.43%. Statistical analyses were conducted to derive the average, correlation and
standard deviation values of the critical stressors, the stress level, and the popular coping
behaviors of the respondents.

4. Data analysis results and discussions

4.1 Profile of the respondents
Based on statistical results, the basic profiles of respondents are shown in Table 3.
Table 3 Respondent profiles
Respondent attribute Percentage
Less than 20 years old 12.28%
21-30 years old 49.12%
Age 31-40 years old 29.82%
41-50 years old 8.77%
Over 50 years old 0%
Male 50.88%
Gender
Female 49.12%
Less than 1 year 28.07%
Years of design experience 1-5 (inclusive) years 19.30%
6-10 (inclusive) years 38.60%
 11-15 (inclusive) years 14.04%
More than 15 years 0.00%
Architect 33.33%
Landscape designer 8.77%
Structural designer 29.82%

Discipline Electrical designer 12.28%

HVAC designer 8.77%
Water supply and drainage
3.51%
designer
Others 3.51%

It can be seen from Table 3 that, close to 80% the respondents were between 21 to 40 years old.
The number of male respondents was close to female respondents. Over half of the respondents
had more than 5 years of working experience. Architect and structural designer were the majority
of the respondents, with 33.33% and 29.82% of the total number of the respondents, respectively.

4.2 Working hours of engineering design professionals

The statistical analysis results of the working hours for the designers are shown in Table 4.
Table 4 Working hours of the engineering designers
Working hours Average (hours) Standard deviation

Working hours/day (all respondents) 9.33 0.64

Working hours/week (all respondents) 52.44 5.89
Working hours/day (male respondents) 9.38 0.73
Working hours/day (female respondents) 9.29 0.53
Working hours/week (male respondents) 52.00 6.00
Working hours/week (female respondents) 52.89 5.86

The following findings were drawn from the analyses:

(1) On average, the engineering design professionals worked 9.33 hours a day, with 10 hours
as the maximum. Among them, 49.12% and 42.11% of the respondents worked 9 and 10 hours a
day, respectively.
(2) On average, the engineering design professionals worked 52.44 hours a week, with 60
hours as the maximum. Among them, 70.18% the respondents worked over 50 hours a week.
(3) When calculating the difference between the average working hours per day and per week,
it can be argued that 12% of the time was spent by the design professionals working during the
weekend.
The above results are not surprising at all in China. In some extreme cases reported in the
media, engineering design professionals worked more than 12 hours a day with no break over the
weekend for a month.
In terms of difference between genders, the results show that:
(1) There is no significant difference between the working hours of male and female
engineering design professionals, as indicated by the T-test analysis result (P=0.583318＞0.05).
(2) On average, the male engineering design professionals worked a little longer (0.09 hours)
than their female counterparts in a day. However, the female engineering design professionals
worked a little longer (0.89 hours) than their male counterparts in a week. It may show that the
female engineering design professionals spent more time working in the weekend than their male
counterparts.

4.3 Stressors of engineering design professionals

The stressor analysis results are shown in Table 5.
 Table 5 Stressor of the engineering design professionals
Stressor Average Standard deviation Rank

Quality requirement 4.47 0.60 1

Salary expectation 4.40 0.70 2
Employer's requirement 4.38 0.73 3
Progress requirement 4.38 0.61 4
Innovation requirement 4.31 0.76 5
Over-time work 4.28 0.72 6
High workload 4.19 0.73 7
Safety requirement 4.12 0.68 8
Cost control requirement 4.02 0.78 9

From Table 5, it can be observed that the most significant stressors of the engineering design
professionals are the quality requirement of the design work (4.47), salary expectation (4.40),
employer's requirement (4.38), and progress requirement (4.38). Hence, the work requirements are
serious stressors among these professionals. Due to the fierce competition in the Chinese
construction industry, expected quick return on investment, and commitment to project completion
date, employers put more and more emphasis on the fast delivery of design work, resulting in the
unreasonable demand to finish design work as quick as possible. These high expectations cause
the professionals to feel unhappy with their salaries. These results also echo the findings from
Leung et al. [19], who reported that due to different development backgrounds, work
environments and job nature, individual perceptions of stressors vary from person to person. In
stress management, the identification of stressors is the precondition of finding effective coping
measures to reduce stress level. The findings in this study can be helpful to tailor-make effective
stress management strategies for engineering design professionals at individual and organizational
levels.

