Sustainable Environment to Prevent Burnout and Attrition in Project Management

Abstract

Project teams often fight to find a balance between the triple restrictions of money, scope, and schedule to deliver excellent products or services. The dual goal of realising benefits and satisfying the needs of stakeholders drives this conflict. It is possible that the climate and pace of the project will not be able to keep up with the increased demand for the deliverables, which will lead to burnout among project members and possibly attrition for the team. In this work, we analyse the factors that lead to project settings that are not sustainable and provide solutions to address the problem. The reading of 28 pieces of literature relating to project management in the information technology (IT), construction, energy, and health sectors is required to accomplish this goal. The results of the review are tabulated and mapped to the process groups and knowledge areas outlined in the 6th edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). This is done based on the Project Management Institute (PMI). According to the findings, increasing focus on the Project Resource Management knowledge area, which interacts with the Planning and Executing process groups, is necessary for the development of an environment that is environmentally sustainable. Plan resource management, develop teams, and manage teams are three processes that are included in these categories and fall under the category of being particularly significant. The next most important area of expertise is project communication management, which is followed by project schedule management.

1. Introduction

A project is an endeavour with a finite amount of time that aims to fulfil the requirements of multiple stakeholders. The realisation of benefits, whether by an individual or an organisation, is inextricably tied to the successful conclusion of a project. It does not matter if a project is managed using a predictive methodology such as Waterfall, an adaptive methodology such as Agile, or even a hybrid methodology; it is difficult to get out from under the three constraints of the iron triangle, which are the timeline, the scope, and the budget. When businesses seek to get the most out of their projects, they often extend their budgets, broaden the scope of the project, cut down on the amount of time they have to do it, and raise the amount of emphasis placed on quality. Creating a sustainable environment to reduce burnout and attrition in project management is crucial for any organisation’s success. One strategy for achieving this goal is to encourage a work–life balance, provide assistance and resources to foster a healthy work environment, and successfully manage responsibilities. By applying these methods, organisations can build a sustainable climate that prevents project management team fatigue and turnover.

As a direct result of this, it is not uncommon to come across projects that do not develop environment that is tenable for members of the team to continue to be on board. It is feasible that the loss of project personnel owing to attrition as a result of burnout could have a detrimental impact on projects. This possibility exists since attrition is a result of burnout. This is due to the fact that new members have to go through Tuckman’s model of forming, storming, norming, and performing before they can start contributing, which impacts the timetable and the costs. In this study, we analyse the common characteristics that result in the running of a sustainable project in the context of maintaining its most valuable asset, human resources. Specifically, we look at how these aspects affect the project’s ability to continue functioning. In particular, we investigate the ways in which these factors influence the capacity to maintain the operation of the project over an extended period.

Even while innovation is placed higher than it has ever been on the strategic agenda of senior managers, and spending on research and development (R&D) is continuing to rise, the percentage of projects that fail to fulfil their time, cost, and quality targets remains high. Over a quarter of software development projects are abandoned before they are finished, and almost two-thirds of those projects go over their original price and timeline. It is consequently of the utmost importance to determine the characteristics that contribute to improved innovation performance [1].

Interventions to combat burnout have been divided into two categories: those led by physicians and those directed by organisations. The purpose of physician-directed interventions is to improve the resiliency of physicians through the implementation of activities such as the promotion of mindfulness or cognitive behavioural techniques, which aim to enhance an individual’s capacity to cope with adversity, increase their competency, and communicate more effectively. The fact that these supporting physician-directed procedures focus on individual solutions, however, raises the possibility that they are insufficient. It is more common for burnout to be caused by variables at the organisational or system level, and interventions to prevent burnout may be more successful if they concentrate on altering the system rather than modifying the behaviour of individual physicians [2]. Changing timetables, lessening the severity of workloads, boosting cooperation, and raising the percentage of physician engagement in decision-making are some examples of organisation-directed interventions.

In their discussion of responsible leadership, they demonstrate that the concept of responsible leadership is a product of research conducted at the junction of studies focusing on ethics, leadership, and corporate social responsibility [3]. They do this by embedding the discussion on responsible leadership within the notion of stakeholders and social responsibility. The authors of [4] assumed that responsible leadership is a relational process of interaction between leaders and stakeholder groups that aims to define responsibilities in matters related to the creation of organisational value. They based this assumption on the fact that interactions with stakeholder groups are important and emphasise the importance of these interactions. The authors of [4] indicated that responsible leadership includes activities related to considering the consequences for all stakeholder groups, influencing by enabling the engagement of stakeholder groups, and engaging in active dialogue with stakeholder groups. This is based on the assumption that responsible leadership compels leaders to open up to wider target stakeholder groups.

In order to conduct a search for research articles that were pertinent to the topic at hand, the following online libraries were utilised as sources accessed on 28 November 2022:

• https://link.springer.com/
• https://www.researchgate.net
• https://www.mdpi.com
• https://www-tandfonline-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg
• https://www.emerald.com
• https://iopscience.iop.org
• https://igi-global.com
• https://sciencedirect.com

These libraries were picked for their excellence, accessibility, and applicability to the relevant fields of this paper’s topic. Additionally, these libraries are well known as places to do research and are frequently used in the production of research papers.

Project sustainability management burnout, the stress in project management, sustainable project management lifecycle, and project sustainability management were the main search terms used for each library.

2. Literature Review

There are numerous driving aspects in the process that are contributing to the lack of sustainable management, and this is one of the reasons why there is a growing concern in the field of project management over the lack of sustainable management settings to prevent burnout and attrition. In this particular study involving a literature review, we have utilised the following methodology: Identify the necessary review paper based on these two questions: (a) What are the primary factors contributing to low sustainability in an environment requiring project management? and (b) What are the potential remedies that might be implemented to boost sustainability? Based on that, we have discovered a total of 28 papers, and we have completed the review of this particular document. The content of this work was eventually divided into three primary sections: namely, predictive technique, adaptive method, and hybrid method (predictive and adaptive). In the end, we published the results of the analysis in the form of a table to demonstrate the connection between these approaches and the PMI Process Group and Knowledge Area.

