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Work on construction sites involves individuals with diverse character, temperament,age, physical strength, culture, religion and experience level. A good number of these individuals are also alleged to involve themselves in substance and alcohol abuse due to the physically demanding nature of their work. These could promote the prevalence of violence on construction sites which could in turn affect safety on construction sites. However, there is a lack of empirical insight into the effect of violent behaviour and unsafe behaviour on construction sites. This study therefore pioneers an empirical inquiry into the relationship between violent behaviour and unsafe behaviour on construction sites.

Seventeen violent behaviours and 15 unsafe behaviours were measured on 12 construction sites among 305 respondents using a structured questionnaire. A total of 207 valid questionnaire responses were collected from site workers. Partial least square–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to examine the relationship between violent behaviour and unsafe behaviour.

The results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between violent behaviour and unsafe behaviour on construction sites.

The findings from this study provide valuable insight into a less investigated dimension of the problem of construction site safety management. A focus on attitudinal issues such as how workers relate toward others and toward self should be an important consideration in safety improvement interventions on construction sites.

The achievement of sustainable development goals is linked to the procurement of public infrastructure in a manner that meets key procurement objectives, such as sustainability, value-for-money, transparency and accountability. At the heart of achieving these procurement objectives and others is the capacity of public procurement institutions. Whereas previous reports have hinted that there are deficiencies in procurement capacity in Nigeria, insights regarding critical aspects of organisational capacity deficiencies among different tiers of government agencies is limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical gaps in the procurement capacity of state and local government agencies involved in the procurement of public infrastructure in Nigeria.

The study employed a survey of public infrastructure procurement personnel which yielded 288 responses.

Among 23 operationalised items that are related to organisational procurement capacity, none is perceived to be adequate by the procurement personnel. Additionally, among 14 procurement objectives only 1 is perceived as being attained to at least a high extent.

The findings underscore the acuteness of organisational procurement capacity weaknesses among public procurement institutions within Nigeria’s governance structure. It is, thus, imperative for policy makers within state and local government to formulate, resource and implement procurement capacity building initiatives/programmes to address these deficiencies. Additionally, the organisational procurement capacity items operationalised in this study could serve as a useful blueprint for studying capacity deficiencies among public infrastructure procurement agencies in other developing countries, especially within sub-Saharan Africa where several countries have been implementing public procurement reforms.

Procurement of public infrastructure that is fit for purpose partly depends on the competencies of procurement personnel. In many developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, there is a deficit in the quantity and quality of infrastructure and their procurement is further riddled with deficiencies in the capacity of public procuring entities. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the critical skills development needs of public personnel involved in the procurement of infrastructure in Nigeria.

Based on a quantitative research strategy, this study sought to address the knowledge gap through a survey of public infrastructure procurement personnel (n = 288) in different tiers of government (i.e. state and local government) and geopolitical contexts (north and south) in Nigeria.

Of the 45 procurement skill areas operationalised, there is need for further development in 38 of them including: computing/ICT; problem-solving; communication; decision-making; health and safety management; quality management; relationship management; team building; project monitoring and evaluation; time management and procurement planning.

A key implication of this study is for policymakers in state and local government to formulate and implement infrastructure procurement capacity development reforms that address the competency gaps of procurement personnel. Such reforms need to take into account the suitable methods for developing procurement competencies. Additionally, the procurement skill areas operationalised in this capacity assessment study could serve as a useful blueprint for studying capacity deficiencies amongst public infrastructure procurement personnel in other developing countries.

Public procurement capacity is composed of three facets: individual, organisational and an enabling national environment which encapsulates national legislation, policies and institutional arrangements that can facilitate or hamper the effectiveness of procurement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which procurement capacity challenges in the national environment affect the effectiveness of infrastructure procurement by public agencies in Nigeria.

A total of 30 procurement capacity challenges drawn from literature were operationalized in a survey of infrastructure procurement personnel in different tiers of public agencies (i.e. local and state government) in order to ascertain the critical challenges affecting the effectiveness of infrastructure procurement. The survey yielded 288 responses, which were analysed using descriptive statistics, one-sample t-test and independent-samples t-test.

Challenges related to transparency, integrity and accountability are amongst the topmost challenges adversely affecting the effectiveness of public infrastructure procurement. There is limited difference in the extent to which the challenges affect the effectiveness of infrastructure procurement in different tiers of public agencies in Nigeria.

Whilst various procurement capacity challenges have been identified in the extent literature, this study has shown that an assessment of their effect on the effectiveness of infrastructure procurement could reveal valuable insights regarding the status of public infrastructure procurement within a country, particularly countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions where there is acute infrastructure deficits. Such insights could inform appropriate infrastructure procurement reforms by policy makers, procurement entities and infrastructure funders.

