TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluating the impacts of health, social network and capital on craft efficiency and productivity
T2 - A case study of construction workers in China
AU - Yuan, Jingfeng
AU - Yi, Wen
AU - Miao, Mengyi
AU - Zhang, Lei
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors give special thanks go to all reviewers of the paper and to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC-71472037 and 71671042), the Program for Outstanding Young Teachers of Southeast University (2242015R30009) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities for financially supporting this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2018/2/15
Y1 - 2018/2/15
N2 - The construction industry has been recognized, for many years, as among those having a high likelihood of accidents, injuries and occupational illnesses. Such risks of construction workers can lead to low productivity and social problems. As a result, construction workers’ well-being should be highly addressed to improve construction workers’ efficiency and productivity. Meanwhile, the social support from a social network and capital (SNC) of construction workers has been considered as an effective approach to promote construction workers’ physical and mental health (P&M health), as well as their work efficiency and productivity. Based on a comprehensive literature review, a conceptual model, which aims to improve construction workers’ efficiency and productivity from the perspective of health and SNC, was proposed. A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the construction workers’ health, SNC and work efficiency and productivity in Nanjing, China. A structural equation model (SEM) was employed to test the three hypothetical relationships among construction workers’ P&M health, SNC and work efficiency and productivity. The results indicated that the direct impacts from construction workers’ P&M health on work efficiency and productivity were more significant than that from the SNC. In addition, the construction workers’ social capital and the network can indirectly influence the work efficiency and productivity by affecting the construction workers’ P&M health. Therefore, strategies for enhancing construction workers’ efficiency and productivity were proposed. Furthermore, many useable suggestions can be drawn from the research findings from the perspective of a government. The identified indicators and relationships would contribute to the construction work efficiency and productivity assessment and health management from the perspective of the construction workers.
AB - The construction industry has been recognized, for many years, as among those having a high likelihood of accidents, injuries and occupational illnesses. Such risks of construction workers can lead to low productivity and social problems. As a result, construction workers’ well-being should be highly addressed to improve construction workers’ efficiency and productivity. Meanwhile, the social support from a social network and capital (SNC) of construction workers has been considered as an effective approach to promote construction workers’ physical and mental health (P&M health), as well as their work efficiency and productivity. Based on a comprehensive literature review, a conceptual model, which aims to improve construction workers’ efficiency and productivity from the perspective of health and SNC, was proposed. A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the construction workers’ health, SNC and work efficiency and productivity in Nanjing, China. A structural equation model (SEM) was employed to test the three hypothetical relationships among construction workers’ P&M health, SNC and work efficiency and productivity. The results indicated that the direct impacts from construction workers’ P&M health on work efficiency and productivity were more significant than that from the SNC. In addition, the construction workers’ social capital and the network can indirectly influence the work efficiency and productivity by affecting the construction workers’ P&M health. Therefore, strategies for enhancing construction workers’ efficiency and productivity were proposed. Furthermore, many useable suggestions can be drawn from the research findings from the perspective of a government. The identified indicators and relationships would contribute to the construction work efficiency and productivity assessment and health management from the perspective of the construction workers.
KW - Craft efficiency
KW - Craft productivity
KW - Physical and mental health
KW - Social capital
KW - Social network
KW - Structural equation model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042285465&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph15020345
DO - 10.3390/ijerph15020345
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 29462861
AN - SCOPUS:85042285465
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 15
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 2
M1 - 345
ER -