2.1. Predictive Method

Mattia Bianchi et al. [1] studied how software development performance is related to Agile. In Agile sprints, there are many negative consequences to the project where an unplanned allocation of resources can have implications for the projects. As such, any unplanned timeline to release a feature, miscommunication of the project information, or late discoveries in the development phase causes burnout, budget overruns, and reassessment of launch dates. This implication can cause instability to the project where employees are required to work late on the deadlines, and miscommunication without a project plan often arises during mid-sprints. This downstream issue leads to employees leaving the project, and retention cannot be maintained due to starving issues that can be ongoing problems. The change management is often required to be changed in the middle of sprints, which causes restructuring of the plans. Risk management needs to be in place to identify these boundary issues because of the need for a project plan to identify this boundary so that project managers can allocate resources to the projects. Often, this resource needs to be thoroughly planned not only on the resources but also the project’s objective in an Agile environment due to the nature where changes can happen in the middle of sprints. It is urgent that this practice needs to be in place so that employees are retained in the projects, because any slippage may cause inconvenience to the employees. Stage gates are required in each phase of sprints to ensure all information receives valuable feedback before starting the subsequent phases. The performance must be evaluated using burndown charts to ensure satisfactory maintenance in each phase.

Peter Virag [2] performed a study on controlling Agile for Information systems development (ISD), which can be costly in project execution. Project control is a norm in project management, which studies have shown. Information system development projects require control over projects, because there are boundaries in the projects that require handling, and failure to do so can prevail with unnecessary effects on the projects. The Project Manager usually does this control to set the organisation’s objectives so that it cultivates a similar understanding across the board to be aligned. However, project controls unveil side effects to the projects whose unrelated interests of project participants may target unrelated problems. These controls can be costly to the project participants, as they can cause stress and burnout, and project control can misalign between the control purpose and the chosen control modes done by the project manager. This control mechanism in an Agile environment can lead to micromanaging the tasks and lead to bad autonomy in responding to change promptly. Changes are normal in Agile during mid-sprints of the projects, in which working teams make decisions on the required tasks to ensure normal operation of the sprints. Still, discussions through the project control make decision-making slow and issues in the development process. As a result, project managers are required to choose control mechanisms autonomously to support employees’ freedom. Freedom helps to fight against burnout and stress.

Fan Yang et al. [5] studied the job burnout of construction project managers (CPM) in China. The study observed that the likelihood of job burnout for CPM increases significantly with job demand stress and that there is no meaningful relationship between job burnout and education achievements. Construction projects require project managers to keep an eye on quality, schedule, safety, costs, and other objectives, which, in its nature, is highly stressful. The other relates to stakeholder management with administrative officials, society, and supervisors. In the context of China, there is also the existence of illegal stakeholder relationships. This is due to the industry’s inclination to select the lowest bidder and the government’s involvement in many aspects of the construction industry, resulting in the birth of under-the-table dealings. Construction project managers receive little or no organisational support. The study also found that an effective company management system can alleviate job stress and burnout. As prolonged suffering from job burnout adversely affects the construction project manager’s health, it increases the likelihood of triggering associated defensive coping mechanisms, such as turnover intention.

2.2. Adaptive Method

Paul F. DeChant [3] performed a study on physician burnout in an organisation-directed workplace on project management. Organisation-directed workplaces include stress, mental health, and job satisfaction which a study was formed to understand the areas that require attention for burnout to be decreased and retention increased. Many workplace restrictions, such as shift periods and unnecessary cost calculations of on-duty hours, make individuals unhappy in the workplace, which reveals the effect of burnout. The workflow within the organisation can be rather rejecting to most individuals, because job satisfaction in the overall workflow process can be harmful, since most job members are working on grey areas that often change and are not governed correctly. Burnout has profound healthcare implications, in which more physicians are usually required to handle such cases. Time pressures, lack of accomplishments, and non-working hours led to high physician burnout rates. This burnout can lead to healthcare where physicians may engage in alcohol or drug abuse to overcome stress. These burnouts can lead to low retention, where the physicians may take a break from their career or find new places for their job. The main reason is due to an intervention on their activities during time pressures, as non-working hours have led physicians unable to cope with the work that they put in, which leads to unaccomplished tasks. The study is designed to measure the burnout indicators to unveil the effect on the physician. Physicians are required to deal with burnout that lacks support from the organisation. The best strategy to overcome burnout and retention is to cultivate organisation-directed changes rather than personal level ones, in which physician healthcare is needed. Teamwork and time are required to be cultivated by an organisation that supports physician healthcare. An appointment of an executive to lead and support efforts to reduce burnout in the organisation is proposed.

Konsta Kantola et al. [4] performed a study on an action research project into agile release. Agile project management is an essential aspect of software releases to the production environment as it unveils the success of the projects and key criteria of the project phases. Every project is associated with Agile sprints in which the development team works on a specific period of the project and releases the development work at the end of the sprint, which is governed through sprint retros in which product owners are present during the meeting to understand the changes. Agile release planning is required to be detailed and timely, because it provides a depth of the development tasks that will be carried out during the sprint. Often, bad management of release planning can cause burnout during a sprint where many tasks are carried out and go above the velocity of planned resources, which prevails stress and mental health problems for individual development team members. This can lead to employees choosing a different project or even looking out for various positions in other organisations, where a release planning practice must be in place to prevent these issues. Product owners and scrum masters must be present during the release planning, because this sets the objectives and necessary tasks that need to be carried out during the sprints. Product owners should plan central roles in the planning development work with clear acceptance criteria for each development task. Product owners have individual preferences that should not be accounted for, because it can lead to pressure to feature releases. The development team requires extended hours to deliver to the production environment when priorities and goals are unclear.

Amber Sieja [6] performed a study on sprint optimisation to improve satisfaction on clinician optimisation in sprints to improve clinician satisfaction and teamwork. Electronic health record implementation has increased across the healthcare industry, where each healthcare place now uses electronic health records (EHR) to enter data into the platform. It is clerical work that keys in patient information, which burdens the clinician to keep entering data into the healthcare system, which has caused clinician burnout on a long-term basis. Burnout refers to losing personal accomplishment and enthusiasm to work in a related field. Burnout can lead to early retirement or leaving the job, and takes USD $500,000 to USD $1 million to replace a clinician or physician. The clinician efficiency process is overlooked as thousands of healthcare related to EHR, and all of these causes can lead to poor accomplishment and high rates of burnout. Several studies were done to identify the root cause of this, which leads to bad management of the clinician process that often involves the clinician working extended hours keying in all the data entries to EHR. Therefore, the project is to employ a sprint basis in healthcare, which includes training sessions in an agile environment in which over 20 sprints are evaluated to identify if the burnout rates have decreased. The result shows that, in each sprint, which is on twice-weekly basis, the burnout rates decreased from −15NPS to 12NPS, which NPS relates to the Net promoter score, which is calculated based on the performance index.

