Developing a Stress Management Model for Construction Estimators

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Developing A Stress Management Model for Construction Estimators

Mei-yung Leung

Department of Building and Construction, City University of Hong Kong

Introduction

In recent years, Hong Kong is facing a serious recession period (GDP decreases 5.5% from HK $1,344.5 billions in 1997 to HK $1,271.1 billions in 2001) (Census and Statistics 2003). Hong Kong people have high GDP per capita amongst international cities, but they scored highest in feeling tired and tense (Lau 2003). Echoing the fact that a lot of construction projects have been postponed in recent years due to the recession, cost estimators play a significant role in the construction companies to bid the project successfully.

Many research studies have been focusing on the behavior and performance of construction managers and estimators (Dawood 1998) as the management and estimating tasks are largely unstructured and relying on subjective judgment, while the problem solving ability and performance of the construction managers and estimators could be affected by the job stress. But yet, there is a lack of research in investigating an integrated relationship among stressors, stress, coping behavior and performance in the construction industry. Stress influences the estimator’s behavior and performance and the successful probability of tender bidding. To optimize the profitability of construction companies and to enhance the estimate performance in challenging environment, a stress management model is, thus, significant for providing us with valuable information on how to proactively manage stress among estimate participants (estimators, procurement staff and planners) in construction companies.

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Role of Estimators

Estimators are indispensable specialists in the construction design team. The roles of estimators include collecting quotation from sub-contractors/suppliers, designing the best alternative design, forecasting the probable cost of a future project, and setting, monitoring and controlling the budget of the scheme throughout the design and construction phases (Seeley 1983; Dysert 2000). In order to fulfill all tasks, various estimating core competencies are required for an estimator, including business skills, software skills, communication skills and general skills (see Table 1).

Table 1 A Summary of Estimating Techniques Estimating Description Skills • Understanding of the capital project process and estimate requirements for each class of estimate • Understanding of the contractual relationships • Ability to identify important aspects of the contract • Understanding of building design • Ability to read and interpret drawings, documents and specifications • Project breakdown structures • Basic project controls on budgets, schedules, cost control, change management, progress measurement, earned value, and forecasting • Data analysis on labor productivity, database standards and Business Skills development, historical data analysis, and benchmarking • Strategic estimating skills like capacity factoring, equipment factoring, cost modeling, general factor, and ratio development) • Detailed estimating skills for material takeoffs, pricing, and costing • Able to make sound and accurate judgments based on knowledge • Quickly analyze and interpret details and poorly defined information • Perceive construction details within the board lines of design sketches • Ability to identify risks and then neutralize them as much as possible • Creativity and ability to think of alternative construction methods • Company software (accounting system, purchase order system, material pricing system, timecard, and project charging systems) • General software (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, or Lotus Notes) Software Skills • Estimating software (all estimating software used by the department) • Estimating workload reporting system • Project historical retrieval and analysis system • Risk analysis software

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Estimating Description Skills • Presentation skills including report writing and listening skill • Communications and interpersonal skills • Organizational ability in order to communicate the estimate in a Communication logical and clear presentation Skills • Well-organized work to the extent that in an unforeseen circumstance, someone else may step in, complete the estimate, and submit a proposal on the project • Planning, organizing, and delegating • Resourcefulness and problem-solving • Decision-making • Teamwork and relationships • Following project process and procedures General Skills • Leadership and negotiations • Marketing • Knowledge of economics and basic mathematics • Patience and ability to do careful, thorough work • Ability to meet deadlines and still remain calm • Sensitivity (awareness of client’s requirements [Source: Collier (1987); Dagostino (1993); Skitmore et. al. (1994); Schuette (1994); Dysert and Elliott (2000)]

In real world, an under-estimation of construction costs could have a significant impact on the success of a project as extra monetary resources may have to be directed to the scheme or changes in design may be necessary to reduce the cost to an acceptable level. Similarly, an over-estimation can lead to a failure in maximizing the design potential, an under use of earmarked funds and loss of bidding. Hence, it is difficult to predict an accuracy cost estimate in practice. Estimators are always confronted with a number of problems when preparing the project estimates. A common problem is the inadequacy of information for decision-making. During the early design stage, there are often limited drawings and specifications. Estimators have to rely on a lot of assumptions to perform the estimate. On the other hand, insufficient time for the completion of estimating task is another problem faced by the estimators. In some circumstances, estimators are required to produce a cost estimate within hours. Furthermore, previous cost information may not be compatible with the project being examined, since every construction project is heterogeneous in nature. Estimators are, thus, under pressure to produce an estimate as accurate as possible. Therefore, an estimating process should not only require the technical skills, but also comprise non- technical skills. An effective stress management method can support the estimators to manage the estimating tasks with optimizing performance.

