(ref. "Construction Productivity and Job Satisfaction," by John D. Borcherding, A.M. ASCE, and Clarkson H. Oglesby, F. ASCE, Journal of the Construction Division, Sept. 1974)

For many years, studies have been done on how job satisfaction is related to productivity.  Even though the country's largest industry, behavioral studies have not been directed toward construction.  The following is the result of a study that was conducted examining the issue of job satisfaction as it relates to construction productivity.

Relationship Between Productivity and Job Satisfaction
For the construction industry, it was discovered that a productive job created high job satisfaction while a nonproductive job (one which fell behind schedule) produced dissatisfactions at all levels of the management/worker chain.  This relationship is inverse to the one found in an office or factory setting which states that high job satisfaction leads to greater productivity.  This inverse relationship is believed to be due to the very nature of construction.  In construction, a worker, through his own efforts, produces a highly visible, physical structure in which great satisfaction comes from its' completion.  Therefore, jobs that are well-planned and run smoothly produce great satisfaction while jobs with poor management (with scheduling and planning problems), create great dissatisfaction.  This illustrates the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity since well-managed jobs are generally more productive.  In construction, higher productivity means seeing the final result sooner which in turn creates job satisfaction.

Why Work Is Satisfying
In order to make a construction project more productive, and therefore, more satisfying, it was important to determine what made work satisfying for various individuals from the Owner to the Apprentice.

1. The Owner and the Project Manager are most satisfied with a job in which there is a profit being made, the customer is satisfied, and the project is on schedule.  Other factors not as important in creating a satisfying job, are good workmanship and a tangible physical structure.

2.  The Superintendent and Forman are also aware of profit, but profit does not result in job satisfaction as much as for the Owner and Project Manager.  The main satisfiers to a job for the Superintendent are keeping with the schedule,  meeting the challenge of running and completing a project, and good workmanship.  It also helps if there are good work relationships with and within a crew.

3.  The Journeyman and Apprentice are the least worried about profit and schedule.  Workers get most of their satisfaction from the completion of tasks, a good hard day of productive work, and knowing they were a part of a tangible physical structure.  They also state that good social work relations add to their work satisfaction.

Means For Increasing Job Satisfaction
In order to increase job satisfaction for everyone involved in a construction project, one must be aware of not only what their own needs are but those needs of those above and below them.  The following outlines some of the mans for increasing job satisfaction.

Increasing Satisfaction of Owners and Project Managers:
1. Timely Feedback--Timely job progress reports and effective cost reporting can help finish the project on schedule for a profit.
2. Plan Rather than Restructure Job Content--Worker productivity is increased by better planning not changes in work assignments after something goes wrong.
3. Effects of Change Orders--Worker morale can be affected if many changes are made. One might say, 'Why should I build something well if it's going to be torn out again?'  Mitigating these effects will help to keep up productivity and workmanship.
4. Insuring Good Workmanship--Good work satisfies the customer which will in turn, satisfy the Owner and Project Manager.
5. Identification With Goal of Building Structure--Somehow the final goal of a finished structure  keeps the project together.  Everyone is satisfied since they feel a part of the process.

Increasing Satisfaction of Superintendent and Foreman:
1. Challenging Work and Its' Relationship to Job Decision Making--Satisfaction comes from the challenge of running work.  This will depend on whether management delegates enough responsibility and puts enough faith in its people to make those decisions.
2. Effective Field Planning and Management Support--The Superintendent and Foreman must have enough foresight to make sure they get the equipment and materials they need to keep the
    job running smoothly.  Management must give support in updating schedule and delivering the goods when needed.
3. Sharing Cost Information--If the Superintendent and Foremen are given cost information on a regular basis, they may be helpful to management in achieving profitability.
4. Identification With the Building Physical Structure
5. Developing Good Crew Relations--This includes relations between a single crew as well as relations between the trades.
 
 

Increasing Satisfaction of Journeymen and Apprentices:
1. Accomplishing Task--Continuous feedback on daily workmanship and production is most important.
2. Identification With Building of Physical Structure
3. Maintaining Good Crew Relationships

Construction satisfaction comes from the identification with being part of constructing a unique structure.  To insure and increase satisfaction, management efforts should concentrate on good planning at all levels so workers can be productive.  With high productivity, everyone wins!  Workers are satisfied at all levels, customer is satisfied, and profits can be realized.

CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTIVITY AND JOB DISSATISFACTION
Job dissatisfaction can be one factor that will increase costs, produce time delays and  generally reduce productivity on type of project.  Two engineers, John Borcherding and Clarkson Oglesby have studied the job dissatisfaction and found each level of authority has roughly the same dissatisifers.  Borcherding and Oglesby reported these findings in the June 1975 issue of American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of the Construction Division in an article titled "Job Dissatisfaction in Construction Work".

Four specific problems were found through many interviews with owners, project managers, supervisors, foremen and journeymen. These work union problems, poor engineering, company mistakes, lack of support from superiors, and dealing with unqualified persons.

Owners' Views
Owners encounter numerous problems dealing with unions that increase costs and cause delays.  Union practices and policies are uncontrollable by the owner, therefore it is important for the owner to work with the unions not against them. Profits are small on projects any mistake by the company or individual can be dissatisfying to the owner.  These mistakes can be avoid or minimized by having qualified people available with full support to fix problems. Customer dissatisfaction can lead to payment problems and dealing with unqualified persons of powerful positions.  Owners must delegate work to those who efficiently carried it out in a flexible manner. Also owners must develop relations early in the project with those who could pose a threat to the project, i.e. inspectors, and city officials so problems can be quickly resolved.

Project Managers' Views
Project managers' (PM) dissatifers differ from those of the owner.  Company or personal mistakes, like missing items in estimates, cause dissatisfaction for PM.  Errors and mistakes can be avoid or minimized by pre-planning and less last-minute decisions. Also, full support by the owner will help relieve the pressures if cost and schedule problems develop.  Poor engineering can be resolved by pre-planning and having full engineering support available to solved problems quickly. Poor supervisors can affect the production and profitability on all parts on a project.  Supers should be carefully selected and those with weak skills should be retrained.

Superintendents Views'
Superintendents dissatifers are similar to the PM's' as both are up and down the ladder. Poor organization between the GC's super and sub-contractors' supers can cause a lot of problems.  The line of authority should not be handed down from high level management. This would impose an inflexible working requirement that will hamper productivity. Supers must work out the integration of trades through cooperative attitudes and weekly meetings. Another dissatifier is constant criticism from the home office to increase productivity.  If management wants to critique a supervisors performance the good and bad should be fairly evaluated and told to the super.  Full support by upper management will reduce the pressure on supers. Other dissatsfers is poor engineering, union problems and personal mistakes.  Preplanning and good rapport relationships with unions and employees will help super alleviate these problems. Supers should always keep an eye out for new, qualified employees.

Foreman Views'
Uncooperative or unqualified workers slow down jobs, increase costs and reduce quality.  Foreman should work for job satisfaction for union workers and keep tabs on possible new qualified, cooperative workers. Hazing and other harassment practices can produce a bad attitude on an employee(s). Foreman should work to eliminate these practices and separate out those with bad attitudes to work along.  Foremen need to forecast any problems ahead of time so management and engineering has sufficient time to response. In tune, management need to give full support to the foremen.  Union problems also plague the foremen. All levels of the contractor management must make the commitment to work with unions not against them.

Journeyman and Apprentices' Views
Journeyman are the ones who do actually perform the construction work.  Management purposed is to organized them and materials to execute the work efficiently.  Dissatisifers are poor interpersonal relations with other employees or supervisor, poor quality or unproductive work performed by their crew, unfair job assignment or the work itself.  It is important the skilled, experience employees are teaching the inexperienced workers in an encouraging, fair manner.  Job assignment are divided up equally and rotate the assignments where possible.  Tedious and difficult "dirty" jobs are required and someone needs to do them, but this dissatisfiers that can be minimized.

Dissatisifers can be minimized by pre-planning to identify errors or probable problems and then solving them in the home office. Also, all individuals should forecast ahead to identify potential problems.  Union problems will occur, success PM and owners should not have these problems conflict with the construction work. And finally, interpersonal relationship between all group should be well established before any problem develop. Good communications between individuals that understand one another will solved problems quicker. Personal visits by the personnel at the home office to the field offices is necessary to understand the conditions the field office people are under.
 

