Moderating effect of project size on the relationship between COVID-19 safety protocols and economic performance of construction projects

PurposeThe COVID-19 health crisis has brought about a set of extra health and safety regulations, and procedures to the construction industry which could influence projects' economic performance (EP). The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of adopting COVID-19 safety protocols on construction sites on the economic performance (EP) of construction projects.Design/methodology/approachEmploying the survey method using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from small- and large-sized construction projects in Nigeria and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.FindingsThe findings reveal that job re-organization and sanitization have negative significant effects on EP, while social distancing and specific training have no effect on EP. Furthermore, project size moderates the relationship between job re-organization, sanitization, specific training and EP with the stronger effect on the relationships observed in big projects, except for the relationship between sanitization and EP where the moderating relationship is stronger in small projects. However, there is no significant moderating effect of project size on the relationship between social distancing and EP.Practical implicationsAs construction project sites continue to operate amidst strict safety protocols, this study offers theoretical and practical insights on how construction projects can adhere to the safety protocols while performing economically.Originality/valueThe originality of this study's findings stems from the fact that it is among the first to provide greater insight on how construction projects have fared economically considering the impact of the various COVID-19 protocols.

A Structural Equation Model to Analyze the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic Risks on Project Success: Contractors' Perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to capture the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 emerging risks on construction projects' success in developing countries from the contractors' perspective. To achieve this, we collected data from Iraqi construction industry and conducted the following multistage research methodology: (1) preliminary investigation with four construction contractors to identify the success indicators of construction projects;(2) focus group session with 11 experts to identify the COVID-19 emerging risks for the construction industry;(3) semistructured interviews with seven construction experts to develop several hypotheses on the effect of COVID-19 emerging risks on project success;(4) survey data collection from 99 construction contractors;and (5) development of a structural equation model (SEM) to analyze the effects of COVID-19 emerging risks on project success. The results of the SEM analysis show that financial market (FM)-related risks, supply chain operations (SCO)-related risks, health and safety of construction workforce (HSCW)-related risks, organizational implications (OI)-related risks, and contractual implications (CI)-related risks have a significant impact on construction projects success. CI-related risks have the strongest total effects on project success, followed by OI-related risks, FM-related risks, HSCW-related risks, and SCO-related risks, respectively. The results also emphasis the significant mediation role of CI between COVID-19 emerging risks and project success. This study contributes to the body of knowledge and contracting companies by helping researchers and construction contractors to better understand how the key risk factors emerging from extreme conditions like the COVID-19 pandemic affect construction projects' success and may serve as a guideline for developing effective response strategies. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.

A critical review of public–private partnerships in the COVID-19 pandemic: key themes and future research agenda

PurposeUndoubtedly, coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has released unprecedented disruptions and health crisis on people and activities everywhere. The impacts extend to public–private partnership (PPP) arrangements in the construction industry. Concomitantly, PPP pacts are contributing to combat the pandemic. However, literature on the PPP concept in the COVID-19 era remain under-researched. This study aims to review the current literature on PPPs in the COVID-19 pandemic and present the key themes, research gaps and future research directions.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, 29 highly relevant literature were sourced from Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed search engines within the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology. With the aid of qualitative content analysis, the 29 articles were critically analysed leading to the extraction of hot research themes on PPPs in the coronavirus pandemic.FindingsThe results of the SLR produced eight themes such as major changes in PPP contracts, development of the COVID-19 vaccines, economic recession, facemasks and testing kits, governance and sustainability of PPPs. In addition, the study reveals seven research gaps that need further investigations among the scientific research community on mental health and post-pandemic recovery plans.Research limitations/implicationsThe articles selected for this review were limited to only peer-reviewed journal papers written in English excluding conference papers. This restriction may have taken out some relevant literature but they had insignificant impact on the overall outcome of this research.Practical implicationsTo improve the understanding of practitioners in the construction industry on key issues on PPPs in the COVID-19 pandemic, the study provides them a checklist of relevant themes.Originality/valueAs a novel literature review relating PPPs to the coronavirus, it sets the foundation for further research and contributes to practical measures to control the virus.