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A S–B–P–O MODEL

Stemming from psychological aspect (Feather 1979; Rokeach 1973), decision need considers three major components: person, object and environment (Leung and Liu 1998; Liu and Leung 2002). In the estimating process, the object is a building product which exists in an environment and influences the environment. Each project estimator’s judgement of the proposed building (an object) is affected by two variables –person and environment. The interdependence of these three components impacts upon subjective emotion, decisions and the performance. In order to improve the estimating performance (i.e. forecasting an accuracy project cost), optimisation of affective stress with appropriate coping behaviour and actual performance of estimators are critical for the tendering. An individual Stress Management Model is proposed in Fig.1 for estimators in construction projects.

Feedback Stressors Task : process effectiveness - estimators & inter-relationships project performance Person : cooperation, - construction projects - psychical environment interpersonal relationship, Organization : organizational relationship

Outcome Estimator’s Coping

stress Behavior Performance (Successful /Satisfaction) (individual)

Problem-focused coping Emotion-focused coping Feedback

Figure 1 Stressor-Stress-iCopingBehaviour-Performance/Satisfaction Model

Stressors–Stress

In the estimation process, bidding strategy is defined by the estimators directly and, simultaneously, influences the behavior and performance of estimator in the estimation process. Estimator is the key person to set the bidding strategy for his/her company through the decision making process and prepare the estimation report for a particular construction project. The personal characteristics of estimator, the organizational structure of company, the inter-relationships amongst the colleagues and collaborators and the physical environment can influence the stress level of estimators during the estimation process. In an organizational setting, a wide array of variables is grouped into three main stressors, including personal (estimators) stressors, task (projects) stressors and physical (firms) stressors (Leung and Lam 2002; Leung et al 2003a).

Each estimators has different cultural, gender, age, religions, belief and personal characteristics, etc. (personal stressors), therefore he/she has different levels of resistance to the stressor (Lee et al. 1990). An individual with Type A personality is

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extremely competitive, highly committed to work and strongly sense of time urgency (Ganster1986; Lee et al. 1990). Therefore, the estimator with this type of personality is generally higher emotional distress and suffers from more stress symptoms. Individual differences, private life and locus of control are one of the stressors influencing the stress of estimators. Sometimes, members further transfer the pressures on their colleagues or other team members. Stresses and tension are then extended to the whole estimating team from an individual. Poor relationships are induced as low interest in listening, lack of support in implementation and mistrust amongst participants, which subsequently produce low job satisfaction and psychological stress (Gmelch 1982).

On the other hand, task stressors may be suffered under the situations that the workload is too high or too difficult, the task is out of the estimator’s capability to handle, the time allowed for completion of the estimate is very limited and the vague estimating task objectives are received. Physical stressors relate to the environment that an estimator works at. A great deal of research has studied the relationships between the physical environment and the physical/psychological health; and indicated that stress normally generated in the poor working conditions such as extremes high/low temperature, noise, overcrowded environment and poor design office (e.g., Mind Tools Ltd. 2002).

Stress–Performance

Stressful, threatening, or demanding situations can lead to a number of undesirable consequences including heightened anxiety and a decrement in performance. Stress not only affects personal psychology, but it also influences the construction project, interpersonal relationships amongst project team members and finally the organizational relationship (Leung et al 2003b). The cost of stress is finally high in monetary value and also in socio-economic terms. The British Heart Foundation suggested that coronary heart disease, often attributable to stress, costs of £200 per employee per year in UK (Macdubhghaill 1991). Other countries such as USA, Norway, Netherlands and Sweden considered stress as a major problem and an effective stress management method has been rapidly developed (Sommerville and Langford 1994).

Despite having too much stress (over-stress) can result in “burn-out”, too little stress (under-stress) can also affect the performance of the estimators in “rust-out”. Based on Yerkes-Dodson Law (Yerkes and Dodson 1908), various research studies (e.g., Fisher 1986; Hebb 1995; Malmo 1959) suggest that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the degree of stress and level of performance (performance will not attain an optimum level if the estimators are under or over-stressed) (see Figure 2). There is an optimum level of pressure at which people work most effectively (Hanson 1987).

