Steve Rowlinson | The University of Hong Kong (original) (raw)

Papers by Steve Rowlinson

This paper examines commitment profiles of Hong Kong Chinese architecture students, and the corre... more This paper examines commitment profiles of Hong Kong Chinese architecture students, and the correlation between burntout and the healthiness of students' commitment profiles. 294 students enrolled in the Bachelor and Master programs of artchitecture in two universities in Hong Kong participated in the study. The Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey and revised version of Occupational Commitment Questionnaire are administered to measure burnout and commitment profile. Multiple regressions are conducted to test the hypothesis. The findings support the idea that burnout does not necessarily result in turnover. As affective commitment and normative commitments decrease with burnout, continuance commitment increases to retain the burned-out students in the program. However, burnout de-healthilizes the commitment profiile of students, shifting students' focus of learning from the task to the cost. The study suggests a need to prevent burnout and build up healthy commitment profile among architecture students.

Loughborough University, 2008

The Hong Kong construction industry is lauded for its “can-do” attitude and the apparently high l... more The Hong Kong construction industry is lauded for its “can-do” attitude and the apparently high levels of integration and cooperation that enables its high level of performance. An industry that can regularly complete four day floor cycles on high rise buildings over 40 storeys should be an innovative and relationship based industry. However, this is not the case. For example`, the predominant form of procurement in Hong Kong is still design-bidbuild (the “traditional” approach) and “partnering” has been introduced into the industry but in a piece-meal fashion and in a manner which is hardly effective. Still, the industry is characterised by hierarchy, tradition and procedures but the industry is also heavily influenced by the Chinese culture in which it was situated. Hence, values such as face, harmony and conflict avoidance are also embedded in the industry culture. In such a situation, the issue of stakeholders and their management has been paid scant regard; the government was used to making decisions on development rather than consulting widely and the other major players, the oligarchy of large property developers, adopted a simple, economic approach to their business plans and only over the past few years have issues such as corporate social responsibility reached their boardrooms

The concept and phenomenon of social capital has been identified as an organizing logic that can ... more The concept and phenomenon of social capital has been identified as an organizing logic that can add value to project organizations. In this respect, social capital is conceptualized as both personal and impersonal linkages between individuals in project organization, the quality of these linkages, and the shared representations embedded within these linkages. Social capital provides a means of coordination and collaboration among project participants. However, given the novelty of the concept in construction settings and peculiarities of construction projects, key questions arise as to what represents and are the forms of social capital in project settings? We adopt a mixed methods approach to answer these questions. Data from a survey of 376 respondents and a case project converge into forming a coherent conceptualization of social capital in construction projects. The findings confirm the multi-faceted nature of social capital and reveal the mechanisms by which social capital fac...

Construction projects require client-contractor collaboration. Working in a collaborative manner ... more Construction projects require client-contractor collaboration. Working in a collaborative manner means matching expectations and needs which would lead to satisfaction from both parties. Construction clients and contractors bear different expectations and needs and therefore satisfactory project outcomes should not just single out clients‟ satisfaction and negative project results should not deny satisfactory project performance. This study is to identify the expectations and needs of clients and contractors together with the barriers of risks and constraints that confine satisfaction and attempts to capture the gap expressed in qualitative data via a quantitative approach. The result indicates that perception matching is at a 44% level and the other 56% requires working out; while within that 44% there is also a difference in perception with either positive or negative values. It also shows that the client normally has higher expectation of contractors while contractors consider th...

Proceedings of the Creative Construction Conference 2019, 2019

Periodica Polytechnica Architecture, 2020

There is an increasingly larger proportion of workforce 50 years of age or older. This ageing tre... more There is an increasingly larger proportion of workforce 50 years of age or older. This ageing trend is prevalent in the Hong Kong construction industry. The implications of this ageing trend for the construction industry are the decline in workforce productivity due to old age, compromised health, safety, and well-being; and the shortage of workforce. Coupled with various organisational and institutional shortcomings in the industry that lead to unfavourable working environment, these situations not only negatively affect the economic viability of the construction industry but also give rise to other psychosocial problems experienced by the older workers. Despite these situations, we know very little of the conditions older construction workers experience in the construction industry.There is therefore a need to investigate such issues and propose possible interventions to improve the working conditions of the senior workers. With these objectives, in this paper, we first report the...