4.4 Stress level of engineering design professionals

The statistical results of stress level are shown in Table 6.
Table 6 Stress level of engineering design professionals
Instrument Item Percentage Value Remark

Average - 4.22 -
Single-question
measurement result Standard deviation - 0.67 -

Average 20.63 -

Standard deviation 1.81 -

5-9.9 - Very low-level of stress This section includes 5

Multi-question questions, each question has
10-14.9 - Low-level of stress a Likert value from 1-5.
measurement result
Based on the calculation of
15-19.9 21.05% Medium-level of stress
total values of each
20-25 78.95% High-level of stress respondent's self-evaluation
in this section, his/her stress
More than 23 14.04% - level can be measured.

The majority of respondents experienced a high level of stress. In terms of the single-question
measurement result, the average stress level was 4.22, and nearly half of them (47.37%) reported a
very high level of stress (5). The multi-question measurement result shows that the average stress
level of the respondents was 20.63, which is categorized as a high level of stress (20-25). In fact,
about 14% of the respondents had a very high level stress (over 23 in value).
The cross validation of the two measurement results indicates that the engineering design
professionals in Suzhou experience a high level of stress and over 14% of them have a very high
level of stress.
 The study by Leung et al. [15] found that an inverted U-shaped relationship exist between
degrees of stress and levels of performance, which means that an optimum level of performance
will not be achieved if individuals are either under-stressed or overstressed. It seems that the
majority of engineering design professionals are overstressed, which can adversely affect their
performance. Therefore, a variety of measures are needed at individual and organizational levels
to reduce the stress level and allow engineering design professionals to perform optimally.
Research showed that longer working hours is one of the critical factors that caused a high
level of stress [10][32]. In order to explore the relationship between the working hours and stress
level, the data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation analysis and the results are presented in
Table 7.
Table 7 Pearson's correlation analysis on the relationship between working hours and stress level
Correlation Value
working hours/day and stress level (Single-question measurement) 0.069
working hours/week and stress level (Single-question measurement) 0.081
working hours/day and stress level (Multi-question measurement) 0.016
working hours/week and stress level (Multi-question measurement) -0.142

The findings indicate that working hours do not have influence on the stress level of the
engineering design professionals. As such, other factors are responsible for the high level of stress
experienced by these professionals.
Another analysis was conducted to compare the stress levels of male and female engineering
design professionals, as shown in Table 8.
Table 8 Stress levels of male and female engineering design professionals
Average value of stress level Average value of stress level
Gender
(Single-question measurement) (Multi-question measurement)
Male 4.34 20.55
Female 4.21 20.71

T-test analysis was adopted to further explore the difference of stress levels between the male
and female engineering design professionals, and the findings indicate that there is no significant
difference of stress levels between the two groups of professionals (P=0.470341＞0.05). This
finding is contrary to the investigation by Australian Bureau of Statistics [2], which reported that
women experienced higher rates of mental disorders than men, with the ratio of 22% versus 18%.
Kessler et al.[14] found that the rate of anxiety disorders among females was two times higher
than the rate of their male counterparts. Recent research by Sunindijo and Kamardeen [29] also
demonstrated that female construction professionals suffer more anxiety and acute stress
symptoms than male professionals. On the contrary, Loosemore and Waters [22] noted that due to
the relative senior positions men undertake in the construction industry, they generally experience
a significantly higher level of stress than women in areas of risk taking, disciplinary roles and
implications of mistakes.

4.5 Coping behavior of engineering design professionals

The stress coping strategies adopted by engineering design professionals are presented in Figure 1.
 70.00%
57.89%
60.00% 54.39% 50.88%
50.00% 45.61%
40.00%
28.07%
30.00% 21.05%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%

ng

es
g

ol
nin

ist
ds
isi

oh
ga

log
erc

ien
tio

alc
g
ca

ho
/fr
Ex

in

g
/va

ily

ay

yc
kin

ps
ng

Pl

rin
fa

a
eli

/d

ing
ith
av

ing
gw

ult
Tr

ok

ns
tin

Sm

Co
ica
un
m
m
Co
Figure 1 Stress coping strategies adopted by engineering design professionals

