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Buildings
Special Issues
Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety
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Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 19647

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yingbin Feng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
Interests: BIM application in WHS; procurement and sustainability; construction safety and health management; human behaviour in built environment; organisational culture and behaviours; robotics in construction; sustainable procurement
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Peng Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
Interests: sustainable procurement; work health and safety; technology adoption; waste management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Construction workplaces are experiencing rapid changes as a result of digitalisation, globalisation, industrialisation and sustainability. The workplace changes have a significant impact on the ways that people work, the environments that they work in, and the conditions under which they do their everyday job. This Special Issue seeks to respond to the challenges to work health and safety (WHS) management in the construction industry brought by the workplace changes.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

  • Technology (e.g., digitalisation and ICT, automation and robotics) and WHS;
  • Sustainability and WHS;
  • Building resilience for WHS management;
  • Offsite construction and WHS;
  • Globalisation, cultural diversity and WHS;
  • Demographics (e.g., young workers, older workers and female workers) and WHS.

Original research, case studies and reviews are welcome for this Special Issue.

Dr. Yingbin Feng
Dr. Peng Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • work health and safety
  • technology
  • resilience
  • offsite construction
  • sustainability
  • construction workplace
  • cultural diversity
  • digitalisation
  • industrialisation
  • globalisation

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

3 pages, 166 KiB  
Editorial
Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety
by Yingbin Feng and Peng Zhang
Buildings 2023, 13(5), 1182; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13051182 - 29 Apr 2023
Viewed by 688
Abstract
Construction workplaces are experiencing rapid changes as a result of digitalization, globalization, industrialization, and sustainability [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

20 pages, 724 KiB  
Article
Causal Model Analysis of the Effect of Policy Formalism, COVID-19 Fear, Social Support and Work Stress on Construction Workers’ Anxiety during the Epidemic
by Tsung-Lin Wu and Hsiang-Te Liu
Buildings 2023, 13(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13010010 - 21 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1888
Abstract
This study mainly explores the impact of policy formalism, COVID-19 fear, social support, and work stress on the anxiety of construction workers during the epidemic. The main objective of this study is to incorporate formalism variables to explore their impact on the stress [...] Read more.
This study mainly explores the impact of policy formalism, COVID-19 fear, social support, and work stress on the anxiety of construction workers during the epidemic. The main objective of this study is to incorporate formalism variables to explore their impact on the stress and anxiety of construction workers during the epidemic. In particular, the variable of formalism is changed from the variable of government bureaucracy to the cognition of “policy formalism” of the general public. This study intends to understand whether the gap between epidemic prevention regulations and practices affects the fear of construction site workers. A total of 743 construction site worker samples in the leisure industry were collected in this study, and the established hypotheses were tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results of the study confirmed that during the COVID-19 outbreak, social support of site workers negatively affects anxiety; COVID-19 fear positively affects anxiety and work stress; work stress mediates the relationship between COVID-19 fear and anxiety; fear of infecting family members and fear of infecting self both positively affect anxiety; policy formalism positively affects fear of infecting family members and fear of infecting self. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety)
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16 pages, 1284 KiB  
Article
Critical Systems-Thinking-Based Leadership Competencies as Enablers to Better Construction Safety Performance
by Anas A. Makki and Hassan M. Alidrisi
Buildings 2022, 12(11), 1819; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12111819 - 31 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1415
Abstract
Safety is an essential success factor in construction projects. However, due to the complexity of construction projects, accidents typically occur randomly. Thus, efficient leadership based on a systematic approach is vital to reduce the possibility of accidents occurring. A combination of emotional, social, [...] Read more.
Safety is an essential success factor in construction projects. However, due to the complexity of construction projects, accidents typically occur randomly. Thus, efficient leadership based on a systematic approach is vital to reduce the possibility of accidents occurring. A combination of emotional, social, and cognitive competencies aligns with the Systems-Thinking concept. This concept enables safety leaders to influence their followers effectively. Systems-thinking-based leadership enables safety leaders to know how, when, and what leadership behaviors should be acquired and practiced. Therefore, it is essential to understand the interrelationships among those competencies. The main objective of this research study is to model the interpretive structure of critical Systems-Thinking-based leadership competencies as enablers to better construction safety performance. The Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) approach was followed to achieve the objective using safety experts’ opinion data collected via questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed using 14 Systems-Thinking-based leadership competencies to collect information on the direction of influence among the competencies. Results of the modeled interrelationships demonstrated that cognitive competencies are the preliminary building blocks to other social and emotional competencies enabling construction safety performance. The developed model provides a better understanding of how safety performance can be improved by building those competencies in construction personnel. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety)
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Graphical abstract