Safety and Health at Work, 2020

This paper examines commitment profiles of Hong Kong Chinese architecture students, and the corre... more This paper examines commitment profiles of Hong Kong Chinese architecture students, and the correlation between burntout and the healthiness of students' commitment profiles. 294 students enrolled in the Bachelor and Master programs of artchitecture in two universities in Hong Kong participated in the study. The Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey and revised version of Occupational Commitment Questionnaire are administered to measure burnout and commitment profile. Multiple regressions are conducted to test the hypothesis. The findings support the idea that burnout does not necessarily result in turnover. As affective commitment and normative commitments decrease with burnout, continuance commitment increases to retain the burned-out students in the program. However, burnout de-healthilizes the commitment profiile of students, shifting students' focus of learning from the task to the cost. The study suggests a need to prevent burnout and build up healthy commitment profile among architecture students.

Loughborough University, 2008

The Hong Kong construction industry is lauded for its “can-do” attitude and the apparently high l... more The Hong Kong construction industry is lauded for its “can-do” attitude and the apparently high levels of integration and cooperation that enables its high level of performance. An industry that can regularly complete four day floor cycles on high rise buildings over 40 storeys should be an innovative and relationship based industry. However, this is not the case. For example`, the predominant form of procurement in Hong Kong is still design-bidbuild (the “traditional” approach) and “partnering” has been introduced into the industry but in a piece-meal fashion and in a manner which is hardly effective. Still, the industry is characterised by hierarchy, tradition and procedures but the industry is also heavily influenced by the Chinese culture in which it was situated. Hence, values such as face, harmony and conflict avoidance are also embedded in the industry culture. In such a situation, the issue of stakeholders and their management has been paid scant regard; the government was used to making decisions on development rather than consulting widely and the other major players, the oligarchy of large property developers, adopted a simple, economic approach to their business plans and only over the past few years have issues such as corporate social responsibility reached their boardrooms

The concept and phenomenon of social capital has been identified as an organizing logic that can ... more The concept and phenomenon of social capital has been identified as an organizing logic that can add value to project organizations. In this respect, social capital is conceptualized as both personal and impersonal linkages between individuals in project organization, the quality of these linkages, and the shared representations embedded within these linkages. Social capital provides a means of coordination and collaboration among project participants. However, given the novelty of the concept in construction settings and peculiarities of construction projects, key questions arise as to what represents and are the forms of social capital in project settings? We adopt a mixed methods approach to answer these questions. Data from a survey of 376 respondents and a case project converge into forming a coherent conceptualization of social capital in construction projects. The findings confirm the multi-faceted nature of social capital and reveal the mechanisms by which social capital fac...

Construction projects require client-contractor collaboration. Working in a collaborative manner ... more Construction projects require client-contractor collaboration. Working in a collaborative manner means matching expectations and needs which would lead to satisfaction from both parties. Construction clients and contractors bear different expectations and needs and therefore satisfactory project outcomes should not just single out clients‟ satisfaction and negative project results should not deny satisfactory project performance. This study is to identify the expectations and needs of clients and contractors together with the barriers of risks and constraints that confine satisfaction and attempts to capture the gap expressed in qualitative data via a quantitative approach. The result indicates that perception matching is at a 44% level and the other 56% requires working out; while within that 44% there is also a difference in perception with either positive or negative values. It also shows that the client normally has higher expectation of contractors while contractors consider th...

Proceedings of the Creative Construction Conference 2019, 2019

Periodica Polytechnica Architecture, 2020

There is an increasingly larger proportion of workforce 50 years of age or older. This ageing tre... more There is an increasingly larger proportion of workforce 50 years of age or older. This ageing trend is prevalent in the Hong Kong construction industry. The implications of this ageing trend for the construction industry are the decline in workforce productivity due to old age, compromised health, safety, and well-being; and the shortage of workforce. Coupled with various organisational and institutional shortcomings in the industry that lead to unfavourable working environment, these situations not only negatively affect the economic viability of the construction industry but also give rise to other psychosocial problems experienced by the older workers. Despite these situations, we know very little of the conditions older construction workers experience in the construction industry.There is therefore a need to investigate such issues and propose possible interventions to improve the working conditions of the senior workers. With these objectives, in this paper, we first report the...

Safety and Health at Work, 2020