The three most popular strategies adopted were traveling/vacationing (57.89%), exercising
(54.39%) and communicating with family/friends (50.88%). These are proactive and healthy
approaches of alleviating job stress. According to Zhang [32], regular exercise, adequate sleep and
healthy diet have positive effects on relieving stress. For example, exercises can enhance the blood
circulation, and as a result reduce fatigue and improve the energy and concentration at work. In
addition, during the process of exercise, we may have more opportunities of communicating with
others, which is also conducive to reducing the job stress level.
However, the above results also illustrate that large amount of the respondents also employed
proactive and unhealthy methods in managing job stress, such as playing games (45.61%) and
smoking/drinking alcohol (28.07%). These methods might alleviate the job stress in a short term,
however, engineering design professionals are sacrificing their long-term health for a short-term
outcome. They may also become addictive to these negative activities. In this case, a vicious cycle
can happen in the stress management process, where a higher level of stress stimulates them to
spend more time playing game, and consuming more cigarettes and alcohol. Therefore, a healthy
coping behavior is crucial to alleviate stress in the long term.
It is also interesting to find that about one-fifth (21.05%) of the respondents also visited
psychologists to cope with their stress. Considering that Chinese people tend to stigmatize
psychological problems, it is a positive improvement to see that the respondents were willing to
adopt this strategy.
In addition, the results also show that when these professionals are stressed, they choose to
rely on themselves, instead of seeking the support from the organization, since no respondents
mentioned anything about coping strategies at the organizational level. This finding confirms the
feedback raised by the nine pilot study participants. It also echoes the studies of Li [21] and
Dong[6], which reported that the organizations do not provide sufficient psychological measures
to reduce the stress of their employees. Considering the engineering design professionals spend a
significant portion of their time working (52.44 hours a week on average), it is recommended for
engineering design companies to offer sufficient and effective psychological services to improve
the well-being of their employees.
It should be noted that all the respondents adopted more than one stress coping strategies,
with more than half of them (57.89%) employing three strategies (see Table 9).
Table 9 Number of approaches employed by the engineering design professionals in coping job stress
Number of approaches Percentage
2 methods of coping stress 42.11%
3 methods of coping stress 57.89%

5. Conclusions
Stress has become a serious issue in the construction industry. Existing studies have focused on
investigating the stress problems of construction professionals, while the same condition among
engineering design professionals is being overlooked. In order to address this knowledge gap, a
questionnaire survey was used to explore the job stress characteristics of engineering design
professionals in Suzhou. It was found that the most significant job stressors are project quality
requirement, salary expectation, client's requirement, and fast delivery of design work. The
engineering design professionals in Suzhou experience a high level of stress, with over 14% of
them suffering from a very high level of stress. The most common stress coping approaches
adopted by these professionals are traveling/vacationing, exercising and communicating with
family/friends. However, a large amount of them also employ unhealthy strategies in managing
stress, such as playing games and smoking/drinking alcohol. In addition, there is no evidence that
the organizations offer any respite to help their employees cope with the highly stressful working
environment.
If stress is not properly managed, it can contribute to physical and mental disorders at the
individual level [30], which has the potential to negatively influence family and personal lifestyles
[4]. An investigation by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [1] showed that AUD 9.1
billion was spent on mental health services in 2016-2017, demonstrating the significance of the
issue. The research findings contribute to advancing knowledge in this area by confirming that
engineering design professionals are experiencing a high level of stress that can potentially affect
their performance at work and in their daily lives.

6. Limitations and future research directions

Some research limitations are worth mentioning. First, this study only considers the job related
stressors. There may be other stressors that can be investigated further. Second, this study only
addresses the coping strategies at the individual level. Future study can explore the suitable coping
strategies at the organizational level. Third, questionnaire survey and statistical analysis are the
primary research methods in this study. Future qualitative approach can be employed to gain
in-depth understanding of the issue. Fourth, the number of respondents in this study is fairly
limited and may not reflect the condition in China. Further investigation is needed to validate the
findings.

Acknowledgement
We thank Ms Cui Xinhui and Huang Jiajia, the students at the Department of Construction
Management in Suzhou University of Science and Technology, for their contribution of collecting
the empirical data in this study.