Barriers to incorporation of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) principles into building designs

PurposeThis research presents a comprehensive review of the literature on the barriers to incorporating indoor environmental quality (IEQ) principles into building designs. The aim was to identify these barriers in the literature and subsume them under broad categories for the development of a framework showing the interrelationships among the barriers.Design/methodology/approachThe research design used a systematic desktop review which comprised of three levels of screening. The first level allowed for a broad selection of papers;the second level of screening was done to limit the results to papers within the construction industry, and the third level of screening limited the documents strictly to the publication period of 2000–2021.FindingsTwenty-four (24) barriers were identified in the literature, including lack of integrated design teams, which ranked the highest in appearance, high initial costs, poor market for IEQ buildings and higher design charges among others. The identified barriers were classified into six (6) categories namely capacity barriers, economic barriers, process-related barriers, cultural barriers, client-related barriers and steering barriers.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study would enable practitioners and policymakers to better understand what is preventing the widespread adoption of IEQ designs in the built environment and devise actionable strategies to overcome them. It adds to the body of knowledge on IEQ research by categorizing the various barriers that prevent the delivery of IEQ projects.Social implicationsThe developed barriers in this research can serve as a useful checklist to future researchers who may want to validate the barriers to IEQ designs in empirical studies and in different settings.Originality/valueThe interconnectivity revealed by the web-like framework allows for an appreciation of the various barriers of IEQ adoption which would help in expanding the current knowledge on IEQ beyond the narrow scope of isolated barriers. The fact that the papers selected in this study are not limited geographically, underscores the wide applicability of the findings in the global construction industry.

Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the construction industry: a literature review of academic research

Over the past 3 years, the global construction sector has been severely affected by the noxious coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Visionary construction stakeholders, including governments, practitioners, and academia, all have been actively devising strategies to deal with the crisis caused by the pandemic. Despite the rich contributions by academia, an in-depth review of their research works to understand how the pandemic has been handled to position the construction industry for post-pandemic actions and future pandemics is hitherto lacking. Hence, an up-to-date literature review is conducted in this study to better understand this terra incognita. It does so by adopting a six-step thematic analysis of 159 empirical peer-reviewed research articles in relation to COVID-19 on construction. The review discovered a growing research interest from different countries from 2020 to 2022. The existing studies can be put under four major topics, namely the COVID-19 impacts, challenges and opportunities, responding strategies, and post-COVID-19 interventions. A framework consisting of four categories of responding strategies, namely vaccination, personal responsibility of workers, government-instructional practices, and organisation-based approaches, is proposed through the lens of the socio-technical system theory to handle the pandemic crisis in construction. Limitations of the existing studies were further identified. Four pertinent research directions were finally proposed: building upon and testing the proposed COVID-19 response framework, adoption of more advanced innovative strategies to increase productivity amid pandemics and survive the risk of future pandemics, beyond the technological response to COVID-19 in construction, and post-pandemic view of the construction industry. This study contributes to the knowledge body by providing a candid evaluation of the knowledge contributed by academia to deal with the risks of future pandemics in the global construction industry. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

What's it going to take? Lessons learned from COVID-19 and worker mental health in the Australian construction industry

In Australia, rates of suicide and poor mental health among construction workers were high before the COVID-19 pandemic. "Lock downs”, "restrictions”, "social distancing” and legislative changes responding to the pandemic have likely exacerbated the working conditions that foster poor mental health. This study analyses the way in which workplace health and safety (WHS) is regulated in Australia against the backdrop of existing research relating to the development of Australia's WHS laws, and the state of mental health of those working in Australia's construction industry. This study was conducted using a doctrinal research methodology and utilising legal theory. This study assesses the capacity of the Australian WHS regulatory system to protect construction workers' mental health by examining and interpreting key provisions in Australia's WHS laws. It then uses a regulatory theory, responsive regulation, to explain the inconsistency between the capacity of those laws to safeguard mental health and the very poor state of mental health of Australia's construction workers. The conclusion reached is that there is scope to improve current WHS laws to better protect construction workers' mental health. A recommendation is made, that current WHS laws are changed to prescribe minimum standards of worker mental health, and mandate control measures to minimise and/or eliminate psychosocial risks. It is submitted that these changes in the law will contribute to a changed culture in Australia's construction sector, which is supportive of mentally healthy workplaces and workers. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Digital Twins in the Marine Industry

The ocean holds abundant resources, but the utilization of those resources for the marine economy presents a complex and dynamic industrial situation. Exploring sustainable development in this industry is of practical value, as it involves the rational use of marine resources while protecting the environment. This study provides an innovative review of the current application status of Digital Twins Technology (DTT) in various sectors of the marine industry, including the ship-building industry (SBI), Offshore Oil and Gas Industry, marine fishery, and marine energy industry. The findings reveal that DTT offers robust support for full life cycle management (LCM) in SBI, including digital design, intelligent processing, operation, and error management. Furthermore, this work delves into the challenges and prospects of DTT application in the marine industry, aiming to provide reference and direction for intelligent systems in the industry and guide the rational development and utilization of marine resources in the future.