SCAT-CAT:  A TOOL TO IMPROVE
CONSTRUCTION QUALITY

The SCAT-CAT (Sanitary Construction Awareness Training - Craftsmen and Trend-setters) program is a motivational tool developed and used by Proctor & Gamble to increase the craftsmen awareness of in-house design standards.  The original concept for the program was conceived by John McKnight in 1977 while working in Proctor & Gamble's Project/Construction Technology department.  Since its inception, the program has been used successfully in two projects at Proctor & Gamble.  The words "Sanitary Construction" have subsequently been changed to "Superior Construction" to generalize the program for non-food processing plants.

The program's objective came from Proctor & Gamble's clean design standards which reduce long-term maintenance and cleanup costs primarily in the food processing plants.  The standards include requirements for adequate spacing, sloped surfaces, and minimum floor supports, and are considered alternate construction details with little or no premium cost if they are used during the original construction.  Although the plant design engineers are trained to incorporate these details, many of the details are missed and do not appear on the drawings.  Consequently, the field craftsmen have the final opportunity to implement the design standards.  Because of the importance of these details, it is sometimes necessary to re-work incorrectly installed facilities either during construction or as a post-startup activity.  The SCAT-CAT program was developed to increase the level of quality of the original construction in order to reduce the amount of re-work and post-startup corrections.

The objective of the program is to insure that the appropriate clean design level is maintained by establishing an awareness program for field craftsmen which emphasizes the importance of these details.  The program consists of three elements: orientation sessions, periodic reminders, and an awards program.

Orientation sessions introduce the craftsmen to the clean design principles and to the SCAT-CAT program.  The orientation consists of a quiz which determines the craftsmen's knowledge of clean design construction, a presentation of examples of standard clean design details, and a review of  the SCAT-CAT rewards.  Hard hat stickers are also given to each craftsmen as a reminder of their participation and the program's importance.

Several activities are implemented to provide continuous and periodic reminders of the program.  These activities are:

* Inclusion of the SCAT-CAT program accomplishments and upcoming events as an agenda item in the weekly project staff meetings.
* Regular articles in the project newsletter regarding the SCAT-CAT program.  The articles include mention of past award winners, schedules for upcoming events, pictures of award winners, runner-ups in the nomination categories, and excerpts from nominations or suggestions.
* A large banner declaring "Superior Construction Is Our Business" and numerous posters with the SCAT-CAT emblem are placed on the side of the construction office building.  Other visual reminders include the use of the SCAT-CAT emblem for T-shirts and softball team jerseys.
* A tour of the facility during construction is provided for the families of all project personnel.  Some of the activities include a guided tour, refreshments, miniature hard hats for the children, and a baby-sitting room.
* Small manuals giving clean design details for each craft discipline are distributed to the superintendents, foremen, and craftsmen.

The awards program rewards the craftsmen for their efforts in the area of clean design.  Awards are given in two categories: crew-of-the-month, and craftsman-of-the-month.  The awards are intended to give recognition to a small but significant number of individuals on a regular basis.  Major awards are also given to signify contributions by individuals to the quality or cost of the project.

The reward recipients are selected from a committee which includes the project manager, project superintendent, office manager, and a selected foreman and craftsman from the field.  The award winners are announced immediately, and received their award at a special dinner in their honor at a prominent restaurant.  Spouses are invited to the dinner.  Awards consist of SCAT-CAT belt buckles, an engraved plaque for the craftsman-of-the-month, a framed certificate for the crew-of-the-month, and small presents for the spouses.

Occasionally, extraordinary effort by craftsmen or crews is recognized by letters of commendation sent from Procter & Gamble to selected individuals.  The commendations signify contributions either in the form of good quality construction or suggestions for improved methods.  The letters are considered by the award selection committee, and also entered into the employee's files.

On the projects which have implemented the SCAT-CAT program, the overall quality of the facilities was very good. The craftsmen contributed quality improvement and cost savings suggestions, and the documented cost savings from the program more than paid for the program's cost.  Improvements included:

* Obvious increased awareness of the owner's quality needs.
* Reduced re-work during construction.
* Reduced post start-up costs.
* Improved overall plant quality.
* Significant cost savings suggestions.
* Possible increased productivity as a side benefit of involvement, awards, competitiveness.