Szymon Cyfert [7] performed a study on psychological empowerment and workforce agility through project management. Energy sectors are undergoing a transformation that has increased pressure on stakeholders to identify opportunities in the business environment required to venture. Pressures in the energy sector first have caused dissatisfaction among employees. Turnover, burnout, and attrition is high, which could not be handled due to unforeseen issues. Employees deal with unsatisfied work, which degrades the performance of their delivery. Leadership plays a vital role in ensuring all necessary objectives and communication are widely done to the workforce. However, the changes to environments have caused a high number of miscommunications, as the workforce is not under a controlled environment where changes are maintained. Empowerment should be cultivated among the leadership to the employees to sustain a work–life balance. However, context switching emerges as the main issue preventing employees from dealing with project tasks. Leadership support has to be given to employees to avoid context switching from helping employees maintain priority items. Therefore, leadership in energy sector firms must be handled to maintain a sound workforce culture. This needs to be dealt with downstream where the workforce can maintain a good environment where context switching is reduced. Leadership must play a vital role in supporting ongoing problems, requiring them to communicate the issues and ongoing environmental changes properly. Furthermore, flexibility in the workforce needs to be provided to employees to decide on the changes and priorities of deliveries.

Solveig Beyza Narli Evenstad [8] studied ICT worker burnout through ephemeralisation and the circle of stress. ICT projects are known for project timelines changes and extended hours of work when the deadline reaches, which causes employees to undergo stress and burnout in the projects. The burnout cycle starts from the beginning of the projects, where project objectives are discussed and the changes propagated to the development teams to work on tasks. Environment changes are vital in the process of handling burnout and stress. To maintain a good work–life balance, employees need to be satisfied with the work they are working on. Employees’ mental health needs to be evaluated from time to time, which is caused by timeline issues so that employees do not work extended hours. The usual working hours are 8 hours per day, but sometimes, it can lead to 12 h a day. Project management must be very detailed, because it needs to accept technological change and adapt to changes, especially in the ICT environment. The development of the projects can be extended due to numerous reasons, such as added features, bugs, and defects that cause employees to relook at the development phase, which also adds to the budget overruns. Therefore, project management requires adopting time-based principles in the project to prevent deadlines from being overrun and changes in the project need to be handled so that it does not overflow into the current work that the development team works on. This supports employees being agile in the position they are currently working on and responsive to the changes, and project management handles the requirements carefully.

Van Oorschot et al. [9] analysed different iteration lengths in an Agile problem and how the schedule pressure positively or negatively influenced the team’s behaviour over time. Positive schedule pressures act as pacers; in their absence, teams may procrastinate. Agile projects result in a string of deadlines instead of a single deadline in predictive projects. These multiple deadlines alternate between peaks that build up to each customer review before the start of the next iteration. The paper examined the effect of various iteration lengths. For predictive projects, the eventual schedule pressure leads to a sharp increase in errors that result in insufficient time and resolve them. In addition, the faraway deadline results in the team lull into complacency at the beginning of the project. For adaptive projects, the frequent deadline towards the end of iterative cycles creates elevated spikes in schedule pressures. This pushes the team against the wall, since they must plan many intermediate deadlines and, as a result, have little or no time to recover from the pressures of the previous iteration. When progress is required too quickly but knowledge of the task is still low, this results in overwork and exhaustion. The study found that iteration sizes between forty-three to sixty-five working days work better than the widely accepted 20 working day cycles. The iteration length is best based on the volatility of requirements and the diminished software quality and should not be tied to fixed notions of monthly iterations.

2.3. Adaptive and Predictive Method

LinLin W. et al. [10] studied how a project manager’s workplace anxiety affects team members’ organisational citizenship behaviour. Projects are, by nature, temporary, and leaders of project teams are exposed to demands and requirements from multiple stakeholders, which can sometimes be ambiguous and conflicting. They also have to compete to complete time-limited tasks. Interaction between team members and project leaders cannot be avoided, and the emotions of project leaders influence their emotional and mental states and actions. The paper also studied the correlation between core self-evaluation (CSE), an evaluation of one’s expertise, capabilities, and individual worth, and its mediating effects against negative behavioural influences from project leader workplace anxiety. The study proposed that organisations train project leaders develop positive mindsets toward project responsibilities and show positive affective states to their team members. Project leaders ought to implement strategies for recovery, such as having sufficient rest and getting involved in a hobby. Project teams should also hire team members with higher CSE, as they are less vulnerable to the project leader’s negative behavioural influences.

Gaurav G. Sharma et al. [11] surveyed the onboarding of new hires of software development professionals and the turnover intention of these professionals. The study found that designing an effective onboarding program is the cornerstone of any organisation’s talent management and staff retention strategy. The study concluded that, for IT Professionals, it is vital that, beyond the initial orientation and short-term formalised training, continuous support is essential for staff to be comfortable with a new working environment. Organisations should create environments where newcomers feel safe to ask questions to peers and seniors about work and personal issues without being judged or shamed. Successful onboarding also has positive effects on workplace relationships and job satisfaction. However, quality workspace relationships on their own may positively impact productivity but it does not help staff retention. On the other hand, job satisfaction has empirical evidence for reducing the turnover intention.

Shuja ul Islam et al. [12] explored how project risk and stakeholder relationships are mediated by phycological distress and intrinsic motivation. The study shows that project teams in higher-risk projects have higher psychological distress. Employees with high project involvement have lower physiological pain. On the other hand, employees work in highly unpredictable and riskier environments, unskilled employees, and those facing tight deadlines are exposed to higher psychological distress. Similarly, bad relationships between stakeholders and the project team also result in higher psychological distress, which contributes to the turnover intention. Intrinsic motivation, which is the act of doing what is enjoyable, does not affect reducing the intention to leave for high-risk projects and project team members with bad relationships with stakeholders. The findings invalidated the belief that psychological distress occurs due to a person’s internal factors. Properly using risk management processes and providing platforms and mechanisms to project team members to develop good relationships with stakeholders is key to reducing psychological distress.

