Improving Psychological Health of Junior Professionals in the Construction Organisations in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Construction is a volatile and highly uncertain industry that faces several challenges in terms of poor image, skills and labour shortage, exposure to adverse weather, macho culture, and stressful environment. The labour-intensive nature of construction industry leads to vertical and horizontal segregation within the workforce. This study focuses on the psychological health experienced by junior professionals from the time they join until they settle down in Sri Lanka. It is vital to keep the junior professionals in their best psychological position to ensure their continuity in the job. This study investigated the risk factors that contribute to psychological health of junior professionals in construction industry and proposed strategies to address such risk factors. The research adopted a qualitative survey strategy, where 24 semi-structured qualitative interviews, including 18 junior and 6 senior construction professionals, were conducted. The research identified 26 factors under five categories such as adverse nature, apprenticeship, company culture, competition and opinions. While conforming to the existing factors from literature, the research revealed new factors too. Few to name are some common factors such as lack of leisure events, deadlines, job uncertainty; some personal factors such as human behaviour, illegal activities, personal agendas, lack of belongingness, educational background, personal bias, and lack of confidence and some dependency factors such as lack of support from seniors and task-oriented training. The senior professionals, while agreeing to most of these factors, claimed these are mainly due to the limited subject specific knowledge and lack of awareness on the nature of the job including regulations and policies by junior professionals. Appointing a mental health monitoring officer, implementing stronger human resource management policies, investing on training and development, counselling and support systems and encouraging more social activities were some of the key strategies proposed to improve the psychological wellbeing of the junior professional.