Concerns about the program were also developed:

* Proctor & Gamble is concerned about the potential co-employer implications of the program.  For this reason, the contractor has the responsibility for the implementation.
* The impact of the training and awards is significant early in the projects when most of the craftsmen are not familiar with Proctor & Gamble standards.  It may be difficult to maintain this improvement over a long project, and the program may become a necessary fringe benefit on future projects.
* The program has not been used on union sites, but it is felt that it could be used if sufficient pre-work was done with the business agents.

Regardless of the concerns, the SCAT-CAT program accomplishes the objective of increased quality of construction through craftsman awareness and motivation.  The Procter & Gamble clean design standards were met and sufficient cost savings were gained to justify the program.  The program is suggested for use on future projects.
 

MORRISON-KNUDSEN COMPANY, INC
and the
POWERFUL PRODUCER PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
 
M-K had long been concerned about productivity and identified specific problems with absenteeism, turnover, theft, abuse of tools and equipment, and other counterproductive issues.  M-K realized that their improvement programs were more negatively than positively stressed and decided that needed to change.  Therefore, M-K developed the ARM program, composed of three phases:  Awareness, Recognition, and Management.

The awareness phase emphasized the positive aspects of attendance rather than focusing on the negative aspects of absenteeism.  The program used posters and bumper stickers to stress pride in accomplishments and introduced a project theme for workers to focus on.  Supervisors made a conscious effort to get individuals committed to the theme and program through tool box meetings and awards for perfect job attendance.

The job recognition phase included awards for individuals and crews alike.  The perfect attendance award was used as a stepping stone for higher awards in job performance and safety record.  Awards consisted of engraved, personalized belt buckles representative of the project, and decals for a worker's hard hat for individuals.  Crew awards consisted of etched plaques with group photographs.  The ultimate award was a gold pocket watch given monthly to the project's outstanding craftsman.

The management phase stressed front line supervisor involvement in all aspects of the program.  Supervisors scored worker's performance on a daily basis and discussed award recommendations with superintendents.  Supervisors used the tool box meetings to stress the improvement program.

As a result, management is now more involved in the pleasant aspects of employer-employee relations.  Management's emphasis is on the positive side versus the negative, reflecting a more positive response from workers.  The award system of decals, buckles, and watches was very successful, with workers  "showing off" their prizes.  Attendance rates and productivity showed marked improvement and job-related complaints decreased.

Supervisors changed their skeptical attitude and began to include their own suggestions for more improvements.  Finally, the reputation of the program spread throughout the company to other projects.  This created a demand from other project managers for assistance in initiating the program on their projects.  They wanted the same benefits realized by others!
 

TOPS

This is an overview of a suggestion program used by the Monsanto Corporation.  Its name is TOPS, Teamwork and Optimum Performance Skills.  TOPS is used in conjunction with improving their construction productivity.  The program has three components.

The first part of the program is an initial orientation session.  Here, the workers complete a questionnaire to gain a profile of their experience, skills, concerns, and expectations of the program.  The questionnaires are unsigned to promote free communication.  The workers are also given a standard slide presentation.  this presentation conveys management's desire to capitalize on the knowledge and skills of craftsmen and field personnel.  Examples of suggestions that improved productivity and saved money are given.  The presentation also explains how to submit ideas and how the ideas are evaluated.

The second part of the program is reminders about the program.  Bulletin boards, posters, newsletters, stickers, and other devices are used to keep the program visible.  Management strives to keep the intent and spirit of the program alive by continually promoting it.  This starts by giving every worker attending the initial orientation a TOPS logo sticker for their hard hats.

The third part of the program is the awards.  Awardees are recognized every month at a dinner at a local restaurant.  Awards are given for the crew of the month.  Each member of the crew is given a certificate of merit and a TOPS belt buckle.  Individual suggestions that result in considerable efficiency improvement are given a suitable reward also.  A Method Suggestion Award is given for an idea that improves a method of working.  This award consists of a TOPS belt buckle and a plaque presented by the construction manager.  Pictures are taken and placed on boards throughout the work site.

At sites using TOPS, productivity has improved and worker enthusiasm for the program is high.  Monsanto feels the program is working.