Quality of life (QoL) for elderly residents of care and attention (C&A) homes has become an important consideration, given the increasingly aging population. Due to the number of hours such residents spend indoors, the quality of the facilities can contribute to their day-to-day QoL. This study aims to investigate the effect of facilities management (FM) on the QoL of Chinese elderly people living in C&A homes.

A survey of perceived satisfaction with the components of FM and QoL was carried out with a sample of residents. A total of 18 FM components and five QoL domains, including physical health, independence, psychological health, social relationships and living environment, as well as overall QoL, were identified.

The findings show that physical health is influenced by accessibility, doors and windows and signage; independence can be improved by enhancing accessibility, water supply, lighting and ventilation; accessibility, water supply, distance and doors and windows all predict psychological health; social relationships are improved by lighting and ventilation; distance impacts positively on the living environment; and overall QoL is predicted by lighting, ventilation, accessibility, doors and windows, handrails, recreation and signage.

The study recommends that designers and facilities managers review the micro-climate settings to harness available natural lighting and ventilation, introduce bimetallic strips to the heating systems to maintain a suitable water temperature and install large, easy-to-understand and graphic signage for straightforward wayfinding in C&A homes.

This study presents a fuzzy synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city realisation in developing countries, using Nigeria as a case study. By defining and delineating the problems faced by the country, more viable directions to attaining smart city development can be achieved.

The study adopted a post-positivist philosophical stance with a deductive approach. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from built environment professionals involved in the delivery of Nigerian public infrastructures. Six dimensions of the challenges of smart cities were identified from literature and explored. They are governance, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal issues. Data gathered were analysed using Cronbach alpha test for reliability, Shapiro-Wilks test for normality, Kruskal-Wallis H-test for consistency and fuzzy synthetic evaluation test for the synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city attainment.

The findings revealed that all six assessed dimensions have a significant impact on the attainment of smart cities in Nigeria. More specifically, issues relating to environmental, technological, social and legal challenges are more prominent.

The fuzzy synthetic approach adopted provides a clear, practical insight on the issues that need to be addressed before the smart city development can be attained within developing countries.

The procedural and administrative aspects of UK tendering have remained largely unaltered for decades but this may soon change in light of the recent review of the construction sector, headed by Sir Michael Latham. This paper presents findings of a nationwide survey of UK construction contractors assessing their opinion of the Latham procurement recommendations, along with their opinion of the authors' proposals for alternative selection procedure. Contractor usage/opinion of current tendering methods, tendering documentation and contractual arrangements are also identified. Analysis techniques primarily involve the derivation of contractor preference, agreement and importance indices (Pri, Agi and Imi respectively). Results show that clients are attempting to cut costs by increased use of open tendering coupled with plan and specification tender documentation, but that savings are offset by clients ultimately paying for contractors' costs associated with their achieving contract award for only 1 in 5 bids. Generally, contractors are in tune with the ideals of the Latham review and characteristics pertaining to the HOLT (Highlight Optimum Legitimate Tender) selection technique.

Looks at the shortage of skilled employees in the labour market of the construction industry and the reduction in the number of qualified workers. Considers ways that employee motivation can be improved and provides some examples of successful construction organizations making use of the principles of human resource management. Concludes that, through the practice of the philosophies of strategic human resource management, it is possible to develop a high level of consistency between organizational and individual needs.

A quantitative contractor selection technique which embraces the pre‐qualification, evaluation and final selection processes is being developed. The emphasis is on evaluating contractors' performance potential in terms of their ability to achieve time, cost and quality standards. This approach is in contrast to the majority of current selection techniques which tend to prequalify, then discriminate predominantly on the cost component of tenders. The conceptual model is applied to a hypothetical but realistic scenario of a contractor competing for a small industrial contract. This illustrates the mechanics of the new technique, emphasizing that contractor selection should include identifying the contractor with the best performance potential and not merely the lowest bidder.

The results of a model based survey of contractors' planning engineers in France and the UK suggest that planned completion times for constructing an identical high‐rise in situ concrete framed structure are significantly and dramatically lower in France than in the UK. Average planned construction periods in France were 13 weeks, some 9 weeks faster than the UK average of 22 weeks. Since planned construction periods reflect past experience, French contractors apparently achieve superior levels of production performance whilst at the same time working fewer hours per week, utilizing directly employed workers and employing fewer supervisors. If such planned completion times are truly representative, the findings indicate comparatively poor UK contractor performance, and signify future problems for the British builder in the emerging European marketplace. The causes of such poor performance are complicated, but based on indicative French best practices: production is enhanced when scheduled overtime is avoided, a directly employed and mainly skilled workforce is engaged, and a maximum working time of 40 hours per week is the norm rather than the exception.