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Working Hour, Work-Life Balance and Mental Health on Construction Workers

Received: 21 August 2016     Accepted: 1 September 2016     Published: 21 September 2016
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Abstract

This study investigated the working hours, work-life balance and mental health of 100 construction workers in a place without Standard Working Hour legislation, Hong Kong, using a questionnaire survey. Results showed these participants had longer working hours (54 hours/week) than many other workers in Hong Kong and in many other places. However, the results did not show the work-life balance was as poor as another long working hour industry in Hong Kong, public doctors. The mental health condition (mean GHQ score 9.66) was not shown to be poor. There existed some associations among long working hours, poor work-life balance and poor mental health condition. To conclude, construction workers in Hong Kong, without Standard Working Hour legislation, had long working hours but there was insufficient evidence to show they have poor work-life balance and poor mental health. There was insufficient evidence to show the high risk of occupational injuries was related to poor work-life balance and poor mental health.

Published in Journal of Human Resource Management (Volume 4, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.jhrm.20160405.11
Page(s) 49-54
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Mental Health, Construction Workers, Standard Working Hour, Working Hours, Work-Life Balance

References
[1] Lowery, J., Borgerding, J., Zhen, B., Glazner, J. E., Bondy, J. and Kreiss, K. (1998) Risk factors for injury among construction workers at Denver International Airport. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 34, 113-120.
[2] Dembe, A. E., Erickson, J. B., Delbos, R. G. & Banks, S. M. (2005). The impact of overtime and long work hours on occupational injuries and illnesses: new evidence from the United States. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 62, 588-597.
[3] Welford, R. (2008). Work-life balance in Hong Kong: Survey Result. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. http://www.ethicsworld.org/ethicsandemployees/PDF%20links/Hong%20Kong%20WLB.pdf.
[4] Community Business. (2010). Definition of Work-life Balance. http://www.communitybusiness.org/focus_areas/WLB.htm#1.
[5] Virtanen, M., Ferrie, J. E., Singh-Manoux, A., Shipley, M. J., Stansfeld, S. A., Marmot, M. G. & Kivimäki, M. (2011). Long working hours and symptoms of anxiety and depression: A 5-year follow-up of the Whitehall II study. Psychological Medicine, 41 (12), 2485-2494.
[6] Frijters, P., Johnston, D. W. & Xin, M. (2009). The mental health cost of long working hours: the case of rural Chinese migrants. Queensland: University of Queensland. http://www.iza.org/conference_files/LabEco2009/frijters_p931.pdf.
[7] Labour Department. (2012). Report of the Policy Study in Standard Working Hours. Government Logistics Department, Hong Kong.
[8] Chung, T. Y. R., Pang, K. L. K. & Tong, Y. W. J. (2009). Work Life Balance Survey of the Hong Kong Working Population 2009. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong. http://www.communitybusiness.org/images/cb/publications/2009/WLB09_HKU.pdf.
[9] Legislative Council, HKSAR. (2015) Panel on Manpower meeting on 17 March 2015. LC Paper No. CB(2)1258/14-15.
[10] Legislative Council, HKSAR. (2014) Labour supply in the construction industry. Press releases: May 7, 2014. http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201405/07/P201405070483_print.htm.
[11] Spurgeon, A., Harrington, J. & Cooper, C. (1997). Health and safety problems associated with long working hours: a review of the current position, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 6 (54), 367-375.
[12] Hospital Authority. (2010). Hospital Authority Mental Health Service Plan For Adults 2010-2015. Hong Kong: Hospital Authority.
[13] Goldberg, D. & Williams, P. (1988). A user’s guide to the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.
[14] Goldberg, D., Gater, R., Sartorius, N., Ustun, T., Piccinelli, M., Gureje, O. & Rutter, M. (1997). The validity of two version of the GHQ in the WHO study of mental illness in general health care. Psychology Medicine, 27, 191-197.
[15] Sánchez-López, M. & Dresch, V. (2008). The 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): Reliability, external validity and factor structure in the Spanish population. Psicothema, 4 (20), 839-843.
[16] Zaheer, A., Islam, J. U. & Darakhshan, N. (2015). Occupational Stress and Work-Life Balance: A Study of Female Faculties of Central Universities in Delhi, India. Journal of Human Resource Management, 4 (1), 1-5.
[17] Young, Y. F. F. (2013). The Work-Life Balance of Public Hospital Doctors in a Metropolitan City. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4, 72-77.
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  • APA Style

    Fanny Y. F. Young. (2016). Working Hour, Work-Life Balance and Mental Health on Construction Workers. Journal of Human Resource Management, 4(5), 49-54. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20160405.11

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    ACS Style

    Fanny Y. F. Young. Working Hour, Work-Life Balance and Mental Health on Construction Workers. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 2016, 4(5), 49-54. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20160405.11

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    AMA Style

    Fanny Y. F. Young. Working Hour, Work-Life Balance and Mental Health on Construction Workers. J Hum Resour Manag. 2016;4(5):49-54. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20160405.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jhrm.20160405.11,
      author = {Fanny Y. F. Young},
      title = {Working Hour, Work-Life Balance and Mental Health on Construction Workers},
      journal = {Journal of Human Resource Management},
      volume = {4},
      number = {5},
      pages = {49-54},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jhrm.20160405.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20160405.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jhrm.20160405.11},
      abstract = {This study investigated the working hours, work-life balance and mental health of 100 construction workers in a place without Standard Working Hour legislation, Hong Kong, using a questionnaire survey. Results showed these participants had longer working hours (54 hours/week) than many other workers in Hong Kong and in many other places. However, the results did not show the work-life balance was as poor as another long working hour industry in Hong Kong, public doctors. The mental health condition (mean GHQ score 9.66) was not shown to be poor. There existed some associations among long working hours, poor work-life balance and poor mental health condition. To conclude, construction workers in Hong Kong, without Standard Working Hour legislation, had long working hours but there was insufficient evidence to show they have poor work-life balance and poor mental health. There was insufficient evidence to show the high risk of occupational injuries was related to poor work-life balance and poor mental health.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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    AB  - This study investigated the working hours, work-life balance and mental health of 100 construction workers in a place without Standard Working Hour legislation, Hong Kong, using a questionnaire survey. Results showed these participants had longer working hours (54 hours/week) than many other workers in Hong Kong and in many other places. However, the results did not show the work-life balance was as poor as another long working hour industry in Hong Kong, public doctors. The mental health condition (mean GHQ score 9.66) was not shown to be poor. There existed some associations among long working hours, poor work-life balance and poor mental health condition. To conclude, construction workers in Hong Kong, without Standard Working Hour legislation, had long working hours but there was insufficient evidence to show they have poor work-life balance and poor mental health. There was insufficient evidence to show the high risk of occupational injuries was related to poor work-life balance and poor mental health.
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Author Information
  • Department of Business Administration, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Hong Kong SAR, China

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