Barriers to integrating lean construction and integrated project delivery (IPD) on construction megaprojects towards the global integrated delivery (GID) in multinational organisations: lean IPD&GID transformative initiatives

PurposeThe architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry encounter substantial risks and challenges in its evolution towards sustainable development. International businesses, multinational AEC organisations, technical professionals, project and portfolio management organisations face global connectivity challenges between business units, especially during the outbreak of novel coronavirus pandemic, to manage construction megaprojects (CMPs). That raises the need to manage global connectivity as a main strategic goal of global organisations. This paper aims to investigate barriers to integrating lean construction (LC) practices and integrated project delivery (IPD) on CMPs towards the global integrated delivery (GID) transformative initiatives and develop future of work (FOW) global initiatives in contemporary multinational AEC organisations.Design/methodology/approachA two-stage quantitative and qualitative research approach is adopted. The qualitative research methodology consists of a literature review to appraise barriers to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs. Barriers are arranged into six-factor clusters (FCs), with a conceptualisation of LeanIPD&GID, GID strategy placements and FOW global initiatives with multiple validations. This analysis also involved semi-structured interviews and focus group techniques. Stage two consisted of an empirical questionnaire survey that shaped the foundation of analysis and findings of 230 respondents from 23 countries with extensive cosmopolitan experience in the construction of megaprojects. The survey examined a set of 28 barriers to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs resulting from a detailed analysis of extant literature after validation. Descriptive and inferential statistical tests were exploited for data analysis, percentage scoring analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and eigenvalues were used to elaborate on clustered factors.FindingsThe research conceptualised LeanIPD&GID principles and proposed GID strategy placements for LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives and FOW global initiatives. It concluded that the most significant barriers to integration of LeanIPD&GID on CMPs are "lack of mandatory building information modelling (BIM) and LC industry standards and regulations by governments”, "lack of involvement and support of governments”, "high costs of BIM software licenses”, "resistance of industry to change from traditional working practices” and "high initial investment in staff training costs of BIM”. PCA revealed the most significant FCs are "education and knowledge-related barriers”, "project objectives-related barriers” and "attitude-related barriers”. Awareness of BIM in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is higher than LC and LC awareness is higher than IPD knowledge. Whilst BIM adoption in the MENA region is higher than LC;the second is still taking its first steps, whilst IPD has little implementation. LeanBIM is slightly integrated, whilst LeanIPD integration is almost not present.Originality/valueThe research findings, conclusion and recommendation and proposed GID strategy placements for LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs. This will allow project key stakeholders to place emphasis on tackling LeanIPD&GID barriers identified in this research and commence GID strategies. The study has provided effective practical strategies for enhancing the integration of LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives on CMPs.

Bayesian Modeling of Labor Earnings in Construction

Labor costs constitute a significant portion of construction costs. Reliable forecasts provide insight into the movements of labor costs and are critical to the success of projects. Past studies have primarily focused on forecasting construction cost indexes or material costs. Only a few studies have concentrated on forecasting construction labor costs. This study presents a multivariate Bayesian structural time series (MBSTS) model to characterize the future values of construction labor's average hourly earnings (AHE) using a set of candidate predictors. The methodologies commonly used by past studies do not adequately address the uncertainties associated with the modeling process. In contrast, MBSTS recognizes the uncertainty in its modeling process, which enables practitioners to quantify and account for future labor cost risks in decisions. Furthermore, the MBSTS method results in a transparent model, helping analysts investigate the rationality of the parameters. This article trains MBSTS models under four different data subset lengths (i.e., 150, 144, 138, and 132 months) to study the consistency of the explanatory variables and their corresponding coefficients. The analysis results indicate that the gross domestic product (GDP), housing starts (HS), number of building permits (BP), Construction Cost Index (CCI), Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), and Standard and Poor's 500 index (SPI) are the most frequently used predictors in the regression component of the MBSTS models. The results indicate an inverse relationship between AHE from one side and HS and BP from the other. Likewise, a direct relationship exists between AHE and GDP, CCI, DJI, and SPI. The MBSTS model performed well on the validation subset in the midrange prediction intervals (i.e., 12- and 18-month periods). However, it was outperformed by conventional time series models [i.e., seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA)] when used for short-term forecasting. The proposed framework can be applied to facilitate monetary resource allocation in projects.

