Toward a flourishing workplace: exploring the impact of digitalization on young construction professionals' physical-mental well-being

PurposeThe construction industry has more propensity to negatively affect employees' physical-mental well-being due to the inherently intense and demanding nature of the work involved. Digitalization can streamline the construction processes, and reduce stress, overtime and overall job-related pressure generated due to the nature of employment, contributing to the well-being of employees. Hence, the authors examined how digitalization, technostress and individual resilience could contribute to construction professionals' physical-mental well-being using the transaction model of stress, self-determination theory and job-demand resources theory.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 86 young professionals using a structured survey. The professionals were working in Indian construction organizations where digitalization is implemented extensively. The survey consists of 21 items to measure four latent variables namely digitalization, technostress, physical-mental well-being and individual resilience. The study employs a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to examine the theoretical model empirically.FindingsThe results revealed that digitalization was positively associated with physical-mental well-being and negatively associated with technostress. Further, individual resilience was a moderating variable in the relationship between digitalization and technostress. Finally, technostress partially mediated the relationship between digitalization and physical-mental well-being.Originality/valueDigitalization has emerged as a valuable tool to tackle these challenges and improve the overall well-being of construction personnel. In the present study, digitalization is found to augment the physical-mental well-being of young construction professionals. Also, digitalization helps to significantly reduce technostress, thereby improving the physical-mental well-being of young professionals.