Reference
[1] AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare). (2019).
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-welfare-services/mental-health-services/overvie
w, (accessed on August 18, 2019).
[2] Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). National survey of mental health and wellbeing:
Summary of results. Canberra, Australia.
[3] Bowen, P., Edwards, P., Lingard, H., and Cattell, K. (2014). Occupational stress and job
demand, control and support factors among construction project consultants, International
Journal of Project Management, 32(7), 1273-1284.
[4] Campbell, F. (2006). Occupational stress in the construction industry, Chartered Institute of
Building, Ascot, U.K.
[5] Cooper, C. L. (1987). The experience and management of stress: Job and organizational
determinants. Occupational stress and organizational effectiveness, A. W. Riley and S. J.
Zaccaro, eds., Praeger Publishers, New York.
[6] Dong, P. (2009). Research on stress management of construction supervisors, China
University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), China. In Chinese.
[7] French, J.R.P., and Caplan, R. D. (1972). Organizational stress and individual strain: The
failure of stress, AMACOM, New York.
[8] Gmelch, W.H. (1982). Beyond stress to effective management. Wiley, New York.
[9] Gmelch, W.H. (1994). Thriving on stress for success. Corwin, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
[10] Haynes, N.S., Love, P.E.D. (2004). Psychological adjustment and coping among construction
 project managers, Construction Management and Economics, 22, 129-140.
[11] Johnson, J.V., Hall, E.M., and Theorell, T. (1989). Combined effects of job strain and social
isolation on cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality in a random sample of the
Swedish male working population, Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health,
15, 271-279.
[12] Kamardeen, I., and Sunindijo, R.Y. (2017). Personal characteristics moderate work stress in
construction professionals, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(10):
04017072, 1-8.
[13] Karasek, R.A. (1979). Job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: Implications for
job redesign, Administrative Science Quarterly, 24(2), 285-308.
[14] Kessler, R.C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K.R., and Walters, E.E. (2005).
Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the national
comorbidity survey replication, Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 593-602.
[15] Leung, M.Y., Olomolaiye, P., Chong, A., and Lam, C.C.Y. (2005a). Impact of stress on
estimation performance in Hong Kong, Construction Management and Economics, 239(1),
891-903.
[16] Leung, M.Y., Skitmore, M., Ng, S.T., and Cheung, S.O. (2005b). Critical stressors
influencing construction estimators in Hong Kong, Construction Management and
Economics, 23(1), 33-43.
[17] Leung, M., Chan, Y. S. I., and Chen D.Y. (2011). Structural linear relationships between job
stress, burnout, physiological stress, and performance of construction project managers,
Engineering, Construction, and Architectural Management, 18(3), 312-328.
[18] Leung, M.Y., Bowen, P., Liang, Q., and Famakin, I. (2014). Development of a job-stress
model for construction professionals in South Africa and Hong Kong, Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management, 141(2): 04014077-1-9.
[19] Leung, M.Y., Chan, Y.S., and Chong, A.M.L. (2010). Chinese values and stressors of
construction professionals in Hong Kong, Journal of Management in Engineering, 136(12):
1289-1298.
[20] Leung, M.Y., Zhang H., and Skitmore, M. (2008). Effects of organizational supports on the
stress of construction estimation participants, Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management, 134(2): 84-93.
[21] Li, Y.Y (2017). Research on work stress management of new generation IT employees in
Hefei enterprises, Anhui University. In Chinese.
[22] Loosemore, M., and Waters, T. (2004). Gender differences in occupational stress among
professionals in the construction industry, Journal of Management in Engineering,
20(3):126-132.
[23] Love, P.E.D., Edwards, D. J., and Irani, Z. (2010). Work stress, support, and mental health in
construction, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 136(6), 650-658.
[24] Lundberg, U. (2006). Stress, subjective and objective health, International Journal of Social
Welfare, 15, 41-48.
[25] Lv, W. (2016). Research on the impact of job stress of construction professionals on
construction project performance, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, China. In
Chinese.
[26] Mellner, C., Krantz, G., and Lundberg, U. (2005). Medically unexplained symptoms in
women as related to physiological stress responses, Stress Health, 21(1), 45-52.
[27] Mohurd (Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of
China), (2018). National Statistical Report on Engineering Survey and Design in 2018,
http://www.mohurd.gov.cn/xytj/tjzljsxytjgb/tjxxtjgb/201906/t20190621_240943.html.
(Accessed on August 18, 2019).
 [28] Schaufeli, W.B., Bakker, A.B. (2004). Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with
burnout and engagement: A multi-sample study, Journal of Organizational Behavior. 25,
293-315.
[29] Sunindijo, R.Y. and Kamardeen, I. (2017). Work stress is a threat to gender diversity in the
construction industry, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 143(10),
04017073, 1-11.
[30] Wang, H.X., Leineweber, C., Kirkeeide, R. (2007). Psychosocial stress and atherosclerosis:
Family and work stress accelerate progression of coronary disease in women, The Stockholm
Female Coronary Angiography Study. Journal of Internal Medicine, 261(3), 245-254.
[31] Xu, X.N. (2018). Research on engineering cost management based on big data and BIM,
Popular Literature and Art, 2018 (9): 246-247. In Chinese.
[32] Zhang, P. (2008). Research on the work stress management of employees in F fitting-out
company, Northwest University, China. In Chinese.

View publication stats