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The purpose of this paper is to assess, compare and explain safety climate differences between the Indonesian and Australian construction industries.

The paper reports a comparative safety climate survey of 415 construction personnel working in the Australian and Indonesia construction industries.

Surprisingly, the results show that the safety climate in Indonesia and Australia are similar and that the differences in safety performance, safety climate must be interpreted within the context of wider health and safety norms, regulations, awareness, knowledge and typical work environments to make any sense.

This research contributes a missing international comparative dimension to the emerging research on construction safety climate. Indonesian studies are notably absent from this literature, despite the size of the country and the poor health and safety record of its construction industry. Similar comparisons between safety climate in other countries need to be made.

This research allows construction managers operating across international boundaries to better understand the cultural and institutional context in which safety climate is developed. This will assist in the development of more culturally sensitive safety management strategies.

The construction industry’s poor safety record has serious implications for both individuals working in the industry, their immediate families and the communities in which they live. By improving the safety record of the industry these impacts can be reduced.

This research reveals, for the first time, the cultural and institutional complexities of comparing safety climate across different countries. The results contribute to safety climate research by highlighting the importance of cultural and institutional relativity in making international comparisons of health and safety research.

Current research on mental health in the construction industry is fragmented, making it difficult to obtain a complete picture of young construction workers’ mental health conditions. This situation adversely affects research progress, mental health-care planning and resource allocation. To address this challenge, the purpose of this paper was to identify the themes of mental health conditions among young construction workers and their prevalence by geographical location.

The scoping review was conducted using meta-aggregation, guided by the CoCoPop (condition [mental health], context [construction industry] and population [construction workers 35 years old and younger]) and PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews) frameworks.

A total of 327 studies were retrieved, and 14 studies published between 1993 and 2022 met the inclusion criteria. The authors identified 13 mental health conditions and categorized them under nine themes. Mood disorders, anxiety disorders and substance-related disorders constituted the most researched themes. Studies predominantly focused on young male workers in the Global North. The prevalence estimates reported in most of the studies were above the respective country’s prevalence.

This review extends previous studies by focusing specifically on the themes of mental health conditions and giving attention to young construction workers whose health needs remain a global priority. The study emphasizes the need to give research attention to lesser-studied aspects of mental health, such as positive mental health. The need to focus on female construction workers and on homogenous sub-groups of young workers is also emphasized. The findings can guide future systematic reviews on the identified thematic areas and help to plan the development of interventions.

The image of the construction industry in China, as in many other countries, is tarnished by its poor safety record. With the rapid development of subway systems in Chinese urban areas, construction workers are being exposed to new risks which are poorly understood and managed. Subway construction projects are large scale and scattered over many construction sites, and involve numerous stakeholders and sophisticated technologies in challenging underground environments. Accident rates are high and have significant economic and social consequences for the firms and people involved. Addressing the gap in research about the safety risk in these projects, the purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of the factors influencing the safety of Chinese subway construction projects with the overall objective of reducing accident rates.

A survey was conducted with 399 subway construction professionals across five stakeholder groups. Follow-up interviews were also conducted with five experienced experts in safety management on subway projects to validate the results.

It was found that the eight most critical factors perceived by stakeholders to influence safety risks on Chinese subway projects are: project management team; contractor-related factors; site underground environment; safety protection during the use of machines; safety management investment; site construction monitoring and measurement; hazard identification and communication; and use of machines in all stages. This indicates that in allocating limited project resources to improve the safety of subway projects, managers should focus on: developing safety knowledge and positive attitudes in leadership teams; formulating effective risk management systems to identify, assess, mitigate, measure and monitor safety risks on site; improving communications with stakeholders about these risks and effectively managing plant, equipment and machinery.

This research contributes a new multi-stakeholder perspective to the lack of safety research in Chinese subway construction projects. The research findings provide important new insights for policymakers and managers in improving safety outcomes on these major projects, producing potentially significant social and economic benefits for society and the construction industry.

