Department of Real Estate and Construction, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Mar 20;15(3):561. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15030561.
Driven by fast-growing economies worldwide, the number of international construction projects is booming, and employing expatriates has inevitably become a strategy used by construction firms. However, stress arising from expatriate assignments can lead to early return, assignment failure, and staff turnover, causing in significant losses to an organisation. Extensive research has focused on the effectiveness of coping behaviours in relation to stress. However, studies investigating the antecedents of coping are rare. The limited studies to date tend to focus on content-based motivations (identifying what), instead of on how coping behaviours can be motivated in the stress management process (identifying how). Focus on expatriate construction professionals (ECPs) is further limited. Hence, this study aims to investigate from a process theory perspective the role of motivation in the stress management process. Using a qualitative interview study approach, involving 22 in-depth interviews, this study first identifies the content of motivation, coping behaviours, performance, and stress in the context of Hong Kong ECPs working on cross-cultural projects in China; it then unveils and explains the associations between the identified variables. Based on the results, stakeholders are recommended to review pre-departure training, so as to ensure that key elements such as personal awareness of stress (cognitive, affective, and physical), expectancies of coping strategies on stress (adaptive or maladaptive), and expectancies of the influence of stress on performance are covered.
在全球经济快速增长的推动下，国际建筑项目的数量正在蓬勃发展，雇用外籍人士不可避免地成为建筑公司采用的一种策略。然而，外派人员的工作压力会导致提前回国、任务失败和员工离职，给组织带来重大损失。大量研究集中在应对行为与压力的有效性上。然而，关于应对压力的前因的研究很少。迄今为止，有限的研究往往侧重于基于内容的动机（确定是什么），而不是关注如何在压力管理过程中激发应对行为（确定如何）。对外派建筑专业人员（ECP）的关注进一步受到限制。因此，本研究旨在从过程理论的角度调查动机在压力管理过程中的作用。本研究采用定性访谈研究方法，涉及 22 次深度访谈，首先确定了在香港 ECP 在中国跨文化项目工作背景下的动机、应对行为、绩效和压力的内容；然后揭示并解释了识别变量之间的关联。基于研究结果，建议利益相关者审查出国前培训，以确保涵盖关键要素，如个人对压力的认知（认知、情感和身体）、对压力应对策略的期望（适应性或不适应性）以及对压力对绩效的影响的期望。
