The construction industry is notorious for poor work-life balance (WLB) due to its strong culture of long working hours, nonstandard work schedules, and variable work duration. Extant construction literature highlights that the poor WLB in the industry is a work stressor that leads to a low level of organizational commitment (OC), which is a strong predictor of employee turnover and productivity. However, little attention has been paid to understanding how WLB affects OC, which could hinder construction organizations from developing targeted measures to improve OC. This study addressed this gap by using the A Shortened Stress Evaluation Tool (ASSET) model grounded in occupational stress theory to depict the underlying mechanisms of how WLB affects OC through the mediation effect psychological well-being [i.e., positive emotions (PE) and sense of purpose (SP)]. The ASSET questionnaire was used to measure the constructs via an online questionnaire survey administered to construction professionals around the globe registered with the Association for Project Management, the Chartered Institute of Building, and the Project Management Institute. A total of 255 valid responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Contrary to previous research, this study found that WLB does not have a direct impact on OC. Instead, it affects OC through the mediation effects of SP and PE. These results indicate that construction firms could benefit from enhancing SP and PE to yield greater organizational commitment rather than emphasizing enhanced WLB per se. This could be done by increasing employee participation in setting goals and objectives, clarifying the meaning and purpose of work, working to align work goals and objectives with employees' sense of meaning and purpose, and generating a greater frequency of experienced positive emotions by creating work environments that satisfy the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Although workplace well-being has been regarded as a strong indicator of work performance, very limited research has focused on studying the well-being levels of project professionals (PPs) who are responsible for delivering projects, programmes and portfolios of strategic importance to organisations in all industries (Cui et al., 2016). The better PPs and their teams perform, the better organisations are able to deliver on strategy. To address this knowledge gap, this international collaborative study proposes the following research questions: What are current levels of PPs’ workplace well-being? What factors contribute to PPs’ workplace well-being? What interventions could be introduced to improve PPs’ workplace well-being?

When individuals flourish, organizations thrive. This paper will present the case for project managers to implement positive psychology into routine people management practices to deliver successful projects which meet the triple constraints and enhance the project team's experience of their work. To simplify the implementation of these people practices, we will present a wellbeing at work assessment which links personal resources, management systems, experience of work and functioning at work to organizational outcomes relevant to project management at all levels. We will explore how your team members can be corporate athletes able to meet the daily challenges of stressful work, how to design management systems which support the team’s best work, how to enhance internal motivation on project teams, and how to enhance employee engagement, flow, satisfaction, and sense of purpose to attain and sustain great project results. Each element of the well-being at work assessment will be linked to people management practices which drive attainment of key organizational outcomes.

The global workforce is stressed: employees are disengaged; senior managers will be retiring in record numbers without obvious replacements available; morale is low; more than half of US workers are passive job seekers; turnover rates are high; turnover is expensive; managers are not effective; many projects represent significant risks of failure to their corporate sponsors. Improving the performance of individuals and project teams depends upon a new and coherent approach to the workplace of the present and the future. This paper introduces key concepts and research results on the power of engagement, strengthsfocus, optimism, resilience, hope, positive emotions, and the key characteristics of high performance teams to yield real change in the workplace – change that will result in sustainable competitive advantage. This paper outlines empirically validated methods to improve productivity, sales, profitability, employee and customer satisfaction while reducing safety incidents, theft losses, absenteeism, stress-related illness, and attrition rates. Additionally, PM’s will learn how and why the shift from a weakness-correction model to a strengths-focused model amplifies employee performance. PM’s will also come to understand the impact of emotion on performance: how the right blend of positive and negative emotions yields high performance project teams and how optimism and resilience can be developed to strengthen individual and project team performance.