Research Outline
Unprecedented changes due to COVID-19 pandemic introduces new psychosocial risks for mental health of project management practitioners (PMPs) in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) projects. This research is aimed at improving mental health status of PMPs in AEC projects during COVID-19 pandemic in Australia by exploring psychosocial risk factors, evaluating their interventions, and establishing a psychosocial risk management framework. The research objectives will be attained through an expert forum, an industry questionnaire survey and a case study. The resultant psychosocial risk management framework is expected to improve mental health status of PMPs in AEC projects.
Research background
Late-March 2020, the novel coronavirus pandemic outbreak, COVID-19, forced Australian government to order the closure of construction sites across the states and people to work from home, unless they had jobs of high necessity (Australian Government Department of Health 2020). Among construction sectors, AEC project organizations are mostly hit by the pandemic because of their engagement in complex projects that entails large supply chain and multiple parties in delivering construction projects (Weatherly 2020). Disruption in supply chain of materials and workers to construction site has introduced new management system in AEC projects (Steele 2020). Management of multiple project parties remotely due to closure of construction site sparked unprecedented risks new to AEC projects. The situation is even worse as AEC project organizations struggle to transform into new form of budget, quality and time management system due to unplanned changes in project management (Steele 2020; Weatherly 2020).
COVID-19 is not going away soon in Australia (WorkSafe Victoria 2020). Unprecedented changes due to COVID-19 pandemic introduces new psychosocial risks for mental health of PMPs in AEC projects (Association for Project Management 2020). Irrespective of structure of working environment during the pandemic, PMPs are exposed to COVID-19 related psychosocial risks such as isolation, increased workload, stress of using new technologies, work family conflicts, longer working hours, risk of domestic violence and job insecurity (Houseman 2020; International Labour Organisation Office 2020). Social and economic implications of poor mental health among PMPs in AEC projects are substantial as cost of poor mental health to Australian workplaces is roughly AUD10.9 billion per year (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2014). Moreover, recent reports show sharp decrease in productivity of PMPs linked to COVID-19 related psychosocial risk factors for mental ill-health (Association for Project Management 2020).
Despite the relationships between COVID-19 psychosocial risk factors and mental ill-health among PMPs in AEC project organizations in Australia, and urgency to address the significant problem, there is a dearth of research on COVID-19 psychosocial risk management for mental health in AEC projects. This research is timely and urgent because of limited knowledge on how to manage psychosocial risk exposing PMPs to mental ill-health, which negatively influence their performance. Economical implication of poor mental health to Australian government and AEC project organizations ranging from medical cost and compensation claims substantial the significance of addressing the mental ill-health among PMPs.
Aim and Objectives
The research is aimed at improving mental health status of project management practitioners in AEC projects during COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Specifically, the following research objectives are to be attained:
- To explore psychosocial risk factors causing mental ill-health of PMPs in relation to COVID-19 pandemic in AEC projects.
- To evaluate interventions for psychosocial risk factors during Covid-19 pandemic in AEC projects.
- To establish psychosocial risk management framework for mental health of PMPs in AEC projects.
An academic paper, based on this research has been published in The Sustainability Journal. Organisational Interventions for Improving Mental Health of Project Management Practitioners during COVID-19 in Architecture, Engineering and Construction Sectors in Australia can be downloaded from:
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/16036/htm