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Improved safety, health and environment outcomes through better design are about eliminating or minimising risks in the preliminary planning stages of a product. Better design provides a foundation for improved outcomes in the development, use and maintenance of a product like plant and equipment or a building. Improved outcomes in design require the many stakeholders who contribute to the design process to critically review its safety, health and environment implications. Therefore, the client, or end user, must be actively involved in the review to ensure that operational requirements and maintenance issues, intrinsically known to the client, are considered by other design stakeholders. For example, safety, health and environment implications inherent in the design of a building project may exist in its construction, use, maintenance and demolition, i.e. its complete lifecycle. Similar implications exist for the design of other products such as plant or equipment, e.g. its manufacture through to decommissioning.

Feedback in the workplace is identified as an important subset of changing workers’ behaviour and providing effective reinforcement through informative and motivational properties. When properly initiated, feedback can bring about significant positive changes in compliance with safety procedures and is a key component of superior occupational health and safety (OHS) performance. In contrast, little evidence exists to suggest that disciplinary measures eliminate or suppress unsafe employee behaviour and risk taking. Research and quantifiable measurement in the effects of feedback is scant for industries such as construction, which are dominated by contracted labour. This paper reports on research undertaken to assess the effects of feedback on risk taking by contractors undertaking work in the Australian construction industry. The research was conducted over a period of one year and involved 350 participants, ten construction sites and the implementation of on‐site safety interventions including a performance measurement and feedback tool.

The construction industry needs effective methods for gathering and utilizing performance information on industry, company and individual project levels. Such benchmarking (BM) information can be collected from project participants’ bi-directional evaluations of each other’s performance during construction projects. The purpose of this paper is to present the method and discuss the features of a multi-company project evaluation system as a BM tool. Also the accumulated results, based on the extensive BM database in the Finnish construction industry, are investigated.

The web-based project evaluation tool was established in 2007 as a joint research project between the Helsinki University of Technology, construction organizations and main associations widely representing the construction industry in Finland. The evaluation method is based on soft, subjective measures, such as client satisfaction and project participants’ satisfaction. The empirical observations of the study are based on over 5,500 evaluations during which the BM system was used in the Finnish construction industry.

The use of the evaluation is presented as a multi-level BM tool to evaluate the performance of different discipline groups on project, company and industry levels. The Finnish case shows an example of the industry-level performance BMs of project consultants, main contractors, sub-contractors and architects/designers. The BM categories include project management, staff, collaboration and project goal accomplishment. According to the results, the participants are satisfied with each other’s performance. However, main development targets in the Finnish industry are related to risk management and managing design. Also, the development of sub-contractors’ selection procedures will contribute to the performance of the industry.

The industry-level feedback is linked to the Finnish construction industry. Similar studies in other countries would enable international comparisons.

Client satisfaction and project participants’ satisfaction have been identified as one of the key factors affecting project success. With the help of mutual project evaluation, different BMs enable organizations to monitor their performance and to improve their operations in various areas. They also make it possible to position an organization’s performance in comparison to the competitors and help to perceive black spots in the process on project level. As a common system for the parties in the industry, the project evaluation BM system promotes quality improvement, customer orientation and collaboration between participants.

Project evaluation between the project participants’ enhance collaboration and mutual learning.

Multi-company project evaluation is a new and promising topic in performance measurement which holds potential for performance improvement through the utilization of network information and team dynamics. The study presents its wider utility as the basis of national, company and project BM.

This paper aims to explore the relevance of the application of an environmental management system in creating the image of a good corporate citizen in the Australian construction industry.

The author applied a research method based on data collected from annual reports, corporations' websites and publicly available statistics; and interviews conducted with stakeholders of the leading Australian construction industry corporations.

The environmental management system has a part in creating the image of a good corporate citizen. Majority of the companies pursues the corporate governance structure that is concerned about healthy environment. None of the companies includes both suppliers and community representatives in the board of directors. There is a different interpretation as to what healthy working environment comprises, and how to sustain a healthy environment of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The implementation of the occupational, health and safety regulations varies from state of state in Australia.