Investigation of Project Delays: Towards a Sustainable Construction Industry

The construction industry is one of the key industries for any country. It has been observed that this industry is suffering from sustainable solutions during project execution. It is evident from the literature that most of the construction projects are seriously affected by delays. Pakistan's construction industry also suffers similar challenges. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction industry is experiencing several challenges which have resulted in project delays. Thus, this study investigates the key challenges affecting the timely completion of construction projects. The challenges were discovered from the literature and investigated to analyze their significance towards a sustainable construction project. This study also observes the relationships between the key challenges using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). A structural model was developed based on the 55 common challenges identified from literature. Data collection was administered through a structured questionnaire survey using a 5-point Likert-scale. The challenges were grouped into six constructs. The outcome reported 20 critical challenges, with information and communication-related factors being the most important challenge in the construction industry. Contract management also significantly affects project time overrun. The created model served as a starting point for academics, researchers, and practitioners to create an effective system for regulating time overrun challenges.

Women Workforces' Satisfaction with Personal Protective Equipment: A Case of the Australian Construction Industry

Despite the anecdotal evidence that construction women workforces have faced difficulties in accessing adequate and properly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE), there have been very few studies addressing their experiences and satisfaction with PPE. This study aimed to provide an overview of women workforces' satisfaction with PPE in the Australian construction industry. The specific research objectives were to: (i) examine their satisfaction regarding the functional, expressive and aesthetic (FEA) need attributes of PPE and (ii) investigate factors affecting their overall satisfaction with PPE. Data were collected using an online questionnaire survey. The results indicated a rather low satisfaction level among the respondents for all the thirteen FEA need attributes of their PPE. A regression model showed that their overall satisfaction with PPE was significantly affected by their experiences of PPE use (i.e., the need for alterations or adjustments to PPE, adequacy of training for PPE use, the perceived impact of ill-fitting PPE on work productivity) and satisfaction with FEA need attributes but not their demographical factors. The research findings call for action among construction training organizations, PPE designers and manufacturers and construction employers to recognise and address the low satisfaction level for PPE use among women workforces in the industry.

Impact of autonomous solutions on earthmoving electrification using machine learning: case study

PurposeThis research aims to investigate the adoption of future technologies in earthmoving applications. The increased development in automated driving systems (ADS) has opened up significant opportunities to revolutionize mobility and to set the path for technologies, such as electrification. The research also aims to explore the impact of automation on electromobility in earthmoving applications.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a multi-objective simulation-based optimization approach using machine learning in earthmoving applications.FindingsThis study concludes that ADS is "conditionally” an enabler for electrification. The study highlights and explains how local and global factors affect this conclusion. In addition to that, the research explores the impact of the equipment size on the integration of future mobility technologies. The shift from "elephant to ants” in the fleet selection resulted in improved feasibility from the integration of ADS in electrification.Originality/valueThis research provides fundamental considerations in the assessment of the impact of autonomous driving solutions on electromobility in the construction industry.

Public Opinion Mining on Construction Health and Safety: Latent Dirichlet Allocation Approach

The construction industry has been experiencing many occupational accidents as working on construction sites is dangerous. To reduce the likelihood of accidents, construction companies share the latest construction health and safety news and information on social media. While research studies in recent years have explored the perceptions towards these companies' social media pages, there are no big data analytic studies conducted on Instagram about construction health and safety. This study aims to consolidate public perceptions of construction health and safety by analyzing Instagram posts. The study adopted a big data analytics approach involving visual, content, user, and sentiment analyses of Instagram posts (n = 17,835). The study adopted the Latent Dirichlet Allocation, a kind of machine learning approach for generative probabilistic topic extraction, and the five most mentioned topics were: (a) training service, (b) team management, (c) training organization, (d) workers' work and family, and (e) users' action. Besides, the Jaccard coefficient co-occurrence cluster analysis revealed: (a) the most mentioned collocations were ‘construction safety week', ‘safety first', and ‘construction team', (b) the largest clusters were ‘safety training', ‘occupational health and safety administration', and ‘health and safety environment', (c) the most active users were ‘Parallel Consultancy Ltd.', ‘Pike Consulting Group', and ‘Global Training Canada', and (d) positive sentiment accounted for an overwhelming figure of 85%. The findings inform the industry on public perceptions that help create awareness and develop preventative measures for increased health and safety and decreased incidents.

