Physical and cognitive demands of work in building construction

Abstract

Purpose Investigating demands within an occupational context has always been an essential endeavor to guarantee worker well-being and performance efficiency. In blue-collar occupations, the physical demands of manual labor have always been the major focus, but recent technological changes may come with higher demands on the intellectual capacities of workers. For this reason, the purpose of this paper is to assess physical and cognitive demands that construction workers face. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a quantitative study using standardized research instruments. Construction workers of three German construction companies were asked to volunteer to participate in interviews (n=35) and a survey (n=30) that assessed the extent of physical demands and a variety of cognitive demands experienced by construction workers. Findings The results suggest that construction work is demanding in physical terms as well as in perceptual, psychomotor, social and cognitive terms. Using and updating specialized knowledge, giving advice and providing consultation, friendliness, assertiveness and reliability are important demands among construction workers. Research limitations/implications Construction workers face an undervalued level of demands in their everyday work environment. As high demands can affect well-being and mental health, construction companies would greatly benefit from investing efforts into evaluating the multi-component demands profile of their workers and the impact on their health, in particular through the strongly increasing cognitive demands due to the ongoing digitization of the sector. Originality/value The study identified essential demands in construction work that are relevant for the workers’ productivity and well-being.

Exploring the relations between the physiological factors and the likelihood of accidents on construction sites

“…Previous studies (Jebelli et al, 2019a;Choi et al, 2019;Aryal et al, 2017) also point out that physiological variables, which are ST, HR and EDA are crucial indicators to understand the mental and physical disorders of the construction workers. It is commonly emphasized that these human body reactions have vital roles in construction accidents (Rodriguez et al, 2019).…”

Quantifying the Effect of Mental Stress on Physical Stress for Construction Tasks

“…(Accepted) cognitive task as a mental stressor because recent research has found that construction workers suffer from higher cognitive workload as compared to workers in other industries (Azeez et al 2019). Also, the cognitive workload of construction workers is expected to increase further in the coming years due to the ongoing digitization of the construction industry (Rodriguez et al 2019). Last but not the least, other stressors such as working in hazardous environment and time-pressure may fail to induce mental stress under simulated environment when the participants know that it is just a simulation.…”

Impact of job quality on construction worker’s health and well-being in a developing country context

“…Construction work is both physically [1] and psychologically demanding [2]. Workers in the construction industry experience higher work disabilities than other blue-collar employees [3].…”