Promoting positive mental health is increasingly being encouraged as the focus of research and policies on the mental health of construction personnel. Most measures of mental health, however, typically use negative indicators such as depression and anxiety and are not specifically developed for the construction workforce, especially those with a Global South background. These limitations have made it challenging to measure construction personnel’s positive mental health. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to develop a scale for measuring the positive mental health of construction personnel with a Global South background.

Guided by Keyes’ two-continua model of mental health, the study objectives were addressed through a mixed-methods study using the case of Ghana. Qualitative data collected from eight key stakeholder groups using 16 interviews and two rounds of focus group discussions were analysed thematically. Quantitative data were obtained through a survey of 425 construction personnel and analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis.

Thematic analysis revealed a four-dimensional structure of positive mental health, namely, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis of the results indicated good instrument validity and reliability.

Existing measures of positive mental health are based on a three-dimensional model, i.e. emotional, social and psychological well-being. By including spiritual well-being, this study proposes a four-dimensional measurement model as a more comprehensive and promising measure to use in surveys of positive mental health among the construction workforce, especially those with a Global South background, and to develop suitable interventions for them.

This paper aims to discuss what people perceive as risks and resilience factors, and how they build everyday resilience.

The study focuses on Kampung (literally “village”) Plampitan, a neighbourhood in the inner-city part of Surabaya. The research used field observation, in-depth interviews and workshops during community meetings to collect data.

The results show how people respond to daily risks and find the support necessary to survive. The problems and risks revealed in the study include crime and economic difficulties, such as unemployment and insufficient income. Coping strategies identified are classified into place-based adaption, people-based network and political network. These strategies can serve as a starting point for local communities to assess their resilience and assist them in enhancing “everyday” resilience.

The paper argues that the concept of resilience must go beyond top-down approaches to disaster risk management and integrate bottom-up understanding from the perspective of local people, especially among marginal and disadvantaged communities. The paper develops the emerging and overlooked concept of “everyday resilience” and suggests that it is essential in surviving both “everyday” or small-scale chronic risks and large-scale disasters.

This study aims to assess the hospital readiness and resiliency in a disaster-prone Indonesia.

Hospital Safety Index (HSI), containing 151 items, was used to assess ten hospital in West Java and five hospitals in Yogyakarta.

The average level of HSI for the hospitals under investigation is B, indicating that their ability to function during and after emergencies and disasters are potentially at risk, thus, intervention measures are needed in the short term. Hospitals in Yogyakarta scored lowly in terms of their emergency and disaster management, even though they have previously experienced major disasters in 2006 and 2010.

The role of the government is crucial to improve hospital readiness and resiliency in Indonesia. It is recommended that they: identify disaster-prone areas so that their hospital readiness and resiliency can be assessed; assess the readiness and resiliency of hospitals the prioritized areas; implement intervention measures; re-assess the readiness and resiliency of hospitals in the prioritized areas after implementing intervention measures; and develop a framework to ensure that the hospitals can maintain their level of readiness and resiliency over time.

Research on hospital readiness and resiliency in Indonesia is still limited despite the size of the country and its proneness to disasters. This research has investigated the feasibility and value of using HSI to assess hospital readiness and resilience in Indonesia.

This paper aims to assess the level of occupants’ satisfaction, comparing older and newer on-campus accommodation buildings in Sydney, Australia, aiming to identify their comfort factors deficiencies in terms of design and construction solutions/strategies (e.g. spatial arrangements, materials, thermal comfort).

A post occupancy evaluation survey was used to assess the occupant satisfaction with three on-campus accommodation buildings in The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney. One of the selected buildings is an older building opened for occupation in 1996, and the other two are more recent on campus accommodations buildings. The survey included 11 post occupancy evaluation elements identified through literature review which were categorised into three dimensions: technical, functional and behavioural.

The results show that the satisfaction levels with thermal and acoustic comfort were below standards for both older and newer buildings. In addition, the older building used in this study was rated low in terms of: indoor air quality, lighting, maintenance and management, vertical transportation facility, room layout and furniture quality, building layout and aesthetics and level of privacy. Such factors related to both functional and behavioural dimensions were of greater satisfaction in newer buildings.