Bin Lin et al. [13] investigated the factors related to software developer retention in five large open-source projects: Wikimedia, Openstack, GlusterFS, Xen, and Cloudstack. This study is interesting, as participants in open-source projects mainly contribute to the project without remuneration. The survival analysis found that open-source projects have higher chances of retaining developers when developers start contributing early. The paper suggested one of the reasons for this trend is the growing code complexity creating hurdles for new joiners to contribute and continue. The other reasons for higher developer retention include being involved in the coding process instead of documentation. The phenomenon points to the importance of the sense of achievement for developers, although it takes more time than documentation. Bin Lin et al. proposed several strategies to retain developers. Firstly, developers should be involved in both writing their code and maintaining code from other members. Secondly, developers assigned mainly documentation tasks have higher chances of being retained if given coding assignments.

Naveen Raman et al. [14] explored the origins of stress and burnout in open-source projects. The open-source community members are concerned about the exploitation of volunteers. A recurring theme is that volunteers are constantly overwhelmed by bug reports and support requests. Version control systems such as GitHub also contribute to stress by exposing a contributor’s mistakes to the masses. The paper found that toxicity over time has decreased, and toxicity in corporate open-source projects is significantly lower than in non-corporate ones. Toxicity also varies in different groups, with “R” having the tiniest rate of toxic discussions compared to Ruby, with the highest. This observation opens up avenues for further research on whether community values play a role in toxicity.

Liu et al. [15] investigated that, in software project development, a team’s efforts are crucial for creating required system artifacts and determining how well information systems’ design activities are going. The requirement to develop software for big projects and the goal of swiftly performing tasks have presented developers with several problems. This study, which focuses on emotional intelligence (EI) ability, examines how burnout among software engineers affects internal values, work characteristics, and population in two samples. At first, it was thought to show patterns in how roles, education, personalities, emotional intelligence (EI), and experiences with burnout interacted with stress. Aside from that, emotional weariness worsens the impact of burnout on performance. The failure rates of projects in the area of developing information systems have risen. Only the requirements of the section and pre-set criteria, such as the timeframe, cost, and quality of projects, are completed. To accomplish these goals, developers must overcome several challenges, such as the requirement to create software for complicated tasks. They observed that employees of lesser teams engaged in the testing phase and small projects found applying organisational principles and models to teams working on bigger projects difficult. As a result, the work adds to the increasing body of research on the behavioural, developmental, and mental implications of information system initiatives that use emotional intelligence. Emotional tiredness can result from too much stress in one’s personal or professional life. When someone has emotional fatigue, it can leave them feeling worn out, stressed, and exhausted. The study added to the literature by illuminating the conceptual procedures that lessen stress’s adverse effects and fosters developers’ beneficial outcomes. Employees who experience work stress are more likely to have anxiety, burnout, despondency, and substance use problems. It is crucial to consider the stress an individual is experiencing in a particular setting to identify the long-term danger of burnout. Additionally, personality and emotional stability will likely be factored into these evaluation procedures. According to interpersonal surveys, persons who exhibit certain behavioural qualities and attitudes may be more stressed out, treated poorly, and, hence, more prone to burnout. Several factors might lead to burnout syndrome. The mindset regarding one’s own employment experience and everyday labour is the primary determining element. Respect and recognition are typical of a strong need to meet their high standards. The persons who are simultaneously afflicted pay little, no, or very little awareness of their own psychological and physical flaws. The proposed RREI findings emphasised the potential value of EI in treating stress overall and burnout in particular.

According to Henkel et al. [16], project management has evolved significantly over time. The changes in the technological infrastructure, recent pandemics, sociocultural events, and the reflection that followed have influenced how people live and work to avoid burnout. The following section of the study looked at how organisational leaders may create work cultures that encourage project managers from today’s multigenerational organisations to be completely emotionally engaged when overseeing and directing organisational initiatives. In all industries, project management has now become crucial. Managing project members to complete a project’s essential elements of time, scope, money, performance, resources, and risk to meet an organisation’s goals in the twenty-first century world market can be among the most onerous tasks for a project manager. Therefore, to bring each of a project’s components together and achieve a successful conclusion, project leaders must be aware of the required information, management, and interpersonal relations skills. Concern should be expressed about project members who are overworked and burned out. Building successful teams are among project managers’ primary duties, since projects need to succeed. Project leaders want to work with teams that are totally and emotionally invested and who come up with fresh, creative solutions to the problems that arise on each given project. High-performing project teams give each team member greater chances to play to their strengths. This study demonstrates that an organisation’s most important asset is its people resources. They point out the connection between enhanced organisational performance and successful employee engagement. Burnout is reduced, and employee engagement is raised as a result. In the end, motivated workers can design career advancement chances that suit their requirements and decrease burnout rates. Research has demonstrated that, when managers express gratitude and respect for employees’ efforts, production soars, employees are less inclined to experience burnout, and everyone benefits. They are also less sad, more committed, involved, and get along with people better. This fosters a culture in which both the individual expressing thanks and appreciation and the one receiving it feel positive emotions. Their study highlights the value of looking into the elements that encourage project managers to give their all to their tasks. Interviews with past project leaders from four generations of workers from several different nations were very significant, since they presented their research from a distinctive sociocultural perspective. People are motivated by a variety of things at work. Therefore, it makes sense for the project leader to consider what is most important to them before choosing where to work. The results of their present study should encourage organisational leaders to have a positive outlook and an open-minded approach while trying to comprehend the variables that link to project directors’ motivation. Businesses that design a business plan that include a plan to foster a project management culture that suits the demands of the current multigenerational workforce will reap real rewards in terms of helping to achieve their financial objectives.

Irfan, Khalid et al. [17] studied that the overall project performance is affected by job burnout, which works as a mediator, and organisational support, which functions as a moderator. The study’s findings indicated a connection between reduced project failure and reduced work burnout. Additionally, a 100% moderating effect between work–life balance and project management success was seen in the bootstrapping data. The author’s understanding of the connections between job burnout, management support, and work–life balance and how these aspects affect project performance improved because of their research. A complete moderating implication on balance and performance outcomes was also discovered through the bootstrapping findings. This study contributes to the area by evaluating the effect of work–life balance on job burnout and the performance of projects, in addition to looking at various techniques for resolving conflicts between work and family. It is the first study of its kind in developing countries. Success in a project always depends on effective teamwork. Organisations are becoming more aware of how crucial it is to preserve workers’ work–life balance to attain peak productivity. A company must recognise that there must be a balance between team members’ basic needs and professional stress to function at their best without becoming overworked. Project teams are now continuously linked due to the rapid advancement of technology, which is advantageous but may be harmful to team members if improperly handled. Organisations are creating and implementing innovative techniques to help employees meet their professional and social obligations to solve this issue.

