ASSESSMENT ON THE JOB SATISFACTION OF GREEN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGERS: CRITICAL FACTORS, BARRIERS, AND IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES

Abstract

As a primary stakeholder in the process of green construction, it is necessary for project managers to perform well for project success. Project managers’ performance can be affected by their job satisfaction, and yet there is an absence of research performed on project managers’ job satisfaction in the context of green construction. Having focused on the job satisfaction of specific green construction project managers to ensure their competencies towards the trend of going green in the industry, this research aims to identify the primary factors, barriers, and strategies affecting the job satisfaction of green construction project managers. After an extensive literature review and a survey questionnaire were carried out, 105 complete sets of the questionnaires were collected and statistically analysed, followed by the post-interviews conducted with 5 industry experts to further substantiate the findings. The results revealed: (1) the top job satisfaction factors to be “job security”, “job salary”, “capability development”, “job difficulty”, and “job location”; (2) the top barriers to be “difficulty in understanding the green requirements of the client”, “lack of knowledge in green construction standards and information regarding green products and building systems”, “more time and workload needed in the pre-construction stage of green construction projects”, “complex and complicated code of practices and requirements for green construction projects”, and “difficulty in performing the green requirements of the client”; and (3) the top strategies to be “increasing opportunities for recognition in performing green construction projects for project managers”, “government to provide more incentives to counterbalance the high costs of green construction projects”, and “conducting introductory courses and upgrading training classes for team members to supplement knowledge in green construction legislations and processes”. Furthermore, the factor analyses performed categorised the job satisfaction factors and the barriers into four groups each, and the structural equation models established subsequently showed that the job satisfaction factors and the barriers have a significant cause-and-effect relationship with each other. The findings from this research contribute to the construction body of knowledge in the job satisfaction of green construction project managers, which will further assist in improving their job satisfaction level as well as their ultimate performance. Keywords: Green Construction Projects, Green Buildings, Sustainability, Job Satisfaction, Performance, Project Managers.