Intrinsic Workforce Diversity and Construction Worker Productivity in Pakistan: Impact of Employee Age and Industry Experience

Ahsen Maqsoom, Hasnain Mubbasit, Muwaffaq Alqurashi, Iram Shaheen, Wesam Salah Alaloul, Muhammad Ali Musarat, Alaa Salman, Bilal Aslam, Bilel Zerouali and Enas E. Hussein
Additional contact information
Ahsen Maqsoom: Department of Civil Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad Wah Campus, Wah Cantt 47040, Pakistan
Hasnain Mubbasit: Department of Civil Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad Wah Campus, Wah Cantt 47040, Pakistan
Muwaffaq Alqurashi: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
Iram Shaheen: Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad Wah Campus, Wah Cantt 47040, Pakistan
Wesam Salah Alaloul: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia
Muhammad Ali Musarat: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia
Alaa Salman: Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia
Bilal Aslam: Department of Earth Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Bilel Zerouali: Vegetable Chemistry-Water-Energy Research Laboratory, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Hassiba Benbouali, University of Chlef, B.P. 78C, Ouled Fares, Chlef 02180, Algeria
Enas E. Hussein: National Water Research Center, P.O. Box 74, Shubra El-Kheima 13411, Egypt

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Worker productivity is critical within construction projects as it is the measure of the rate at which work is performed and, more importantly, helps to know how to motivate them to perform at high levels. This research aimed to examine the impact of employee age and industry experience on the intrinsic workforce diversity factors influencing construction worker productivity. Sieving through the previous research and models and theories of analysis, the intrinsic workforce diversity was modeled into the following set of factors, i.e., income, motivation, psychosocial factors, and technical skills. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire survey and examined for the employees having different ages and experiences using the Mann–Whitney U test through SPSS. The results show that employees of varied ages do not concur over motivation-, psychosocial, and technical skills-related workforce diversity factors, whereas employees of varied industrial experiences are in disagreement over some income and motivation related workforce diversity factors. In order to overcome intrinsic workforce diversity, firm support is direly needed for old and mature employees in terms of financial incentives leading to motivation, less supervised scheduling, opportunities for firm advancement, and reporting back every time work is completed. Furthermore, support is required for young employees who are more susceptible due to psychosocial stresses like unevenly distributed work, communication gaps, and technical skills like knowledge of technological equipment and advancement in construction technology which has reduced the skills of workers.

Keywords: workforce diversity; technical skills; motivation; psychosocial; construction worker; productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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