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This paper presents tools and equipment aspects of the results from a three‐year United Kingdom Government funded research project investigating accident causality (ConCA). The project has used focus groups and studied in detail 100 construction accidents site audits, interviews with involved persons and follow‐up along the causal chain. This paper concentrates on the influence of construction tools and equipment which were found to be important contributory factors identified by the research. They have largely been overlooked by previous studies and are not typically acknowledged as accident contributors. This paper argues for further work to confirm these links and for the inclusion of tools and equipment in the list of categories in statutory reporting procedures. This would also require an increased acknowledgement by construction managers of their influence, leading to better design and management of their supply and care on site.

The justification of punishment is an age-old debate which continues unresolved. In late twentieth century several attempts were made to reconcile the two opposing justifications: retributivism and consequentialism. But these attempts focused narrowly on merely one manifestation of punishment, i.e.: criminal punishment carried out by the state. To the extent that these mixed justifications are successful, they relate to only one (undoubtedly important) manifestation of punishment. But clearly punishment can occur in many different institutional contexts, and the institutions in each context vary dramatically in complexity and relevance. I recommend analyzing punishment in its manifold manifestations.

Surprisingly, given the prominence and front-line role of subcontractors in the construction industry, their perspective is almost completely absent from construction productivity literature. Existing research in this area presents a highly one-sided principal contractor perspective and there are very few insights into what subcontractors think. The purpose of this paper is to address the imbalance by investigating the determinants of construction productivity from a subcontractor's perspective.

Focus groups with 71 of Australia's leading tier-one subcontractors were conducted with the aim of exploring their insights into the productivity challenge.

The findings indicate that the main determinants of productivity for subcontractors are: the quality of relationships with principal contractors; opportunity for early involvement in design; transparent tender practices; growing administration and document control; design management; project management and supervisory skills, particularly in planning, scheduling and coordination; risk management and; industrial relations (IR).

This research was conducted in Australia and similar research needs to be conducted in other countries to cross-reference and validate the results more widely.

In practical terms, a “culture” of productivity improvement will need to be “nurtured” across the business and supply chain if productivity is to be improved. In particular contractors should avoid bid shopping, respect subcontractor IP and talk to subcontractors earlier in a project.

By respecting the opinions of subcontractors who employ the vast majority of workers in the construction industry, productivity and employment can be increased.

The focus group results add significantly to a more balanced understanding of what has hitherto been a one-sided principal contractor focused debate.

Describes the development and effects of behaviourally‐based management techniques in improving construction site safety. In phase one, goal‐setting and feedback methods were developed and tested on six sites in the North West of England. A 40‐week longitudinal research design was adopted in which measures of safety performance were taken before, during and after the application of these methods. The measures included four categories of measurement: access to heights; site housekeeping (site tidiness); scaffolding; and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) – with PPE used as a control. The results showed that: safety behaviour can be objectively and reliably measured; goal setting and feedback can produce large improvements in safety performance; the commitment of site management appears to enhance their effectiveness. Eleven major contractors have provided us with 22 sites which are participating, or have participated, in a larger follow‐up study that aims to assess whether contractors are able to implement these techniques themselves. Early results are highly encouraging, though analysis indicates that the mechanism by which the intervention influences behaviour is less direct than classical goal‐setting theory would suggest.

Construction projects' duration can be modelled using traditional and artificial intelligence methods. The first part of these two papers provides an insight into the principles of modelling project durations using neurofuzzy methods. This paper presents an understanding of how these methods operate and discusses the main issues concerning their use and application in construction management. An introduction to the problems of modelling and predicting construction projects' duration is first presented. This is followed by explaining the neurofuzzy life cycle modelling process and discussing methods for modelling projects' duration. A graphical presentation of the way in which neurofuzzy methods operate is also presented and discussed.

There is a paucity of recent literature on the influence of project strategic, site related and design related variables on the cost of construction. This paper seeks to redress this omission by presenting the results of an investigation into the influence of 41 independent variables on both construction cost and client cost. Data were collected from 286 construction projects in the United Kingdom and correlation and test for differences were used to determine the relationships that exist between the dependent and independent variables. The analysis both confirms the strong relationship between construction cost and client cost and between those two measures of cost and GIFA, and establishes other relationships which exist within the data, confirming many of the relationships that had been anticipated from the literature. It also established the ordinal sequence of several nominal variables. These data, therefore, can be confidently used to develop models of the total cost of construction.

The equability of environment, social and economic elements becomes a major issue to be achieved as to attain sustainability in the development of a construction project. As to cater to social sustainability, the Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Industry (Management) also known as OSHCIM has been introduced by the government to improve safety practices amongst Malaysia’s construction practitioners. The basic principle adopted in OSHCIM is Prevention through Design (PtD), which enhances the elimination of hazards during project design stages. This concept is inspired from the implementation of Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations in the United Kingdom. The concept has also been adopted and practised in many developed countries including Australia and Singapore. The aim of this study is to identify the dominant accident causes in Malaysian construction industry. In this study, the secondary data were gathered from the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) accident statistics. A content analysis and frequency distribution analysis were adopted to determine causal factors that contribute to the fatality. The findings show the existence of design-related causal factors, which is also incorporated with other causes of accidents. This is true as every accident occurs due to more than one factor. Thus, these inputs will recommend further exploration to determine the design-related causal factors. This may help the industrial players, including stakeholders, practitioners and researchers, to have more focussed efforts and resources in ensuring the success of OSHCIM’s implementation to reduce the accident statistics in Malaysia.

This study attempts to identify a simple and efficient framework to be implemented in the Sri Lankan construction industry to inculcate a “safe and healthy” working environment for its workforce.

The occupational safety and health (OSH) management strategies that could be implemented in the construction sites were identified through a comprehensive literature survey and a pilot survey. A questionnaire survey was carried out among the safety and health (S&H) experts to explore the most effective OSH management strategies and thereafter to derive OSH mechanisms to promote the safer and healthy environment in the construction sites. Success of these mechanisms in the local industry was analyzed and was subsequently used to develop the OSH management framework.

A total of 35 significant OSH management strategies, unsafe and unhealthy factors as risk factors for fatal and non‐fatal situations were identified. A further ten OSH management mechanisms were established as adequate safety supervision, site environment, controlling the workers' safe and healthy behaviour, centralized OSH management unit, resources and insurance policies, management commitment, supportive devices, OSH documentation, OSH education and awareness, and OSH committee. Further, these ten mechanisms were used to establish the OSH framework to be implemented in Sri Lankan construction sites.

OSH management in the Sri Lankan construction industry can be enhanced by implementing the proposed OSH management framework.

This paper identifies the critical factors that influence the attitudes of construction workers towards safe behaviour on construction sites. It studies these attitudes by using a research model that links three themes: safety management implementation strategies, attitudes of workers about safety and behavioural factors displayed by construction workers. This model is used to frame the responses of 126 directly employed construction workers in 10 companies. Some 56 variables were identified as having a potential influence upon attitudes to safety. The initial data analysis found that 12 technical factors significantly correlated to the development of strong positive attitudes towards safety management. Second‐order analysis, using factor analysis, isolated five variables that had a major influence on safety attitudes. The five factors were: organizing for safety supervision and equipment management, industry norms and culture, attitudes to risk taking and management behaviour.