According to An et al. [18], the project termination phase has received little attention in prior studies or practice despite being strategically significant for organisations. The project manager implements strategic decisions during this phase and is crucial to completing projects. These pressures have an adverse psychological, physiological, and behavioural impact on project managers and limit their capacity to perform effectively. The study’s goal in this scenario is to determine the influence of project managers’ participation experimentally. The capacity of project managers to contribute will be hampered as the stresses mount, but only the acquiring knowledge assets are impacted. As a result, under duress, project managers often let go of the work that has less strategic relevance first. This research gives practical advice for managing projects and people management in project-based businesses and enhancing insights into associated theories in human resource management and project management. They must also gather and archive understanding as a project management plan. Their contributions are crucial to the project’s final phase. In the last stage, project managers deal with many stressful concerns. According to study and practice, stress at work will cause numerous stress reactions in workers, including burnout and decreased employee satisfaction. These responses of individual physiological and psychological states can severely impair work performance. For companies or portfolios to succeed strategically, senior managers must be obeyed. Previous theories suggested that the competence of project managers and the impacts of stresses might influence the behavioural quality, the project termination, or the accomplishment of two goals, namely efficiently finishing the project and gathering knowledge assets. Additionally, the execution of project closing procedures is necessary for the achievement of strategic value. Future investigations should focus on these intermediary processes. Second, different industries may place differing weight on certain project termination stressors. Project managers may have a significant burden before the deadline, since information technology initiatives tend to be brief and proliferate quickly. The relatively constant work environment of IT projects will not, however, add to the burden.

Jugdev, K et al. [19] stated that an individual’s psychological well-being is affected by stress both internally and externally (Haynes and Love 2004). As a result of psychological stressors such as long hours, excessive workload, job uncertainty, poor promotion and pay prospects, unclear responsibilities in work, time, and pressure to keep the cost down, errors or compromises of quality and ethics are more likely to occur. There is some evidence that disengagement and burnout can cause disengagement in the workplace. More than 50 percent of employees can experience disengagement during work. Several project management studies focus on specific aspects of stress and burnout in the workplace. Resources that are not controlled are also found to stress IT and project managers. Overwhelming, overloading, and exhaustion are symptoms of a lack of resources. Organisational priorities can also compound stress levels. Compared to project-oriented organisations, employees in non-project-oriented organisations report lower mental health and greater anxiety. It is essential to understand what may increase project managers’ engagement to prevent burnout, increase retention, and enhance competitive advantage.

Khan, J. M et al. [20] said there has not been enough research on the effects of despotic leadership among various negative leadership styles. Earlier studies have not discussed the impact of despotic leadership on traditional organisations or projects. Leaders who are despotic exhibit self-interested behaviour aimed at dominating and overpowering. A bossy attitude, arrogance, manipulation, blaming, and arrogant behaviour are characteristics of these leaders. The current competitive environment makes it difficult for project managers to focus on tasks, time, and budget, and despotic leaders ignore the organisation’s success. As a result, the study argues that despotic behaviour on the part of project managers may negatively affect their projects.

It is also important to note that despotic leadership can cause employee stress and damage organisations and tasks. A stressful job environment affects employees’ ability to master different job situations and perform their tasks. Some researchers studied despotic leadership styles in traditional organisations and their consequences. Increasing burnout, health problems, and stress are negative consequences. Stress also causes employees to have low productivity, motivation, and health, making it difficult for them to contribute to the organisation’s success or complete organisational tasks in a competitive environment. A negative leadership style includes negative gestures toward employees, which are associated with despotic leadership.

Reference [21] stated that a proper project management approach and method are crucial to ensuring a smooth project flow. Still, reducing stress levels and increasing efficiency throughout the project is crucial. According to the research, a team member’s responsibility for work significantly affects their stress level. At their optimal level, each person’s workload is evenly distributed. There must be a balance between too much burden on one’s shoulders, leading to exhaustion, and too much freedom, resulting in unsatisfactory progress.

Therefore, it is crucial to select the right project management approach and method; however, it is possible to maintain an appropriate level of stress throughout the project duration with proper project management.

According to Miao et al. [22], burnout rates in contemporary professions are at record-breaking highs. Numerous parties are frequently involved in large-scale, intricate, integrated construction projects. Practitioners must constantly manage a high level of risk and do numerous difficult activities in a short amount of time. Employees’ physical and psychological resources can rapidly and continually deplete, causing health problems and possibly even job burnout. Job burnout has been a serious issue in contemporary society. Psychological problems can result from job burnout, high stress levels, instability, loss of value, and isolation in the workplace. Workload and job instability are factors that intervene between a worker’s professional standing and job burnout. On the other hand, it is possible to create specialist organisations and societies that can routinely organise construction worker vocational training. By doing this, organisations will use fewer resources and teach employees more professionally. They could also work with construction companies, handle project sites, and develop more professional knowledge for staff members based on the project’s specifics. According to their theoretical conclusions, job burnout has drawn a lot of attention in earlier studies, since it can have a detrimental impact on project performance and result in employees acting dangerously. Meanwhile, a systematic study has looked at whether and how professionalisation in building project management might lessen job burnout. This study demonstrated that increasing professionalisation among construction businesses might immediately and successfully address the issue of job burnout among workers, offering a fresh approach to the issue.

Darling et al. [23] studied the link between burnout and project labour. He looked at how project work circumstances negatively influence a person’s physical and mental health, lowering the organisational performance. Several industries offer scenario-based training, including the military, aviation, health, and education. The health of project workers, employee relations, and project success would benefit from a better knowledge of stressful situations and coping mechanisms. Organisations foster an environment where project workers are uneasy about their responsibilities and objectives, because they seem to clash with or be less important than other organisational functions. This lowers morale, work happiness, and professional self-esteem. Since many HR departments are ill-equipped to handle the professional growth of project employees and would prefer to delegate this responsibility to the employee, project sub-stressors also obstruct career advancement and promotion opportunities. Project employees must constantly re-establish connections and re-justify the expertise they offer to the organisation due to the changing tides of project work, which hinders their ability to advance in their careers. Additionally, relationships are frequently formed on adversarial and transactional grounds.

