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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.

On shield tunnel construction (STC) site, human error is widely recognized as essential to accident. It is necessary to explain which factors lead to human error and how these factors can influence human performance. Human reliability analysis supports such necessity through modeling the performance shaping factors (PSFs). The purpose of this paper is to establish and validate a PSF taxonomy for the STC context.

The approach taken in this study mainly consists of three steps. First, a description of the STC context is proposed through the analysis of the STC context. Second, the literature which stretch across the PSF methodologies, cognitive psychology and human factors of STC and other construction industries are reviewed to develop an initial set of PSFs. Finally, a final PSF set is modified and validated based on STC task analysis and STC accidents cases.

The PSF taxonomy constituted by 4 main components, 4 hierarchies and 85 PSFs is established for human behavior modeling and simulation under the STC context. Furthermore, by comparing and evaluating the performance of STC PSF and existing PSF studies, the proposed PSF taxonomy meets the requirement for qualitative and quantitative analysis.

The PSF taxonomy can provide a basis and support for human behavior modeling and simulation under the STC context. Integrating PSFs into a behavior simulation model provides a more realistic and integrated assessment of human error by manifesting the influence of each PSFs on the cognitive processes. The simulation results can suggest concrete points for the improvement of STC safety management.

This paper develops a taxonomy of PSFs that addresses the various unique influences of the STC context on human behaviors. The harsh underground working conditions and diverse resources of system information are identified as key characteristics of the STC context. Furthermore, the PSF taxonomy can be integrated into a human cognitive behavior model to predict the worker’s behavior on STC site in future work.

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 aims at presenting the analysis of the views of construction participants in China’s construction industry on three major site safety issues. First, data from three distinctive roles (project managers, safety officers, and foremen) on site safety knowledge were analysed. Results indicate that they have low levels of safety knowledge. This is consistent with the existing literature, implying that safety training and education is a major issue around the world. In addition, the views of project managers and safety officers are further elicited on the second issue (that is, factors affecting site safety) and the third issue (that is, methods for improving project safety management). Results indicate that both parties have quite consistent views. The six most important factors are “lack of attention to safety protection by workers”, “lack of attention to safety management by main contractors/project managers”, “insufficient safety training”, “inadequate safety level”, “tiredness of workers”, and “poor quality of construction materials and equipments”. The five most promising methods are “increase in safety investment in terms of manpower, capital and finance”, “improvement in safety operations”, “no alcohol at work”, “increase in safety training and education for workers”, and “increase in safety inspection”. Discussions are given in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, clarify and tabulate the various managerial issues encountered, to aid in the management of the complex health and safety concerns which occur within a confined construction site environment.

This is achieved through conducting extensive qualitative and qualitative research in the form of case studies, interviews and questionnaire survey.

The leading managerial issues in the management of health and safety on a confined construction site are found to be: “Difficulty to move materials around site safely”; “Lack of adequate room for the effective handling of materials”; “Difficulty in ensuring site is tidy and all plant and materials are stored safely”; “Close proximity of individuals to operation of large plant and machinery”; and joint fifth “Difficulty in ensuring proper arrangement and collection of waste materials on‐site” along with “Difficulty in controlling hazardous materials and equipment on site”.

The resulting implication for practice of these results can be summarised by identifying that with sustained development of urban centres on a global scale, coupled with the increasing complexity of architectural designs, the majority of on‐site project management professionals are faced with the onerous task of completing often intricate designs within a limited spatial environment, under strict health and safety parameters.

The subsequent value of the findings are such that just as on‐site management professionals successfully identify the various managerial issues highlighted, the successful management of health and safety on a confined construction site is attainable.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the personnel attributes perception on reliable and valid health and safety (H&S) practices within small- and medium-sized construction enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa. It explores whether these valid and reliable H&S practices could be implemented based on the demographic attributes, namely, years of experience in the construction industry, number of years working in the current organisation and educational level.

A mixed method approach was used to conduct this research, namely, Delphi and questionnaire survey. A structured questionnaire consisting of 31 H&S practices categorised into five major H&S practices was developed from extensive literature review and the participation of 20 purposive sampled H&S experts. Sixteen H&S experts completed four iterations. A convenient sample of 1,450 SMEs was obtained. In total, 228 questionnaires were returned, of which 216 responses were useable for analysis. The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to determine the validity, reliability and acceptability of the H&S practices. Finally, one-way ANOVA and t-test were conducted to determine personnel attributes perception on the implementation of the H&S practices.

The five major H&S practices (constructs), namely, upper management commitment and involvement in H&S, employee involvement and empowerment in H&S, project supervision, project H&S planning and communication in H&S and H&S resources and training, were retained as reliable and valid practices of H&S within construction SMEs at project level. One-way ANOVA established no statistical significant difference on the respondents’ perception of the H&S practices. However, t-test revealed statistically significant difference on the respondents’ perception on, upper management commitment and involvement in H&S and H&S resources and training. The respondents with post-matric qualification strongly agreed that upper management are committed and involved in H&S.

The findings may help construction SMEs to use these H&S practices to manage H&S in their projects. The SMEs may also consider the level of education of their personnel when implementing H&S practices of upper management and H&S resources and training.

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed safety measures in every industry, including the construction industry. Thus, the construction companies have instituted safety measures at the construction sites to curve the disease’s spread among the workforce. This paper aims to examine the challenges encountered by construction firms in implementing COVID-19 safety measures at construction sites.