Identifying Critical Factors Affecting the Resilience of Additive Manufacturing Architecture Supply Chain

Building a resilient and stable supply chain has become an important strategy for many countries. Studies have shown that the application of additive manufacturing (AM) technology in construction can help offset the negative impact of "black swan events” on supply chains. This study examines the construction industry based on AM technology and analyzes the impact of changes in the industry chain on the supply chains. The specific factors that affect the resilience of AM construction supply chains were identified through literature research and expert interviews, including 7 dimensions and 21 secondary indicators. An intuitionistic fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IFAHP) evaluation model was established. Finally, an example of an AM construction manufacturer, YC Enterprise, was introduced to quantify the various factors and determine the weights. The results show that the essence of building a supply chain with AM is creating a closed-loop supply chain. The impact of AM construction manufacturers on supply chain resilience (SCR) is the most critical, followed by that of regulatory authorities and general contractors. The AM construction SCR assessment index system and evaluation method constructed in this paper have important significance in filling the gap in the quantitative evaluation of the impact of AM on supply chains.

YouTube as a source of information: early coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of the construction industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the largest global crisis in recent decades. Apart from the countless deaths and health emergencies, the pandemic has disrupted several industries—including construction. For example, a significant number of construction projects have been interrupted, delayed, and even abandoned. In such emergencies, information gathering and dissemination are vital for effective crisis management. The role of social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, as information sources, in these contexts has received much attention. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate if YouTube can serve as a useful source of information for the construction industry in emergency situations—such as during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The assessment was undertaken by distilling the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to the construction industry from the content shared via YouTube by leveraging Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling. The investigation also compared the timeline with which relevant content was shared via YouTube and peer-reviewed research articles to make relative assessments. The findings suggest that YouTube offered significant and relevant coverage across six topics that include health and safety challenges, ongoing construction operation updates, workforce-related challenges, industry operations-related guidelines and advocacy, and others. Moreover, compared to the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the research literature, YouTube offered more comprehensive and timely coverage of the pandemic as it relates to the construction industry. Accordingly, industry stakeholders may leverage YouTube as a valuable and largely untapped resource to aid in combating similar emergency situations.

The power of a pandemic: how Covid-19 should transform UK construction worker health, safety and wellbeing

The world will never be the same again, and neither will the UK construction industry. As one of the few sectors projected to bounce back rapidly from the pandemic, positive rhetoric abounds in the industry press, Government and quasi-governmental bodies about the opportunity that lies ahead to "Build Back Better”. Something else that could and more importantly should never be the same again is the health, safety and wellbeing (HSW) of the UK construction workforce. Pre-Covid-19, UK construction was neither a safe nor a healthy place to work, and transforming this situation is arguably the most important win our industry can secure from this situation. In this essay we argue that the pandemic and associated socio-economic crisis offers a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to bounce forward to a "new normal” of healthy, safe and hygienic construction operations, one where the worker's psychological wellbeing shares the foreground with their physical welfare. This paradigm shift will require a radical redefinition of the matters of concern that shape construction practice, moving away from a focus on sites as the locus of production, to a focus on people. Moreover, we suggest that there is a concurrent obligation on the research community to support such a transition by using the pandemic as a new point of departure for shifting the safety discourse via more critical research approaches. These should question the axioms which currently define the ways in which projects are constituted and managed, and where production takes primacy over the workers that deliver it.

UK Construction Industry Standing in the COVID-19 Era: Understanding the Impacts on Projects

Since 2019, the year of the COVID-19 outbreak, many businesses have been shut down across different industries and geographical locations, and the construction industry is one of those that has suffered more than any other due to its volatile nature. This study emphasizes the impact of COVID-19 on project management within construction companies and the ways it has affected the completion of projects. The literature review was provided with effective theoretical information regarding the research topic by highlighting key concepts, theories, and models after identifying crucial aspects that resulted in cost and time overruns in the context of UK construction projects. This study has been conducted as a primary qualitative method to gather firsthand data employing interviews with five construction project managers from the UK. The researcher has discussed interpretivism research philosophy, the inductive research approach, and explanatory search design and has conducted purposive sampling. In addition, primary qualitative data collection and thematic data analysis have been discussed in this study. The research has identified 10 types of themes focused on the transcript, which were developed through interviews. Further, a detailed comparative discussion was made on three top themes, which were based on cost overrun, and time extension of construction projects during COVID-19. The interviewees have outlined the significant impact of COVID-19 on supply chain management and the labor force. The multimethod approach helps in understanding the diverse point of view across different countries and geographical regions and finally reaching a conclusion with a comparative approach.