Wu et al. [24] investigated the impact of role overload (role conflict disagreement) on work performance and burnout in Chinese construction project managers. This study used professional calling as the moderating variable, creating a theoretical model based on the Job Needs Resources model by correctly introducing career calling and moderately regulating role stress. The report also offers some recommendations pertinent to building project management. Construction project management is known for having demanding, complicated, internal and external environments. Building project managers in China are under tremendous occupational pressure and psychological strain due to the sheer volume of domestic and international construction projects that China’s construction contractors are undertaking. In this situation, project managers would certainly experience significant stress at work. As a result, project managers experience significant levels of psychological stress and have a strong desire to quit. Utilizing the Job Requirement Role model, the goal of this study is to investigate whether role tension in project managers and job burnout impact job performance. One element of work engagement that lessens role stress and job burnout is career calling, which is a personal effort. This study offers substantial practical and theoretical insights on managing stress and job burnout, as well as serving as a trustworthy resource for improving project managers’ job performance and completing successful projects. A popular conceptual framework for studying workplace job stress burnout is that jobs demand good influence. The model explains how work factors affect job burnout. Function stress is a significant part of job stress, which is the stress that people experience at work. Regular evaluations and monitoring of staff performance are necessary to ensure continual improvement. Job performance is correlated with an employee’s desire and willingness to try out new tasks and responsibilities, which will boost their productivity. Project managers should, therefore, appropriately manage the amount of professional calling and deal with its modulating influence.

Miikka Kuutila et al. [25] found, according to research, more than 60% of software projects encounter delays; since delays result from time pressure, it can be assumed that software projects meet the same conditions reasonably often. Both academics and practitioners report the software engineering industry to have many project overruns and massive overtime hours worked by engineers. According to several well-validated theories, stress, decision-making, and motivation are affected by time pressure. When Agile methods are used, it was stated, it is quite possible to maintain motivation and manage stress levels due to shorter deadlines during software development, compared to the longer deadlines during the Waterfall method, as Agile methods have multiple shorter deadlines. Some assume that the source of stress arises from an imbalance between the job requirements and the job resources, which might, for example, be the demand for completing the tasks necessary for the next deadline compared with the limited time resources beforehand. Lack of time is an influential factor that can contribute to many adverse effects of stress. Managing the time pressure in a project is much easier and more fluid if Agile practices are implemented.

Cleyton V. C. [26] studied the connection between specialisation, rotation, and burnout in the workplace. It has been found that job burnout negatively impacts individuals in several ways, including feelings of depression and failure feelings, lower commitment toward their jobs and organisations, lower productivity, health problems, etc. To alleviate the effects of job burnout within an organisation, it has been found beneficial to have job rotation within the organisation. It is easier for employees to manage work pressure if they do not have to work on the same thing constantly. In addition to the lack of human interaction, one of the main reasons employees, particularly software engineers, often experience burnout is that they do not have the opportunity to interact with people outside the organisation. There is a possibility that analysts and project managers will experience higher levels of interaction with customers, because they will be in direct contact with customers. As a result, their levels of stress during work may be decreased as a result of this.

J. J. Jiang et al. [27] studied the career satisfaction of information technology professionals in the field. IT professionals must be capable of handling a variety of problems in real-life environments that require technical proficiency while maintaining stakeholder relations. It has been demonstrated in previous studies that career burnout and job dissatisfaction are among the causes of decreased career satisfaction and higher turnover rates. It is common for engineers to begin their careers as technical programmers. It is either possible for them to stay on the technical path or to move into a managerial position after many years. It is often difficult for engineers who take on management responsibilities to distinguish between managing teams and solving technical issues. As a result, organisations place heavy demands on managers with technical backgrounds, since they can often solve complex issues and manage teams simultaneously. The blurring of duties, however, can lead to burnout. An organisation’s IT professionals will likely stay if their responsibilities blend managerial and technical tasks rather than reach extremes.

Nicole Forsgren et al. [28] pointed out that there is a correlation between employees’ productivity and their satisfaction with their work environment. Undoubtedly, a decline in productivity or a decrease in employee satisfaction is a sign that the employee is experiencing stress, burnout, anxiety, or depression. This results in a decreased level of productivity. If a company wants to understand employee satisfaction, it must know whether the employees are willing to recommend others to work there; burnout is a direct outcome of the prolonged stress employees experience. It is recommended that organisations encourage collaboration between employees to mitigate this issue, such as speeding up merge request reviews, encouraging constructive criticism during code reviews, etc. In this way, employees will be less likely to burn out, and productivity will be maintained at work. It is also a sign of increased productivity of software developers to have fewer bugs and a higher quality of work in software development. For example, many bugs found in an application might indicate burnout or productivity issues among the developers. To maintain and improve the productivity of software developers, organisations must be proactive in looking for these signs and signals.

3. Literature Analysis

We may conclude from the listing of causes and solutions in

Table 1. Summary of the identified literature review by causes and solution to the burnout and attrition in project management.

