Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Perception on Job Stress of Construction Workers.

Construction has been regarded as one of the most stressful industries, and the COVID-19 pandemic has deteriorated this situation. This research developed and tested a model of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic perception on job stress of construction workers. Both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping were considered as mediators. Empirical data were collected using a detailed questionnaire from the Chinese construction industry. The results showed that pandemic perception was significantly related to psychological and physical stress. Emotion-focused coping was mainly triggered by pandemic fear and job insecurity, while problem-focused coping was mainly triggered by organizational pandemic response. Furthermore, the effects of pandemic fear and organizational pandemic response on job stress were mediated by problem-focused coping. Finally, the theoretical and practical significance, research limitations, and future research directions of this study are discussed.

Demographic Influences on Perceived Stressors of Construction Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Construction work is one of the most stressful occupations in the world, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this reality. This research conducted a detailed investigation on the perceived stressors of different demographic groups among construction workers. Empirical data were collected using a structured questionnaire in the Chinese construction industry. The empirical data were processed using both an independent sample t-test and an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings indicated that male workers reported greater workloads than did females. Married workers experienced more pandemic fear and job insecurity, and they were more sensitive to the poor working environment. Highly-educated workers were inclined to be more satisfied with organizational pandemic responses, and had lower job insecurity and role ambiguity, but they experienced heavier workloads. In addition, the differences in work experience and age were statistically significant with regards to job insecurity. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by giving a comprehensive understanding of demographic influences on perceived stressors among construction workers. It also provides valuable insights to identify sensitive demographic groups and promote their health and wellbeing during and after the pandemic.

Informal Safety Communication of Construction Workers: Conceptualization and Scale Development and Validation.

Existing studies have highlighted the importance of informal safety communication among workers at construction sites. However, there is still a lack of empirically tested theoretical models with valid and reliable scales for describing and measuring construction workers' informal safety communication (CWISC). Accordingly, this study aimed to fill this need by developing an instrument to assess the communication performance of construction workers. Four stages of scale development were described: construct formation, item generation, factor extraction through the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (n = 219), and scale assessment through the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n = 156). Using questionnaire data drawn from construction workers in China, the CWISC was verified to be a three-dimensional construct including citizenship safety communication (CSC), self-needed safety communication (SSC), and participatory safety communication (PSC). The corresponding CWISC scale with 12 items was shown to have acceptable internal consistency reliability, as well as content, convergent, and discriminant validity. The CWISC scale could serve as an instrument to assess and identify the weaknesses in informal safety communication performance of construction workers. In turn, this information could help supervisors implement appropriate management practices to those workers to enhance workplace informal safety communication. Related studies taking a multidimensional CWISC into account were expected to be carried out.

The structure and emerging trends of construction safety management research: a bibliometric review.

Recently, construction safety management (CSM) practices and systems have become important topics for stakeholders to take care of human resources. However, few studies have attempted to map the global research on CSM. A comprehensive bibliometric review was conducted in this study based on multiple methods. In total, 1172 CSM-related papers from the Web of Science Core Collection database were examined. The analyses focused on publication year, country-institute, publication source, author and research topics. The results indicated that the USA, China, Australia and the UK took leading positions in CSM research. Two branches of journals were identified, namely the branch of engineering science and that of safety science and social science. Additionally, seven themes together with 28 specific topics were detected to allow researchers to track the main structure and temporal evolution of CSM research. Finally, the main research trends and potential research directions were discussed to guide the future research.

An Evaluation Model for Urban Comprehensive Carrying Capacity: An Empirical Case from Harbin City.

