2005 CIB W92/T23/W107 International Symposium on Procurement Systems The Impact of Cultural Differences and Systems on Construction Performance February 7 th – 10 th ; 2005 – Las Vegas, NV USA JOB BURNOUT WITHIN THE HONG KONG CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE Brenda Yip 1 , Steve Rowlinson 2 , Thomas Kvan 3 , and Helen Lingard 4 1 Department of Real Estate and Construction, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 2 Department of Real Estate and Construction, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 3 Department of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 4 School of Built Environment and Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia ABSTRACT This survey was conducted to investigate the phenomenon of ‘burnout’ among construction professionals within the Hong Kong construction industry. The structure of ‘burnout’ and its contributing factors and consequential effects on work and non-work aspects were examined Emotional exhaustion and cynicism as structured within the most widely recognised model of burnout was found to be valid. However, a diminished sense of professional efficacy was divided into two factors; named self-worth and self-esteem, which were shown to be comparatively insignificant within the model. Job characteristics were found to be relatively more significant when compared with demographic and personality traits in predicting burnout. Emotional exhaustion and cynicism were proved to be strong and reliable predictors of the construction professional’s turnover. The results were compared with those obtained from similar studies previously undertaken in Australia. Data was found that supported the theory that construction professionals in Hong Kong had demonstrated a weaker positive relationship between ‘burnout’ and work-family stressors over the civil engineers contained within the Australian study. It was therefore concluded that cultural aspects within the environment are likely to influence the formation and implications of burnout which may in turn also induce an impact on the overall performance in the industry. Keywords: burnout, construction professionals, culture, job demands, turnover. INTRODUCTION Maslach et al. (1996) defined burnout as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment. Burnout contributed by job demands decreases the individuals’ level of job satisfaction, productivity and increases turnover intention that consequentially lowers the organisations’ performance. The nature of burnout and its relationship with personal and organisational settings has been studied in many countries among various occupations. Hong Kong’s cultural mix is likely to have an influence on the formation and implications of burnout, which may be considerably different from other societies; nevertheless, little research is available to explore this phenomenon. Many work-related predictors of burnout are observed to be present within the local construction industry, for example, working under conditions of high rates of industrial and fatal accident (Labour Department, 2003), unfavourable environments 1 brenda@hkusua.hku.hk 2 steverowlinson@hku.hk 3 tkvan@hku.hk 4 helenlingard@hotmail.com