Framework for Promoting Women's Career Development across Career Stages in the Construction Industry

Despite efforts to promote gender diversity, the construction industry in Australia remains one of the most male-dominated industries. Women, compared to their male counterparts, progress more slowly and encounter major obstacles to career development in the construction industry. Existing research tends to focus on broad factors that impact women's career development in all career stages despite the fact that women's career priorities often change as they progress through different career stages. This study applied Super's career development model to investigate the influential factors on women's career development across four career stages: explore (precareer), establishment (early career), midcareer, and late career. By conducting a systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, this research identified influential factors related to women's career development in the construction industry, namely, attitude, capability, interest, past experiences, family responsibilities, parental influences, role models, support, culture, organizational practice, and policies and regulations. Based on the women's empowerment framework, the identified factors were coded and synthesized into three dimensions: individual, relational, and environmental. The research finds there is a significant focus on providing relational and environmental support to women in construction, and less attention is given to individual factors. The review revealed that personal interest and parental perceptions in construction influence women's career development in precareer and early career stages, while masculine culture significantly impacts women's career development in all career stages. This study also summarizes the theoretical contributions and practical implications drawn from existing research on different stages of women's career development and provides guidance for further research

Prioritizing Safety Climate Improvements in the Indonesian Construction Industry Using Supervised Classification

Despite its significance, the Indonesian construction industry has poor safety performance. Improving the safety climate has been seen as a way to improve safety in the industry. Research on safety climate in this context has identified a range of safety climate factors that require improvements. However, construction organizations face difficulties in implementing improvement recommendations due to resource constraints. In order to help construction organizations in their efforts to improve the safety climate, this research demonstrates the use of supervised classification approaches to identify specific safety climate factors that construction organizations should focus on. Data were collected from 311 construction practitioners in Indonesia using a 22-item safety climate survey. Supervised classification methods, comprising ensemble methods, Support Vector Machine, Naive Bayes, and Nearest Neighbor, were used. The analysis identified 14 safety climate items that can represent the original dataset with high accuracy (93%). These 14 items can be considered crucial items that should be prioritized in the Indonesian construction industry. These items revealed that, due to the high power distance culture in Indonesia, top-down approaches, such as giving clear instructions, providing training, and reminding people often about safety, are effective for engaging employees to focus on and participate in safety. The findings also suggest that understanding cultural context is important to determine effective strategies to improve safety. This research has also demonstrated the potential application of supervised classification approaches to help decision makers improve safety by focusing on crucial factors within a context

Influence of Safety Climate on Safety Performance in Gas Stations in Indonesia

Accidents in gas stations may cause injury or even death to people. Moreover, an accident in a gas station might halt its operation for some time. When an accident takes place in a region with scant amount of gas stations, it may lead to fuel scarcity in the area, affecting the economy and sparking other issues. Therefore, safety climate and safety performance in gas stations need to be evaluated. Safety climate has been used as a tool to assess the safety performance of an organization at a given time. The aim of this study was to understand the influence of safety climate on safety performance in gas stations in Indonesia. A total of 129 gas stations were selected. To assess safety climate, a safety climate questionnaire was used, while the safety performance was captured by conducting on site structured observations. The assessment shows that gas stations have a good level of safety climate, especially when it is compared with other industrial sectors in Indonesia, such as construction. The study findings also show that safety climate has a significant positive impact on safety performance. Three safety climate dimensions with significant positive influence on safety performance are management commitment, communication, and personal accountability. Therefore, improvement efforts should focus more on these dimensions to boost safety performance in gas stations

Assessing Safety Risk Management Performance in Chinese Subway Construction Projects: A Multistakeholder Perspective

The rapid development of subway projects in China presents significant safety risks to those involved. Building on the previous empirical research that identified and classified the safety risks of these projects, the aim of this paper is to assess the safety risk management performance in Chinese subway construction projects from a multistakeholder perspective. Questionnaire surveys and semistructured interviews were conducted with three hundred and ninety-nine and eight construction professionals, respectively, who worked on subway construction projects in southeast China. The results indicate that the top five areas of safety risk management performance are related to construction plan development, management of high-risk construction works, hazard identification and communication, government-related factors, and client-related factors. In contrast, the bottom five areas of safety risk management performance are related to engineering consultant-related factors, the site's natural environment and weather conditions, regular tests, machine calibration and maintenance, site construction schedule, and construction preparedness. The relationship between this safety risk management performance and the perceived importance of each risk factor is also reported, identifying priority areas for improvements on these projects. These findings contribute new conceptual insights to the paucity of research on the safety risk management performance of Chinese subway construction projects from a multistakeholder perspective. The results also provide new practical insights for policymakers and project managers to help them develop more effective and focused strategies to further improve the safety performance of these major projects

Prevalence and Risk Factors for Poor Mental Health and Suicidal Ideation in the Nigerian Construction Industry