Research Title	Methodology	Causes	Solution	Related PMI Processes Group & Knowledge Area
Agile, Stage-Gate, and their combination: exploring how they relate to performance in software development [1]	Predictive	Unplanned timelines, miscommunication, late discoveries, extended work hours	Gate with feedback loop before starting subsequent phases	Planning: Schedule Scope Risk Resource Executing: Resource Communication
Control in Agile IS Development Projects: Looking Beyond Agency Theory [2]	Predictive	Project controls, unrelated discussions, inflexible working hours	Freedom to employees with governed control, autonomous environment	Planning: Schedule Resource Executing: Schedule Resource
Effect of Organisation-Directed Workplace Interventions on Physician Burnout: A Systematic Review [3]	Adaptive	No job satisfaction, gray areas of working culture, extended work hours	Organisation-driven program to cultivate work–lifebalance and mental health	Planning: Schedule Resource Executing: Schedule Resource
Mind the product owner: An action research project into agile release planning [4]	Adaptive	Changes in the middle of projects, context switching, over-committed requirements	The project manager and Product Owner of a project should control requirements and priorities	Planning: Scope Schedule Monitoring & Control: Scope Schedule
Job burnout of construction project managers in China: A cross-sectional analysis [5]	Predictive	Nature of high-stress jobs, management of stakeholders, both formal and illegal, mental, and physical fatigue.	To investigate how organisations can best intervene to provide support.	Planning Resource Executing Resource
Optimisation Sprints: Improving Clinician Satisfaction and Teamwork by Rapidly Reducing Electronic Health Record Burden [6]	Adaptive	The learning curve of EHR, no sense of accomplishment of tasks as monotonous data entry	Sustainable training courses to ensure employees are prepared and controlled requirements	Planning: Resource Executing: Resource
The power of moving fast: responsible leadership, psychological empowerment, and workforce agility in energy sector firms [7]	Adaptive	Context Switching, miscommunications that lead to rework, over-committed requirements	The project manager and Product Owner of a project should control requirements and priorities	Planning: Communication Executing: Communication Monitoring & Control: Communication
The virtuous circle of ephemeralisation and the vicious circle of stress: A systemic perspective on ICT worker burnout [8]	Adaptive	Extended work hours, added features, overflow of defects and bugs, no clear objective discussion, tight deadlines	Project management requires time-based principles to ensure requirements and priorities are maintained within the working velocity	Planning: Scope Schedule Monitoring & Control: Scope Schedule
Under Pressure: The Effects of Iteration Lengths on Agile Software Development Performance [9]	Adaptive	The dogmatic notion of setting interaction cycles to fix notions of 20-working days	Iteration cycles are to be determined based on the volatility of requirements and tolerance toward diminished software quality	Planning Schedule Executing Schedule
Effects of Project Leader Workplace Anxiety [10]	Adaptive/Predictive	Project leader workplace anxiety negatively influences team member career adaptability and job frustration	Organisation to provide training to project leaders to develop positive attitudes towards project tasks. Hire team members with relatively higher CSE as they tend to mediate against harmful behaviors.	Planning: Resource Executing Resource
Exploring onboarding success, organisational fit, and turnover the intention of software professionals [11]	Adaptive/Predictive	Low job satisfaction.	A successful onboarding process that promotes continuous support and creates a safe environment to ask questions without being judged or ashamed of directly promotes higher job satisfaction and quality workplace relationships.	Planning Resource Executing Resource
Antecedents of project managers turnover intention: Psychological distress as a mediator [12]	Adaptive/Predictive	Psychological distress due to project risk and stakeholder relationship	Proper risk management process, platform, and mechanism for better project team member relationships with stakeholders.	Planning Communication Stakeholder Executing Communication Stakeholder Monitoring & Controlling Communication Stakeholder
Developer Turnover in Global, Industrial Open Source Projects: Insights from Applying Survival Analysis [13]	Adaptive/Predictive	Growing code complexity and the lack of sense of achievement in doing documentation resulted in high turnover in open-source projects	Developers should be involved in writing and maintaining code by other developers. Developers that are assigned documentation tasks solely should also be given coding tasks.	Planning Resource Executing Resource
Stress and Burnout in Open Source: Toward Finding, Understanding, and Mitigating Unhealthy Interactions [14]	Adaptive/Predictive	Unhealthy interactions in open-source projects contribute to contributor stress and burnout	Reexamine the values of different open source communities and investigate how corporate open source projects have lesser toxicity than non-corporate open source projects.	Executing Resource
Impact of stress on software developers by moderating the relationship through emotional intelligence in a work environment [15]		Adaptive/Predictive	Stress, heavy workload, no work–life balance	The proposed strategy of Regulating Relationships through Emotional Intelligence (RREI) to reduce burnout in software developers’ project management.
Analyzing The Critical Factors Motivating Project managers [16]	Predictive	Rising levels of stress brought on by quick technological advancements, shifting customer needs, and the inherent risk in project management, client expectations are unclear	create opportunities for career development at work by HR, in line with their individual needs, appreciation for employees’ work, Psychological empowerment and motivational construct, employee engagement	Planning Resource Executing Resource
Impact of work–life balance with the role of organisational support and job burnout on project performance [17]	Predictive	No wWork–lifebalance, Job burnout, No organisational support	Adopting suitable work–life balance practices will be beneficial and support professionals working on projects	Planning Resource Executing Resource
Contribution of project managers’ capability to project-ending performance under stressful conditions [18]	Predictive	Hostile environments, unsustainable pace, Workplace expectations, job instability, job retraining, a diminished sense of purpose, disadvantages in pay, lack of advancement, peers or mentors, extreme work schedules.	Six-factor project ending stressor index. project ending efficiency (PEE), knowledge asset accumulation (KAA), and organisational strategic value integration (SVI).	Planning Resource Schedule Executing Resource Monitoring & Controlling Schedule
Linking workplace burnout theories to the project management discipline [19]	Predictive	Long hours, greater workloads, job uncertainty, poor prospects for pay and promotion, ambiguous roles on a project, time, and budget pressure	Organisations should invest in extensive programs to develop and support employees will improve productivity and reduce stress factors	Planning Schedule Resource Executing Resource Monitoring & Controlling Schedule
Despotic leadership and IT project efficiency: the role of resilience [20]	Adaptive/Predictive	Despotic and tyrannical leaders negatively influence project efficiency via employees’ job stress	Human resources of the organisation will need to monitor and get feedback from employees if they are treated unfairly	Planning Resource Executing Resource
Agile Project Management—What is it? [21]	Adaptive	Improper project management can lead to increase stress levels and affect constant efficiency	Balance workload across the teams and use proper agile methods such as Kanban, Scrum, Scrumban, or Extreme Programming	Planning Resource Executing Resource
Can Professionalisation Alleviate Job Burnout in Construction Workers in China? A Multivariable Mediating Model [22]	Adaptive/Predictive	High levels of stress, a task-driven atmosphere, job instability, work-family conflict, and the integration of several stakeholders all contribute to high-stress levels.	A conceptual approach based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory was created, and it suggested that raising the level of professionalisation might directly reduce job burnout.	Planning Resource Executing Resource
A model of projects as a source of stress at work [23]	Predictive	high levels of stress, lack of resources and processes, Strict unachievable deadlines or time pressures in projects, Job security, and no career development	Social support in the collegial context, which is enhanced by a team-focused culture, improve project Improved project delivery techniques (better-developed project controls—less ambiguous management), the provision of scenario-based education such as iPREP	Planning Resource Schedule Executing Resource Schedule
Time pressure in software engineering: A systematic review [25]	Preventive	Most software projects will face time pressure and constraint, resulting in burnout and stress for the developers.	Implementing the Agile method can reduce the time pressure and distribute the workload in multiple sprints, which will lessen the workload and stress.	Planning Resource Schedule Executing Resource Schedule
Toward Understanding Work Characteristics in Software Engineering [26]	Adaptive	Working on the same thing for many months can result in stress and burnout	Implementing job rotation where each individual can switch their task every week/month can alleviate this issue and improve mental well-being	Planning Resource Executing Resource
The Career Satisfaction of IT Professionals With Mixed Job Demands [27]	Preventive	Unsatisfied with job position, roles, and responsibilities	Employers should check and monitor the skills of each staff and place them to work on something related to their skill sets.	Planning Resource Executing Resource
The SPACE of Developer Productivity [28]	Adaptive	Prolonged stress in the workplace will result in a decline in productivity and increase burnout	Decreasing productivity signals that employees are starting to burn out and have stress at work. Thus, proper action must be taken before it gets worse.	Planning Resource Schedule Executing Resource Schedule