Findings suggest the high priority of strategies that address and improve the thermal and acoustic comfort of older and newer on-campus accommodation buildings if the intention is to enhance students’ satisfaction, especially considering the impact that these facilities have on students’ performance. Thermal performance in different seasons and adaptive thermal comfort activities should be considered in the design of new on-campus accommodation buildings and the retrofit of existing old buildings.

On-campus accommodation is an important facility that supports student learning outcomes and helps students adapt in a new learning environment. A post occupancy evaluation study to assess the adequacy of this facility is still lacking because previous studies have generally focussed on class rooms and work spaces in the education sector. This research compares the user satisfaction of older and newer on-campus accommodation buildings in Australia, to highlight deficiencies and areas for improvement in the design of existing and future buildings.

This study aims to explore the various approaches used in the general customer service industry to develop a conceptual framework for evaluating the responses of facility managers to user post-occupancy feedback.

This study uses conceptual analysis based on a comprehensive review of relevant literature.

The results of the study established 24 propositions which are categorised under organisational response dimensions specific to facilities management (FM): timeliness, facilitation, redress, apology, credibility of explanation, attentiveness, effort and their relationships with overall satisfaction and post-feedback behaviour, such as word of mouth and acceptance to continue using the facilities.

The established propositions are derived from existing theories using a deductive approach. The framework can be further enhanced to suit various applications in FM services.

This conceptual framework is a generic model, appropriate to many FM scenarios. The framework can be used to develop standard policies and procedures to foster and encourage collaborative relationships between users and facility managers. It reinforces transparency and trust between facility managers and users during the operation and management of the facilities, and improves FM effectiveness, facility performance and user post-occupancy experience.

In the FM area, no systematic approach has been previously established to evaluate and improve the response process to the users’ feedback. The proposed framework is a pioneer contribution in this area.

Given a baffling contradiction that the availability of safety knowledge may not necessarily lead to workers' safety behavior, this study aims to develop an exploratory two-step working model of safety knowledge in translating safety climate into safety behavior. In particular, this study highlights the importance of articulating tacit safety knowledge and improving workers' systematic problem solving (SPS) capacity in a favorable safety climate.

This study uses 110 valid responses from Pakistan-based construction workers to test five hypotheses which embody the exploratory two-step working model of safety knowledge. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to analyze the data.

The results of this study support the two-step working mechanism of safety knowledge in translating safety climate into safety behavior. Furthermore, results suggest that safety climate as a job resource facilitates converting construction workers' tacit safety knowledge into explicit safety knowledge (i.e. safety knowledge articulation) and then enabling them to spot non-conformities in safety management practices (i.e. SPS) and consequently to work safely (i.e. safety behavior).

The study has both theoretical and practical significance. In theory, it extends organizational learning theory and job demands-resources (JD-R) theory in the construction safety research domain and elaborates on the mediating role of safety knowledge articulation and SPS for the relationship between safety climate and safety behavior. In practice, it highlights the importance of continuous articulation of tacit safety knowledge and accumulation and use of explicit safety knowledge in construction safety management practices.

This research aims to examine the influence of workers' identification with their supervisors on safety behaviour in construction projects.

Employing the job demands–resources theory, this research tested the relationships among relational identification as a personal resource, respectful engagement as a job resource, employee safety voice as a positive work behaviour and safety behaviour as the outcome. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse 120 quantitative data collected using a questionnaire survey.

Relational identification, which reflects workers' identification with their supervisors, is a significant predictor of safety behaviour. Furthermore, respectful engagement and employee safety voice sequentially mediate the relationship between relational identification and safety behaviour.

The internalisation of safety norms, values and practices in construction projects is contingent on the identification of workers with their supervisors.

Safety behaviour of workers is a significant predictor of safety performance in construction projects. Research on numerous antecedents of safety behaviour points out that leadership is a significant predictor of construction workers' safe behaviour. Contributing to research on construction safety leadership, this research found that leader-subordinate relationship is key to make construction workers more psychologically ready to internalise the importance of safety behaviours at work.