Working conditions in projects: perceptions of stress and motivation among project team members and project managers

摘要

The emergence of temporary and democratic work forms characterizes work today and organisations to a great extent rely on individuals' performance. Workers' perceptions of working conditions are affected by two important factors: motivation and stress. Projects are motivating due to clear goals, but they are also often time pressured. Incidents like, for example, loss of resources, changing preferences or priorities, or project closure might provoke changes to the set goals, to which individuals have committed. This could obstruct effective goal fulfilment as well as create stress among the people involved. How do project managers and project team members perceive incidents that the typical project encounters? How do they cope with uncertainties the incidents bring about? The finding suggests that incidents cause changes over the project lifecycle, both of goals and of individuals' perceptions of tasks, conditions, and the situation. Different coping strategies are used to reduce uncertainty and stress.