The influence of construction site workers’ satisfaction with working conditions on their loyalty

Abstract

The South African construction industry is faced with a high skills shortage which hinders the development of the industry. While loyalty has been identified as one independent factor allowing managers of organisations to retain a pool of qualified and committed employees, the South African construction industry is believed to overlook loyalty of employees for retaining the best employees. Construction site workers, more specifically trade workers, foremen, artisans and labourers, are showing a type of continuous commitment and are agonising from the poor working conditions to which their employers are subjecting every day. Construction site workers are dissatisfied with working conditions and cannot be loyal to their employers and to some extent, to the construction industry either. Hence, there are many challenges with the alleviation of skill shortages of construction site workers in the construction industry in South Africa. The present study adopted a mixed method approach whereby both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, and a deductive approach whereby hypotheses were formulated based on perceptions of satisfaction with working conditions on loyalty of construction site workers. Extensive literature related to working conditions in construction organisations around the world and in South Africa were reviewed. The literature reviewed the impact of working conditions on the satisfaction of employees and specifically on the loyalty of employees. Qualitative data were gathered through interviews with construction site workers. Empirical, quantitative questionnaires were distributed through a “survey hero” web survey. Data analysis was done by means of content analysis, ranking, paired sample test, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests; reliability testing was done using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of reliability. In total, 42 respondents participated in the gathered qualitative data and 134 respondents participated in the survey. Poor working conditions were revealed to be an impediment to satisfaction of construction site workers to a level that most construction site workers remain in the South African construction industry only because of the high rate of unemployment elsewhere. Moreover, it has been found that satisfaction with working conditions is an important factor for employers to maintain the loyalty of construction site workers. The government, unionisations and employers have joined forces to investigate corruption. Corruption is impacting the industry in terms of poor working conditions and poor work quality through lack of training and employment of poor workmanship. The tested hypotheses revealed no statistically significant difference between various demographics pertaining to perception on the influence of satisfaction with working conditions on employee loyalty toward employers, nor concerning perception on the influence of satisfaction with working conditions on employees’ loyalty toward employers. The statistically significant difference between some demographic groups was, however, revealed in age, qualification, gender, experience and sector of experience. In effect, measures and legislation protecting unemployed construction workers who are employed on a daily basis or on short-term contracts by home owners or sole traders should be established and enforced to protect construction workers and increase loyalty.