that the PMI knowledge area that needs to be concentrated on is the one that needs to obtain a solution for the difficulties that have arisen.

4. Discussion

According to the findings in

Table 2. PMBOK 6 Process Group and Knowledge Areas Review Papers Mapping.

Process Group	Project Management Knowledge Areas
	Integration	Scope	Schedule	Cost	Quality	Resource	Communication	Risk	Procurement	Stakeholder
Initiating	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Planning	0	3	10	0	0	23	2	2	0	1
Executing	0	0	5	0	0	24	3	1	0	1
Monitoring and Controlling	0	2	4	0	0	0	2	0	0	1
Closing	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

, the Planning and Executing Process groups, which intersect with Project Resource Management, have the greatest influence on the longevity of a project, as well as the level of burnout experienced by team members. After this comes the management of the project’s schedule and then the management of the project’s communications.

When working on projects, employees run the risk of experiencing burnout, as well as attrition, which are two of the most prevalent negative effects of a project. A sustainable environment to minimise burnout and attrition in project management depends on several parameters in a project that might contribute to a better environment. This is essential in order to maintain a productive workforce. Employees who are in the process of working on a project may feel as though they have no clear objectives for their working role, extended working hours, miscommunication that requires additional work to be done on development tasks, and no clear timeline for the completion of the project, all of which can lead to burnout. This primary outcome is not a daily problem that employees have to deal with; rather, it is a continuous problem that is caused by the stress, mental health, and anxiety of working concerns. These aspects are the result of the different phases of the project having an adverse effect on the duties that the employees are responsible for, which, in turn, causes problems.

One of the most significant factors that contribute to stress is the amount of time spent working on projects. The prolonged or rigid nature of a project’s working hours is one of the most frequently occurring problems. Employees who have been subjected to prolonged poor conditions often experience burnout, at which point they look for new possibilities in different organisations or initiatives in an attempt to address the problems.

The culture of the workplace is the primary contributor to the long and rigid hours required to complete project assignments. The working culture of an environment is very important to the growth of a project, because dissatisfied workers may result from a working culture that is incompatible with the environment. Different projects, which are governed by different organisations, each have their own distinct cultures of work. Therefore, in order to maximise the longevity of a project, it is imperative that businesses strike the appropriate balance in order to build a culture that values a healthy work–life balance among the project teams.

A poorly controlled environment usually results in requirements, bugs, and defects overflowing during the project without being governed by priorities. Underestimated or overflowing requirements overwork provisioned resources. This creates chaos in the re-planning stage, where employees are often required to absorb the issues and work on the tasks.

It is not possible to fulfil all of the requirements in a single period. It is common practice to divide them up into several phases and iterations. At the planning stage, it is necessary to discuss and reach a consensus on the scope of the requirements in order to guarantee that the development tasks are planned appropriately. When the requirements have been exceeded, the project manager is responsible for guarding the employees and ensuring that there will not be any additional overruns of the requirements or scope propagated to the project. This necessitates adequate planning, as well as taking a defensive stance in order to protect the members of the team.

Context switching is another area where it is common on this project where employees need to balance their tasks against multiple emerging priorities. Context switching allows employees to develop tasks and handle other tasks in parallel, which could come from the project manager or product manager investigating in parallel. The pitfalls of context switching are due to many tasks in hand for development teams that load balance these tasks by switching tasks when the priority changes. This is a common issue in project management that employees face when the priority of tasks is not defined accurately. This results in employees overworking and being unable to sustain the handling of the tasks, which results in burnout and stress, because employees think of how to resolve the tasks and complete the current tasks. Most of the time, employees do not voice this aloud, because they can absorb the task at hand and ensure it gets delivered. The project manager or product manager needs to play a vital role here, because this results in bad management of the requirements or priorities. They should ensure to protect team members from further context switching between multiple tasks by setting priorities to tasks that the team members are working on. The main solution is to ensure the priorities are set, remove tasks that are not worked on from the development tasks, and ensure they only work on single tasks. This can be cultivated using a project management process such as Scrum, Kanban, etc. to ensure there is a pre-defined project management framework to work on.

5. Conclusions

There was a total of 28 research papers that were undertaken for the purpose of identifying the noteworthy factors and solutions to promote sustainable environments in project management in order to reduce burnout and attrition. These studies were included in this review paper. Employees have a healthy work–life balance and experience less stress throughout the development of projects when they operate in an atmosphere that prioritises sustainability. Reviewing and analysing the process groups contained within the project management space is necessary in order to maintain a positive atmosphere. The process groups, project managers, and organisations play an important role in the improvement of the environment by ensuring that all data points are collected from historical projects, feedback from employees, and governing project management using project management. This helps to ensure that all data points are collected from historical projects.

Poor stakeholder engagement, scope management, schedule management, and resource management lead to decreased project sustainability over time. In addition to this, it has a negative impact on the health of employees, which in turn lowers their productivity, and it decreases the effectiveness of organisational management [29]. There is a possibility that the project will be affected by the workplace culture that exists within the organisation. Members of the team need support, such as consistent communication both up and down the organisational structure as well as across organisational borders, so that any potential gaps can be avoided [30]. As a consequence of this, project managers are required to have a firm grasp of these knowledge areas in project management, and businesses should make certain that their employees have access to the resources they require to maintain a healthy balance between their professional and personal life.