JOB SATISFACTION OF CONSTRUCTION SITE SUPERVISORS

Abstract

Site supervisors play an important role in construction projects in the construction industry by monitoring site operations and ensuring safety compliance for work procedures on site. A recent increase in fatalities and accidents in the year 2012 for the construction industry was attributed to the lack of implementation of control measures and failure to ensure adequate supervision of work. The inadequate supervision, leading to an increase in fatality and accident rates could be due to low job satisfaction of site supervisors. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine ways to increase job satisfaction of construction site supervisors in Singapore. The objectives are to: (1) investigate the level of job satisfaction of site supervisors in Singapore, (2) identify significant factors that affect job satisfaction of site supervisors and (3) propose recommendations to increase job satisfaction of site supervisors. A structured questionnaire was designed and developed based on the information gathered from literature review to determine the job satisfaction of site supervisors. The data was collected via face-to-face interviews with site supervisors at construction sites and analyzed using the SPSS software. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that 16 out of 20 independent factors significantly affect the job satisfaction of site supervisors. The factors are: (1) executing a variety of activities, (2) completing a "whole" product, (3) impacting the work of others, (4) given freedom and independence, (5) given discretion, (6) given performance appraisal from superior, (7) given opportunities to discuss job improvement, (8) having a stable job employment, (9) working regular hours, (10) rewarded for job well done, (11) given adequate pay, (12) having opportunities to make friends, (13) having cooperative colleagues, (14) having opportunities for job promotion, (15) attending training and upgrading classes and (16) being adequately supervised. Recommendations to improve the 16 independent factors are presented after analysing and discussing the results, with the aim of maintaining or increasing the job satisfaction of site supervisors.