17 pages, 584 KiB  
Article
A Maturity Model for Resilient Safety Culture Development in Construction Companies
by Minh Tri Trinh and Yingbin Feng
Buildings 2022, 12(6), 733; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12060733 - 28 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3020
Abstract
A resilient safety culture is characterized by the capability of addressing the changing and unforeseen safety risks associated with the increasingly complex nature of sociotechnical systems, and creating an ultrasafe organization. An assessment of the maturation of resilient safety culture helps organizations to [...] Read more.
A resilient safety culture is characterized by the capability of addressing the changing and unforeseen safety risks associated with the increasingly complex nature of sociotechnical systems, and creating an ultrasafe organization. An assessment of the maturation of resilient safety culture helps organizations to evaluate their capabilities of managing safety risks and achieving a consistently high safety performance. This study aims to present a maturity model developed to measure and improve resilient safety culture in the construction environment. The research was conducted in two stages. The first stage consisted of a review of the literature on the concepts of a resilient safety culture and the capability maturity model for the development of a maturity model. In the second stage, the developed model was evaluated using the Delphi technique. The model defines five maturity levels that can be used to measure resilient safety culture of a construction organization. It presents a set of descriptions of 19 aspects of resilient safety culture at each maturity level. The assessment procedure and the way of using the model are further discussed. Theoretically, this study provides insights into the maturity characteristics of a resilient safety culture. In practical terms, it offers guidance for benchmarking and encouraging the enhancement of organizations’ capabilities to manage safety risks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety)
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26 pages, 2396 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Factors Influencing the Job Satisfaction of New Generation of Construction Workers in China: A Study Based on DEMATEL and ISM
by Guodong Ni, Huaikun Li, Tinghao Jin, Haibo Hu and Ziyao Zhang
Buildings 2022, 12(5), 609; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12050609 - 06 May 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3830
Abstract
China’s construction industry is facing serious problems of aging construction workers and labor shortages. Improving the job satisfaction of construction workers is a key point for retaining existing construction workers and for attracting younger generations into the construction field in China. At present, [...] Read more.
China’s construction industry is facing serious problems of aging construction workers and labor shortages. Improving the job satisfaction of construction workers is a key point for retaining existing construction workers and for attracting younger generations into the construction field in China. At present, the new generation of construction workers (NGCW) born after 1980 has been the main force on construction sites in China. Therefore, it is very important to study and explore the influencing factors of the job satisfaction of the NGCW. This paper aims to determine the influencing factors of job satisfaction of the NGCW through literature research and to clarify the interaction mechanisms and hierarchical structures of influencing factors using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) to design appropriate human resource practices to promote their job satisfaction. Research findings show that there are 12 main influencing factors of job satisfaction of the NGCW, which are at three levels: personal traits, job characteristics and social environment, and the influencing factors can be divided into a cause group and an effect group, including four layers: the root layer, controllable layer, key layer and direct layer in the multi-level hierarchical structure model. Furthermore, the critical influencing factors of the job satisfaction of the NGCW consist of education level, competency, career development, salaries and rewards, rights protection and work–family balance. This research enriches the job satisfaction literature of construction workers and provides an important reference for decision makers in construction enterprises and the construction industry to understand what influences the job satisfaction of the NGCW and how it is influenced to then improve it in China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety)
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21 pages, 2943 KiB  
Article
Incentive Mechanism of Construction Safety from the Perspective of Mutual Benefit
by Jun Liu, Xinhua Wang, Xiao Nie and Rongwu Lu
Buildings 2022, 12(5), 536; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12050536 - 22 Apr 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1821
Abstract
Improving the level of construction safety is an important task for stakeholders. How to balance the interests and reduce the conflicts between stakeholders has become the key factor in reducing accidents. To design incentive mechanisms that can not only improve the level of [...] Read more.
Improving the level of construction safety is an important task for stakeholders. How to balance the interests and reduce the conflicts between stakeholders has become the key factor in reducing accidents. To design incentive mechanisms that can not only improve the level of construction safety but also make the construction enterprise and construction workers mutually beneficial, differential game models under different incentive mechanisms are constructed. The study found that the greater the impact of construction workers’ safety efforts on the safety reward and punishment, the higher the level of construction safety. However, when construction workers’ efforts have too much impact on the reward and punishment, it is not conducive to the improvement of the income of the construction enterprise. The smaller the proportion of income allocated to the construction enterprise, the higher the level of construction safety. However, when the proportion of income obtained by the construction enterprise is too low, it is not conducive to the improvement of the income of the construction enterprise. The safety reward and punishment mechanism and the income sharing mechanism that meet specific conditions can make the construction enterprise and construction workers mutually beneficial. In addition, the level of construction safety and the income of the construction enterprise and construction workers under the combination mechanism composed of the reward and punishment mechanism and the income sharing mechanism is higher than that under a single mechanism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety)
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Review

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19 pages, 912 KiB  
Review
Theorizing to Improve Mental Health in Multicultural Construction Industries: An Intercultural Coping Model
by Qinjun Liu, Yingbin Feng and Kerry London
Buildings 2021, 11(12), 662; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11120662 - 18 Dec 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4680
Abstract
Construction workers are exposed to a range of stressors that lead to mental ill-health. In a multicultural construction workplace, the interactions between workers with different cultural backgrounds may aggravate mental health issues. Existing studies on coping typically focus on a reactive approach to [...] Read more.
Construction workers are exposed to a range of stressors that lead to mental ill-health. In a multicultural construction workplace, the interactions between workers with different cultural backgrounds may aggravate mental health issues. Existing studies on coping typically focus on a reactive approach to managing stressors in the absence of cultural-related factors. This approach is inadequate in addressing mental health issues in a culturally diverse construction workplace. This paper presents a critical review that synthesizes and analyses theories and models of stress and coping, proactive coping, occupational stress, acculturative stress, and intercultural competence to develop a conceptual model for managing mental health in a multicultural construction workforce. The proposed model relies upon a positive coping mechanism, i.e., intercultural coping, to manage stressful events during the entire coping process in a multicultural workplace, towards achieving sustained good mental health. The proposed conceptual model contributes to the development of coping theories and positive psychology approaches and provides effective coping strategies to enhance psychological well-being in a multicultural context. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction Workplace Trends and Work Health and Safety)
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