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Construction managers must focus on effective job design to develop and harness employee talent and achieve organizational goals. Because psychological needs and key motivators vary by career stage, a differentiated employee value proposition is crucial for a firm’s retention strategy. This study aims to examine how job crafting (JC) affects job embeddedness (JE) at different career stages.

In this investigation, a quantitative methodology was used. In total, 272 construction industry professionals from 25 construction firms in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, provided the data. Through the use of structural equation modeling, hypotheses were evaluated.

The results show that JC enhances construction professionals’ JE (β = 0.60, p < 0.000). Moreover, the relationship between JC and JE is moderated by career stages. The impact of JC on JE is greater among longer tenured (late-career stages, β = 0.61, p < 0.000) than shorter tenured construction professionals (early-career stages, β = 0.60, p < 0.000 and mid-career stages, β = 0.58, p < 0.000).

Limited research shows how JC can improve JE. At the time of this research, there was no published work on JC and JE relationship in the construction industry. This research found that JC has a positive impact on JE and JC behavior applies at both individual and team levels. This could imply that construction professionals with longer organizational tenure are more likely to challenge the status quo and identify problems or opportunities for improvement, hence contributes to JE theory.

Work crew productivity and the application of limited resources are necessary elements in construction duration delay analysis. This study thus proposes a method to analyze construction delays and resource reallocation based on work crew productivity and resource constraints. The study also presents an economic feasibility analysis that maximizes economic effect by reducing construction duration, the cost of resource reallocation, delay liquidated damages (DLDs) and incentives for reducing contractual duration.

The proposed method involved three steps. First, work crew characteristics such as productivity, unit price and workload helped analyze delay information, including delay duration, reducible duration and daily reduced cost. Next, a goal programming method assessed resource reallocation based on the priority (as determined by decision-makers) of each constraint condition, such as the available number of workers, cost, goal workload and statutory working hours. Lastly, the level of reallocation was analyzed based on the results of the economic feasibility analysis and decision-makers’ delay attitudes.

A case study was performed to test the proposed method's applicability. Its involved sensitivity analysis indicated proposing to decision-makers a scenario based on the prioritization of economic feasibility. The proposed method's applicability proved high for decision-makers, as they can determine whether to reduce construction duration per the proposed data.

The proposed method's main contribution is the reallocation of resources to reduce construction duration based on work crew productivity and the prioritization of limited resources. The proposed method can analyze the differences in productivity between the plan and actual progress, as well as calculate the necessary number of workers. Decision-makers can then reduce the appropriate level of contractual duration based on their own delay attitude, constraint condition prioritization and results from daily economic feasibility analyses.