Sustainable Development

Today the world is increasingly complex and fast paced, fuelling the potential for stressful situations to emerge and engulf individuals across all aspects of life. Stress is emerging as a prevalent affliction of the workforce and is extremely costly to individuals, organisations and economies. Understanding how individual’s cope with stress is the first stage in developing effective programs for mitigating the risks associated with a particular work environment. Projects are fast emerging as one of the preferred methods of working for both individuals and organisations. Projects with their unique product and constraints of time, cost and quality are concentrated environments in which stress can manifest and potentially cause damage. Project management brings with it a specific culture of identify, plan, action. This culture is embodied in the project management processes both at the individual and organizational level. This thesis explores the relationship between the selection of coping strategies by project managers when dealing with three (3) types of stressor, work, home and personal health and the culture of project management. This stud