All companies should pursue the governance structure that ensures the social values of the organization are aligned with those of the community; overall unique stakeholders' understanding of a healthy working environment should support sustainability; equal implementation of occupational, health and safety regulations for each state in Australia could contribute overcoming for much‐needed occupational, health and safety improvement.

The originality of the paper is in applying the framework for examining the environmental management system pertinence to the image of defined good corporate citizen. The paper is useful to construction industry practitioners, academics, and government.

Since the appearance of COVID-19 social distancing and staying home have been recommended repeatedly by the governments for disease prevention. As the challenge continues to remain the current study seeks to examine the factors affecting social distancing through space planning and management. More specifically the current study aims to examine the appropriateness of the spatial organization and space configuration of a clubhouse with a linear plan layout in the mitigation of the spread of infections due to serious pandemic COVID-19.

For an enhanced understanding of the impact of spatial arrangements of public spaces plan on the effective implementation of social distancing this study has used the space syntax analysis method. The MPSP clubhouse building in Penang, Malaysia was selected as the case study. The level of permeability and wayfinding were determined in the building plan and were illustrated using photoshop software to depict the interrelation between the indoor spaces and building circulation. Graphs of the depth of space were used to analyze the level of permeability and wayfinding to illustrate the possibility of social distancing in the plan.

The result of the study shows the significant role of proper plan layout design on social distancing. While clear and direct wayfinding can positively be associated with more effective social distancing, the inefficient design of user access, inappropriate locations of multiple entry and exit and indefinite directions of users' inside buildings can impose slight limitations. The average level of permeability might suggest ineffective spatial arrangement, ignoring the needs of spatial segregation. The study further found that the linear plan layouts with proper zoning and effective management strategies can be considered a proper layout to facilitate social distancing and the spread of COVID-19.

The current study is unique in terms of examination of the spatial configuration of linear public spaces plan layout for possible temporary adaptability to curb disease spread during the unexpected advent of a pandemic. Based on researchers' best of knowledge it is the first time that the impact of recreational space design on social distancing has been examined. The study also originally sheds light on the fact that the commonly used guideline for the social distancing of 1–2 m between 2 persons, in reality, is practically inadequate given the nature of the sports activities.

This paper systematically reviewed research work on drivers of teamwork, which will reinforce construction work teams to enhance workers’ safety performance. This study adds to the existing but limited understanding of teamwork drivers on construction workers’ safety performance. This paper presents scholars and industry-based professionals with critical initiatives that have to be implemented in organisations to get positive results in safety while working in teams with an emphasis on systems drivers of teamwork on safety performance at the organisational level, which will help in providing information on the functioning of the teams and contribute towards improved safety performance of team workers.

This study aims to systematically examine the existing body of knowledge on drivers of teamwork by analysing 53 publications from the years 1997–2021. The Scopus search engine was used to conduct a systematic review and germane publications were collated.

According to the findings of the review, since 1997, there has been a burgeoning concern in the research of drivers of teamwork and its impact on workers’ safety performance. After performing a systematic review, 37 drivers of teamwork were identified. The top five drivers are effective communications, team workers’ relations, leadership, shared knowledge and information, and team training. Moreover, it was noted that the United States and Australia have been the international regions of focus for most of the research in the area of drivers of teamwork from the years 1997–2021. The 37 drivers of teamwork are distributed into six major socio-technical components: people drivers; culture drivers; metrics drivers; organisational and management practices and procedures drivers; infrastructure drivers and technology drivers.

The results reported present research scholars and professional practitioners with an overview of the drivers of teamwork that could be implemented in the construction industry to streamline potential implementations and improve safety performance of construction workers.

A list of teamwork drivers has been developed to ratify potential empirical research in the area of construction safety. The results would contribute to the existing but restricted understanding of drivers of teamwork in the construction industry.