The Influence of Building Information Modelling Adoption in the Viability of Medium, Small and Micro Scale Construction Firms (MSMSCFs)

Identifying factors influencing the viability of medium, small, and micro scale construction firms (MSMSCFs) is a crucial precursor in positioning such firms to aid economic and infrastructural development, especially in developing countries. This article assesses viability factors that are influenced by building information modeling (BIM) in MSMSCFs amidst construction firms' viability factors. Out of a total of 177 workers surveyed from 59 MSMSCFs that were awarded construction project contracts in sampled institutions in Nigeria, 65 staff members from 31 MSMSCFs were accessed. The factors were ranked and reduced to significant ones through principal component analysis. Ten significant factors influence the viability of MSMSCFs and six of them are enhanced by BIM implementations. All eight component factors and 18 of the 27 variables with high factor loadings can be influenced by BIM implementation. BIM can potentially curb corruption in construction projects and enhance MSMSCFs' quality of service, clients' satisfaction, construction management and technology, professional performance, procurement practices, and prompt payment of work certificates. All stakeholders need to pay prompt attention to factors that can be influenced by BIM to improve the viability of MSMSCFs, thereby hastening BIM adoption and utilization, especially in developing countries.

Sustainable digitalisation and implementation of ISO standards for facilities management

PurposeThis viewpoint paper aims to discuss sustainable digitalisation of facilities management (FM) through the implementation of the newly recognised International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards within the ISO 41000 series.Design/methodology/approachThis viewpoint paper provides a review of the literature of the recent ISO documents and academic study. The content is also dependent on the authors' opinions and interpretation.FindingsFM is currently shifting emphasis towards a strategic focus through the adoption of the new recognised international ISO standards that consider sustainable digitalisation in business decisions. However, the FM sector is encountering potential risks to the implementation of the new recognised international ISO standards. Digitalisation is one kind of force that has shaped the management of the built environment and FM recently and rapidly, especially in the Covid-19 period. This is impacting the FM industry. As standardisation aims at establishing a constantly evolving baseline of proven practices, standardisation can be considered a part of sustainable FM. It is believed that standardised and strategic level support is crucial for the smooth adoption of sustainable FM practices and processes. Standards such as the ISO standards, applied to the global FM industry, help in objectively quantifying the added value of FM to the core business. Advanced technology and digitalisation can contribute to the sustainability of any profession and industry, but it also requires a community to tackle the problems.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the FM industry by making recommendations for improvement in the use of digitalisation. In summary, the significant finding of this viewpoint paper is that digitalisation offers both possibilities and problems in the application of the new recognised international ISO standards within the FM industry.

Relationship between abusive supervision and workers' well-being in construction projects: effects of guanxi closeness and trust in managers

Purpose: The high-pressure nature of the construction industry, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, triggered abusive supervision (i.e. workplace bullying and incivility behaviour) that has diminished workers' well-being. However, despite the growing prevalence in practice and increasing concern in academia, abusive supervision remains largely unexplored by construction management scholars. This study aims to fill the gap in the current literature by analysing the effects of abusive supervision on construction workers' well-being, the mediating role of guanxi closeness and the moderating role of trust in the manager. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was completed by 258 Chinese construction workers. The data underwent mediation and moderation analyses using PROCESS macro 3.5 for SPSS. Findings: The results revealed that managers' abusive supervision reduced construction workers' well-being at work and in life. Guanxi closeness between manager and workers mediated the relationship between managers' abusive supervision and construction workers' well-being. Additionally, trust in managers moderated the mediating effect of guanxi closeness. This study further revealed that the emotional connection between construction managers and workers, such as expressive guanxi closeness and affective-based trust, is important in handling the impact of abusive supervision on the workers. Practical implications: The findings of this study provide support for recent calls to address negative manager behaviours such as abusive supervision in construction management. They aid the development of a more comprehensive internal mechanism that considers the influence of guanxi closeness on the outcomes of abusive supervision by managers at construction sites. Additionally, interventions that develop trust in managers may be particularly effective in alleviating the tension of abusive supervision. More attention should be paid to managers' emotional connections in daily construction project management. Originality/value: Rather than concentrate on positive leadership, this study shifts the focus to negative leadership in construction project management by identifying abusive supervision as a negative primary antecedent of workers' well-being. While prior research has highlighted how negative manager behaviours affect workers' well-being from the conservation of resources theory (COR) perspective, this study is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to adopt a social exchange theory perspective by introducing guanxi closeness as a mediator. It contributes to a greater understanding of how trust in the manager alleviates the negative effect of the person's abusive supervision on construction workers. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.