A qualitative research approach was adopted for this study using open-ended interview questions to solicit data from 19 construction professionals currently working on a construction project in South Africa. Content analysis with the assistance of an Excel spreadsheet was used to analyse the data collected.

The findings indicate that there are numerous challenges such as ignorance of COVID-19, the supply of poor personal protective equipment (PPEs) by contractors, lack of compliance, sanitising construction materials, difficulty in sharing tools and equipment, public transport usage by workers, superstition (COVID-19 is for a particular group of people), complying with social distancing rules, among others in the implementation of the COVID-19 safety measure at the construction site to curb the spread of the disease among the workers. These challenges have, therefore, hampered their effort to strictly adhere to the safety measures in accordance with the COVID-19 safety protocol at the project sites currently under construction.

The interviewees were construction professionals working in the South African construction industry during the COVID-19 period.

The implication is that, due to the challenges faced in implementing the COVID-19 safety measures, workers on the construction site are not adequately protected from contracting COVID-19. The workers may thus contract the disease at the project sites and transmit it to their families and vice versa, which may have further implications on the spread of the disease within the communities and society.

The study has identified implementation challenges of the COVID-19 safety measures at construction sites of which the construction stakeholders must institute measures to overcome since COVID-19 has become part of our daily life. The study also recommends some preventive measures to the owners of construction companies to help overcome or minimise these COVID-19 safety implementation hurdles to minimise the spread of the disease among the construction site workers.

This paper sets out to describe the development and empirical testing of a structural equation model of construction safety culture. A key contribution of the model is providing insights into the interactions among safety culture enablers, and the relation between those enablers (what the organisation is doing) and safety culture goals (what the organisation aims to achieve) in the context of the Thai construction industry.

Based on the internationally recognised EFQM Excellence model, this paper empirically examines the interactions and causal relationships between five enablers (i.e. Leadership, Policy and strategy, People, Partnerships and resources and Processes) and safety outcome (i.e. Goals). The paper utilises the structural equation modelling technique to test the hypothesised positive inter‐relationships between the enablers and goals. A questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of construction contracting organisations operating in Thailand to elicit opinions on the different attributes in the context of their current safety practices and performance.

Supported by empirical evidence, this study established that firstly, the Leadership enabler directly influences the implementation of Policy and Strategy, however, its effect on Partnerships and Resources appears to be an indirect one; secondly, Partnerships and Resources was found to indirectly affect Processes through Policy and Strategy, which likewise appears to be indirectly influenced by the People enabler.

This study provides a greater understanding of the interactions between the key elements of safety culture (enablers and goals), and among the enablers themselves.

The highest number of accidents in proportion to the employment rate is found in construction industry among all industries in Pakistan. The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the contributory factors of accident causation that can significantly reduce the rate of accident in the construction industry.

In total, 32 contributory factors of accident causation were identified through a triangulation strategy comprising eight face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the academic and industry experts coupled with a comprehensive literature review. Delphi survey was then conducted among the four respondent groups (clients, contractors, safety official and academia) to prioritize these factors. A consensus was achieved among the respondent groups after conducting two rounds of Delphi survey. Finally, the results were validated using the technique of inter-rater agreement (IRA) analysis.

All the shortlisted accident causation factors were graded as “important” to “extremely important”. Moreover, a “moderate” to “strong level” agreement was developed among the respondent groups. The three most significant factors were highlighted as “poor enforcement of safety rules and regulations by the Government agencies”, “insufficient allocation of safety budget and safety incentives by the client”, and “insufficient provision of safety training and resources by the contractor”.

The findings will help the key stakeholders to prioritize their energies towards achieving zero accident in the construction industry. Moreover, addition of academic experts as one of the respondent groups will enhance the linkages between the academia and the industry practitioners.

Besides highlighting the underlying causes of construction accidents in Pakistan, a detailed methodology is presented in this study for the analysis and validation of the Delphi survey data, which can be extrapolated in other regions and industries for elements prioritization. The findings of the study can also be generalized for other developing countries having similar work environment. The results validation through the use of IRA analysis is an addition to the field of construction safety research. The study also authenticates the applicability of IRA analysis to assess the agreement level among the respondents.

Although there are many challenges and constraints for construction organization operation and performance in a post-conflict condition, there is insufficient construction project management literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify a framework to understand and determine critical constraints and opportunities in a post-conflict condition facing local construction firms in Afghanistan. The proposed framework is composed of three major steps: identify and determine key performance indicators; identify challenges impacting organization operation and performance in post-conflict condition; determine critical constraints and opportunities based on prioritized performance measures; and organizational strength and weakness factors.

The strength, weakness, opportunities and threat matrix analysis has been used to determine post-conflict condition constraints and opportunities. Then the analytical hierarchy process has been used to prioritize the measures and identify the constraints and opportunities facing construction companies in a post-conflict situation. The mix-research method is applied to this study to analyse qualitative variables and quantitative variables obtained from the experts’ opinions and 51 filled questioners.

The study shows that there are a total of 11 critical constraints and three essential opportunities for construction companies that industry practitioners and policymakers should take into account while formulating the organizational strategy.

The developed framework will benefit construction companies in improving their performance and operation in after-conflict conditions.

This paper is the first to provide a comprehensive conceptualization of the challenges and constraints for construction organization operation and performance in a post-conflict condition. It also offers a novel conceptual framework to understand and determine critical constraints and opportunities in a post-conflict condition facing local construction firms in Afghanistan.