The purpose is to introduce a safety planning and control (SPC) model that has been integrated into the production planning and control process. The paper is concerned with the impact of this model on human error control, since both workers' and managers' errors are major contributing factors in accident causation.

The analysis of this impact was based on two stages: the analysis of the main types of human errors detected in five sites in which the model has been implemented and a discussion on how the model contributes to the design of safe work systems from a cognitive engineering perspective.

The main conclusion is that six elements of the model (safety planning, near miss reporting, training, percentage of safe work packages indicator, participatory cycle, and planning and control diffusion) contribute to make both the boundaries of safe work visible and respected. Safety planning also helps to make the production system error‐tolerant to some extent. However, the analysis of causes of safety failures in the empirical studies pointed out a high incidence of violations of the boundaries (on average, 43.5 percent of the total safety failures), mostly by workers.

Although improvement in the existing mechanisms might make the model more behavior‐oriented, a broader set of measures is necessary to achieve excellence in dealing with human errors. Also, additional empirical data are necessary to clarify the nature and frequency of the human errors that have impact in construction safety.

The model may help in devising more effective tools to reduce errors in construction.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the nature and extent of violent practice in the motorcycle underworld. It does this by considering the murder of Gerry Tobin, and then uses the biography of the founding member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club (HAMC) for a critical analysis. The authors are interested in understanding the role of masculine honour and collective identity, and its influences in relation to violence – namely, fatal violence in the motorcycle underworld. The authors argue that motorcycle gangs are extreme examples of what Hall (2012) considers “criminal undertakers” – individuals who take “special liberties” often as a last resort.

The methodological approach seeks to analyse the paradigm of “masculine honour”, and how the Outlaws MC (OMC) applied this notion when executing the seemingly senseless murder of Gerry Tobin. So too, the author triangulate these findings by critically analysing the biography of the founding member of the Californian chapter of the HAMC – Sonny Barger. Further to this, a case study inevitably offers “constraints and opportunities” (Easton, 2010, p. 119). Through the process of triangulation, which is a method that utilises “multiple sources of data”, the researcher can be confident that the truth is being “conveyed as truthfully as possible” (Merriam, 1995, p. 54).

What is clear within the OB worldview is that it can only be a male dominant ideology, with no allowance for female interference (Wolf, 2008). Thus, Messerschmidt’s (1993) notion of “hegemonic masculinity” fits the male dominated subcultures of the HAMC and OMC, which therefore provides the clubs with “exclusive” masculine identities (Wolf, 2008). For organisations like the HAMC, retaliation is perceived as an alternative form of criminal justice that is compulsory to undertake in order to defend their status of honour and masculinity.

Based on our understanding, this is the first critical think piece that explores a UK case of homicide within the context of the motorcycle underworld. It also provides a comprehensive understanding of violent practice with the motorcycle underworld from criminological and sociological perspectives. This paper will inform readers about an overlooked and under researched underworld culture.

Numerous factors relate to the effectiveness of health and safety (H&S) management within construction; but a specific factor influencing the extent of H&S “incidents” on site, is the amount of H&S knowledge held by construction workers. This paper aims to offer some initial observations on construction workers' H&S knowledge, based upon test‐result data from an invigilated online H&S test.

Data from 564 candidates were analysed principally by observing mean performance scores and apparent differences, among the sample and defined sub‐samples, for each of five H&S subject groupings that make up the test.

Mean scores indicate better retained knowledge in “general H&S” questions and lower knowledge in “manual handling” questions. There was little difference in mean scores between defined candidate age groups; or between different size classifications of candidates' employer organisations. Perceived characteristics of employers' training regimes did not appear to impact test results either.

Disparity among sub‐sample sizes within the data means that these findings are indicative and accordingly, have implications for a follow‐on study that will utilise deterministic modelling to more definitively confirm the effect of formal training and other (e.g. workplace) characteristics, on worker H&S knowledge retention.

The paper shows that workers having recently undertaken H&S training exhibit greatest retained knowledge, the level of which remains relatively consistent regardless of where a candidate lives, or a candidate's age group.