Urbanization has brought notable benefits for cities, but has also resulted in severe and diverse challenges in China. Previous studies have contributed to the definitions and evaluation of urbanization. However, there remain a great deal of ambiguities regarding urban comprehensive carrying capacity, and its measurable indicators still need further exploration given the urban development. This study aims to explore a model for evaluating urban comprehensive carrying capacity and thus to promote urban development. A total of 48 indicators which fell into 8 subsystems were identified to evaluate the urban comprehensive carrying capacity through literature reviews and interviews. The indicator set was developed for evaluation indicator selecting. Meanwhile, the dynamic system was explored, and an evaluation model based on the entire array polygon method was designed to evaluate urban comprehensive carrying capacity. Finally, a case study was conducted to provide suggestions for the decision-maker to implement the evaluation model. The results of this study show that the evaluation indicator system was dynamic due to urban development. Meanwhile, the model of the entire array polygon method was able to effectively evaluate urban comprehensive carrying capacity through the case study. Furthermore, this study found that there is an imbalance among subsystems in urban development according to the standard deviation. The findings are useful for setting up a benchmark framework for urban sustainability and providing an evaluation and monitoring model for decision maker to improve the urban carrying capacity.

Understanding the Social Contagion Effect of Safety Violations within a Construction Crew: A Hybrid Approach Using System Dynamics and Agent-Based Modeling.

Previous research has recognized the importance of eliminating safety violations in the context of a social group. However, the social contagion effect of safety violations within a construction crew has not been sufficiently understood. To address this deficiency, this research aims to develop a hybrid simulation approach to look into the cognitive, social, and organizational aspects that can determine the social contagion effect of safety violations within a construction crew. The hybrid approach integrates System Dynamics (SD) and Agent-based Modeling (ABM) to better represent the real world. Our findings show that different interventions should be employed for different work environments. Specifically, social interactions play a critical role at the modest hazard levels because workers in this situation may encounter more ambiguity or uncertainty. Interventions related to decreasing the contagion probability and the safety⁻productivity tradeoff should be given priority. For the low hazard situation, highly intensive management strategies are required before the occurrence of injuries or accidents. In contrast, for the high hazard situation, highly intensive proactive safety strategies should be supplemented by other interventions (e.g., a high safety goal) to further control safety violations. Therefore, this research provides a practical framework to examine how specific accident prevention measures, which interact with workers or environmental characteristics (i.e., the hazard level), can influence the social contagion effect of safety violations.

Using leading and lagging indicators to select safe contractors at the prequalification stage of construction projects.

The contractor-selection decision at the prequalification stage is critical to the project success. An insufficient prediction of contractors' safety capacities using only lagging indicators may hinder the continuous improvement of safety performance in the construction industry. This research enhanced construction management and practices by proposing a comprehensive safe contractor selection model which integrated both leading and lagging indicators. First, a set of leading and lagging safety indicators were identified based on literature review and expert opinions. Then, the grey correlation analysis (GCA) was utilized to assign weights to individual indicators. We found that management commitment, safety training and education, safety risk management, and safety rules and procedures were four most influential factors to the safety performance of contractors. In addition, the fuzzy technique of ordering preference by similarity to ideal solution (Fuzzy TOPSIS) was used to condense individual indicators and create a composite safety performance indicator (c-SPI). Finally, the feasibility of the decision support tool for safe contractor selection was verified using a real-case railway construction project.

The Impact of Coworkers' Safety Violations on an Individual Worker: A Social Contagion Effect within the Construction Crew.

This research developed and tested a model of the social contagion effect of coworkers’ safety violations on individual workers within construction crews. Both situational and routine safety violations were considered in this model. Empirical data were collected from 345 construction workers in China using a detailed questionnaire. The results showed that both types of safety violations made by coworkers were significantly related to individuals’ perceived social support and production pressure. Individuals’ attitudinal ambivalence toward safety compliance mediated the relationships between perceived social support and production pressure and both types of individuals’ safety violations. However, safety motivation only mediated the effects of perceived social support and production pressure on individuals’ situational safety violations. Further, this research supported the differences between situational and routine safety violations. Specifically, we found that individuals were more likely to imitate coworkers’ routine safety violations than their situational safety violations. Coworkers’ situational safety violations had an indirect effect on individuals’ situational safety violations mainly through perceived social support and safety motivation. By contrast, coworkers’ routine safety violations had an indirect effect on individuals’ routine safety violations mainly through perceived production pressure and attitudinal ambivalence. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications, research limitations, and future directions were discussed.