Employees' mental health and well-being are a growing concern as countries grapple with heightened mental ill-health and suicide rates, with the construction industry ranking in the top five. Drawing from the context of a developing country, particularly Nigeria, data were collected using mixed methods (i.e., survey and postsurvey interview). The study investigated mental health among 382 construction personnel. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-2) scales were employed in assessing mental health. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The prevalence rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation were 55.1%, 16%, 9.8% among supervisors, 72%, 36.9%, and 15.3%, respectively, among tradesmen. Univariate logistic regression revealed that years of experience and organizational structure influence mental health. Multiple logistic regression showed that risk factors for mental ill-health include nature of work, little relationship with colleagues, job insecurity, occupational injury, low income, and unsatisfactory living conditions. The findings from this study will assist in intervention building and policy-making within the construction industry of Nigeria and globally

Contributions of safety critical success factors and safety program elements to overall project success

Implementing a safety program is an essential step toward improving safety performance. This research aims to develop an overall project success (OPS) model for building projects through investigating the direct and indirect impact of safety critical success factors (CSFs) on OPS mediated by safety program elements. First, interviews were carried out with experts in the Iraqi construction industry, and then a questionnaire survey was utilized to obtain feedback from construction professionals. The results revealed that 20 elements are needed to confirm and improve effectiveness. These elements were categorized into four constructs: management commitment and employee involvement, worksite analysis, hazard and prevention control, and health and safety training. The analysis confirms that the relationship between safety CSFs and OPS are mediated by safety program elements. These findings offer a glimmer of hope for implementing safety programs in the Iraqi construction sector, and can also be used to enhance safety performance

Promoting positive mental health among young construction workers: the role of theory

The post-modern approach to improving young peoples’ mental health emphasizes the need to promote positive mental health. However, research on young construction workers’ mental health has focused mainly on negative mental health, e.g. depression, suicidal ideation, and anxiety, and given far less attention to positive mental health. The aim of this research was to identify the reason for this trend and to propose an agenda for change. Based on the initial assumption that theory-use has contributed to this trend, we utilized the PICO and PRISMA-ScR frameworks to critically review the theoretical and conceptual models in published research on young construction workers’ mental health. Out of 367 articles retrieved, fourteen studies published between 2010 and 2023 qualified for inclusion. Eighteen different theories and frameworks were identified. Generally, studies focused on measuring the prevalence of symptoms of negative mental health. Theories and conceptual frameworks were mostly used to guide the identification of variables associated with negative mental health (e.g. age, workplace stressors, autonomy, etc.) and to explain the relationships among them. The identified theories and conceptual frameworks did not offer a positive conceptualisation of mental health, and as a result, no study theorized positive mental health. We offer a matrix for evaluating theory-use in research. We also identify and discuss the strengths and limitations of the current use of theory in published studies and provide recommendations on how theory-use can be improved to reorient construction research towards the promotion of positive mental health

Comparing safety climate in infrastructure and building projects in Indonesia

Despite the rapid growth of the Indonesian construction industry and its significance to the national economy, health and safety in the industry remains poor. This research focuses on safety climate, a popular indicator of health and safety performance that has not been adequately investigated in the Indonesian construction industry despite the size of the country and the poor health and safety record of the industry. Specifically, this research aims to compare the safety climate levels in infrastructure and building projects and identify factors that account for their differences or similarities. A safety climate questionnaire was distributed to respondents working in an infrastructure project and two medium-rise building projects, where 311 respondents participated in total. The findings show that the building projects have a higher level of safety climate than the safety climate in the infrastructure project despite the fact that the infrastructure project was managed by a joint venture involving international contractors known for their health and safety commitment. We argue that project complexity is the main factor responsible for explaining this difference. Complex projects require stringent enforcement of health and safety rules and procedures, and supportive work environments conducive for health and safety implementation

Developing and validating a positive mental health scale for the global south construction industry: the construction industry positive mental health inventory (CI-PMHI)

Purpose: 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. Design/methodology/approach: 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. Findings: 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. Originality/value: 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

Hospital preparedness for COVID-19 in Indonesia

Introduction: As a disaster-prone country, hospital preparedness in dealing with disasters in Indonesia is essential. This research, therefore, focuses specifically on hospital preparedness for COVID-19 in Indonesia, which is important given the indication that the pandemic will last for the foreseeable future. Methods: During March to September 2022, a cross-sectional approach and a quantitative study was conducted in accordance with the research objective to assess hospital preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic. This research shows the level of readiness based on the 12 components of the rapid hospital readiness checklist for COVID-19 published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Evaluators from 11 hospitals in four provinces in Indonesia (Capital Special Region of Jakarta, West Java, Special Region of Yogyakarta, and North Sumatra) filled out the form in the COVID-19 Hospital Preparedness Information system, which was developed to assess the level of hospital readiness. Results: The results show that hospitals in Capital Special Region of Jakarta and Special Region of Yogyakarta have adequate level (≥ 80%). Meanwhile, the readiness level of hospitals in West Java and North Sumatra varies from adequate level (≥ 80%), moderate level (50% – 79%), to not ready level (≤ 50%). Conclusion: The findings and the methods adopted in this research are valuable for policymakers and health professionals to have a holistic view of hospital preparedness for COVID-19 in Indonesia so that resources can be allocated more effectively to improve readiness