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Figure 2 The Relationship between Stress and Performance (Mind Tools Ltd. 2002)

Stress–individual Coping Behaviors (iCB)

A lot of researchers viewed coping as a major component of the overall stress process (Folkman et. al 1986; Newton and Keenan 1985). It is defined as a stress-related behavior (Lazarus and Folkman 1984). "Stress is one-third what happens and two-thirds how you react to it. …… It depends not just on the phenomenon of stressors, which are inevitable, but on how you conceptualize them, how you choose to react." (Vernarec and Phillips 2001). There are various coping approaches to stress, including personal traits or styles (in terms of personal characteristics and behaviors to cope with stress) (Carver et al. 1989; Endler and Parker 1990), psychoanalytic approaches (in terms of realistic thoughts and actions for problem solving) (Haan 1977; Suls and Fletcher 1985), sequencing stages (in terms of a series of discrete responses occurring in a specific sequence) (Koeske and Kirk 1993), and specific foci or methods (in terms of the assessment of actual coping behaviors: problem-focused and emotion-focused coping) (Lazarus and Folkamn 1984).

An extensive review of literature has classified two main types of coping behaviors to stress: (1) problem-coping focusing on task situation or problem-solving (i.e. problem appraisal, direct action, instrumental support seeking and preparatory action) (Billings and Moos 1981; Carver et al. 1989); and (2) emotion-coping dealing with emotional or anxiety reactions (i.e. affective regulation, seeking emotional support, emotional discharge and escape) (Lazarus and Folkamn 1984; Weatherley and Irit 1996). The selection /application of coping strategies depends on various factors such as the personality of the individual (gender, education, locus of control, type A personality, etc.), stress symptoms (threat, feelings of tension, internalizing, externalizing, etc.), stressful events (over-/under-workload, job ambiguity, role conflict, etc.) or the interaction of combinations of these processes (Endler and Parker 1990; Tillmann and Beard 2001). The more we take control of those factors, the better able we shall be to focus on resolving the sources of stress instead of feeling powerless against them (Vernarec and Phillips 2001).

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In sum, stressors (person (estimators), task (job) and environment (firm)) affect stress as well as coping behaviours of estimators in the estimating/bidding processes, while the coping behaviours (problem- or emotion-focuses) to stress influence the estimating performance and final project success. Once the person, task and environmental stressors are managed well and the appropriate coping behaviours (problem or emotion) are applied in estimate process, a competitive tendering cost will be obtained with profitability for construction companies. Subsequently, the project outcome will further affect the stressors and coping behaviours of estimators in the firms on the following jobs.

Discussion

To yield a desired performance, it is necessary to ensure that the estimators are working at an optimum level of stress and coping with stress effectively. The model in Figure 1 seeks to establish relationships between stressors, stress, coping behavior and performance in the estimate process. It is postulated that performance is dependent on stressors (person, task and physic), stress and coping behavior (problem- and emotion- focuses) of estimators as shown in the following hypotheses.

1. Stressors (personal, task and physical) cause stress of estimators; 2. Moderate stress produces optimal level of performance; and 3. Stress coping behaviours improve the estimate performance.

Since stress is an individual perceived quality depending on the intrapsychic tension, it is difficult to determine the thresholds where a stressor changes from being underloaded to an optimal or vice versa (Cox 1983). Each person, thus, has different reactions to stress, and the impact of stress is partly contingent upon the individual’s capability of coping (Mikhail 1985). The methodology in hypotheses testing will develop along the lines of triangulated qualitative and quantitative approaches together. Questionnaire survey, experimental test and case study will be involved for developing the integrated stress management model for estimators in construction companies. Both correlation and structural equation model will be applied for analyzing the quantitative data, while NVivo is proposed to analyze the qualitative data collected from the case study.

Conclusion

The paper argues that the field of psychology and sociology provide theoretical base for explaining the impact of stress on the estimate performance via the Stressor–Stress– Copingbehavior–Performance cyclical process. During this recession period in Hong Kong, a lot of construction companies have rapidly streamlined their estimation structure to stay profitable and effective estimation process. Each estimator, thus, need to handle more projects with limited support. Estimate influences the probability of tender bidding success and the profitability/survival of construction companies in the industry. Stressful tasks contribute poor performance significantly. The theoretical constructs provide the underpinning concept that must be examined in estimation process. Stressors affect stress as well as coping behaviours of estimators in the estimating/bidding processes, while the coping behaviours to stress influence the estimating performance and final

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project success. Subsequently, the project outcome will further affect the stressors and coping behaviours of estimators in the firms on the following jobs.

In order to manage the stress in the estimation process, stressors and coping behaviours have to be identified at first for the construction estimators. Previous research has shown that person (estimator), task (job) and environment (firm) stressors induce stress, while appropriate coping behaviours (problem-focus and emotion-focus) to stress produce enhance better performance. The relationship between stressors, stress, coping behaviours and performance in the estimation process has to be further investigated.

Acknowledgement

The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from CityU (Project No. 7001466).

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