Managing WLB in the construction industry: a boundary theory approach

What is it about?

There is international consensus that poor work-life balance (WLB) represents a significant health risk to many people who work in the construction industry. Addressing the under-theorization, methodological limitations and lack of large-scale empirical research in this emerging field of study, this paper reports the results of a survey (N=1475) and interviews (N=64) with people from across the Australian construction industry. The findings show that Boundary Theory provides a valuable conceptual lens to advance understanding of WLB in the construction industry. They show that people working in the industry suffer substantial challenges in managing the temporal, physical and psychological boundaries between their work and non-work domains to achieve a healthy WLB and that there is a considerable degree of inequity in the resources available to enable them to do so. Young people working in junior on-site supervisory roles (especially on large commercial and infrastructure projects) appear to suffer the greatest boundary management challenges. It is also found that the very strong, impermeable and inflexible boundaries between work and non-work domains in the construction industry are nurtured and maintained by institutionalized workplace norms, practices and cultures which undermine the intent of formal initiatives to help people manage their temporal, physical and psychological boundaries to achieve a healthy WLB. Several recommendations are made to help people manage the temporal, physical and psychological boundaries between their work and non-work domains more effectively in order to achieve a healthy and sustainable WLB.

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