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Streamlining and standardising safety practices in the construction industry has always been the goal of many policymakers and large construction firms. This would understandably ensure that all practices on a wide range of projects adopt and implement similar procedures and regulations. In addition, this idea could possibly reduce the uncertainties and variations associated with interpretations of policies and regulations amongst project teams. Unfortunately, safety issues on construction projects and sites are widely acknowledged to differ from project to project and even activity to activity. For this reason, the implementation of a broad-brush approach has always proven difficult in the industry. Micro firms in the industry operate under the notion that projects and site conditions are always fluid and adapt their safety practices accordingly. The aim of this research is to the experiences and nuances in practices of workers of micro firms as they challenge standardisation by embracing ambiguities in project risks. Ethnographies were carried out on six construction sites in the South East and the East Midlands regions of the UK. Data collection tools adopted included observations, semi-structured interviews and conversations with tradesmen of selected micro firms. Findings from the ethnographic studies indicate that workers from small and micro firms from both regions acknowledge that the risks and hazards associated with various stages of projects change constantly. These changes are attributed to various reasons including site conditions, project changes, workers’ state of mind and overall site culture. Furthermore, the workers believe that standardising approaches for all projects will be ineffective especially if the teams should encounter extenuating circumstances that they have not planned for. The workers thus embrace the uncertainties in safety and adopt an approach the considers the ambiguities associated with construction practices thereby being able to use a dynamic approach to avoid accidents and injuries that could prove costly or fatal.

Occupational health and safety literature embodies two worlds: one that takes a hard, top-down approach with a view that legislation and organisational policy and procedures are essential to achieving an environment that mitigates risks to workers’ health and/ or safety. This perspective is aligned with rational management and has tended to dominate research and practice in and about organisations, work, workers and the organisation-work-worker relationships, including literature on occupational health and safety. The other takes a social constructionist view and places the worker at the heart of mobilising health and safety at work. Understanding the impact of individual and group characteristics (such as worker behaviour, perception, and safety climate) on occupational health and safety are at the heart of this perspective. As workers are definitive key stakeholders in occupational health and safety, interest and research in this space is growing. However, despite advancements in research and practice in both spaces, accidents still happen at work and worker health and well-being feature at the forefront of management agenda. We employ social practice theory to bring together the discourse of the two worlds in occupational health and safety research and practice. Social practice theory offers a framework for analysis which attempts to synthesise the structural focus of systems, such as legislative frameworks and organisational policy and procedures on occupational health and safety, and the processual and cultural, the socially constructed, approaches. We argue that such integration holds the key to extending work in this important area.

The ratio of men to women in the construction industry is one that has often attracted great concern for all stakeholders. Although the UK construction sector has enjoyed a significant rise in the number of women, there is undoubtedly more room for improvement. Numerous schemes have been initiated by government and other professional bodies to encourage more women to join the industry. On the surface, many issues such as lack of workplace flexibility and looming discrimination prevent many more women from joining. Using the glass ceiling and the leaky pipeline theories, an in-depth exploration of experiences of female construction professionals is undertaken in this research. A total of six semi-structured interviews were carried out. Although the respondents acknowledged the industry had improved significantly, they nevertheless expressed concerns on many issues that they believed needed to be addressed. It was identified that many women struggle to re-enter the industry after embarking on maternity leave. Furthermore, the respondents believed that some workplace progressions were only due to senior managers’ attempt to demonstrate a level of inclusivity rather than due to merit. Finally, it was revealed that sexism is still rife in the industry and many women are left in very uncomfortable environments with fear of voicing out this horror. This research merely offers a peek at the ordeals that some women have to endure when working in the construction industry. Hopefully by addressing such issues, more women will be encouraged to take up professions in the sector.

There is a strong correlation between project success and a good contractor-subcontractor relationship. Although the term “contractor” is ascribed to main contractor and their subsequent supply chains, the broad generalization has somewhat distorted each supply chain’s role and interaction with the principle contractor. The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding into the influences of various aspects of management that have a bearing on contractor-subcontractor relationships and their overall performance on site. By means of three case studies, 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted with various project teams. The in-depth qualitative approach highlighted collaborative practices that influence the contractor-subcontractor relationship. Notably, client requirements, procurement strategies, project sum and size were found to influence the operational structures on-site as well as relationships between the principal contractor and subcontractors. Also, the duration of site occupancy was found to impact the relationship dynamic among the principal contractor and subcontractors as relationship built over time were viewed as beneficial for project alliance. The role of government and regulatory bodies in influencing policies and procedures in South African construction is paramount to reconciling the tensions that exist between principal contractor and subcontractors. Finally, creating and managing time-sensitive stakeholder relationships effectively that are built on communication and information sharing, irrespective of the selection processes employed remains a key element in successful collaboration as this encourages a shared vision among project participants.

Clean and tidy sites have often been associated with positive safety cultures in construction. Poor housekeeping can result in the creation of additional hazards and dangers in the form of protruding objects which may also be sharp, and increase in situations that can lead to slips, trips and falls on sites. They also create uneven ground levels, debris, and muddy conditions, which can all lead to an increase in accidents. Housekeeping also contributes to projects being finished in a timely manner due to the fewer distractions created by the chaos. However, maintaining good housekeeping practices on site have been known to be challenging due to the rapid and complex nature of construction projects. In a research that was initiated to explore the question of 'why is housekeeping a continuing challenge in Lesotho construction?', the final outcome of site visits and observations revealed the classic phenomenon of the Hawthorne effect. Without deliberate or intentional 'interventionary' measures or demand for regulatory adherence, subsequent visits revealed a transformation in site practices specifically on housekeeping. The Hawthorne effect refers to the alteration of behaviour by the subjects of a study due to their awareness of being observed. This effect does not necessarily refer to positive or negative outcome. In this paper, the transformation that occurred with regard to the workers' practices is discussed critically in the context of this phenomenon. A key outcome of this discussion is whether housekeeping can be encouraged or improved using the notion of being observed. Finally, the ethical stance of carrying out overt or covert observations is deliberated.

Construction projects incorporate the input of a range of tradesmen and different sized firms, ranging from micro to large organisations. Working practices of micro construction firms are carried out in an informal manner while larger organisations tend to adopt more formal on-site management techniques. Many micro firms seek to develop long-term relationships with large principal contractors and a major strain on their relationships stem from the difference in safety management techniques they employ. Faced with a fundamental shift in their style of safety management, workers of micro construction firms must successfully negotiate this challenge. Against this background, records from the Health and Safety Executives show year on year reductions in accident and incident rates in the East Midlands, an indication that the safety practices on projects are being implemented more effectively. Some of this success has been attributed to the efforts of local safety groups, such as Nottinghamshire Occupational Safety and Health Association (NOSHA). As such, it is important that the interdependencies between large principal contractors and micro firms, and the role that safety groups such as NOSHA play in managing this relationship are better understood. This paper presents interviews conducted with some members of NOSHA. This is the first of two phases of empirical work. The roles that the members of the local safety group perform have been found to go beyond simply promoting safety awareness and safety knowledge on site. They have been found to help in conflict resolution among the various construction parties. Such practices help create a harmonious working environment and subsequently lead to long-term working relations.

Extensive literature search has revealed that construction workers refer to the use of 'common sense' in site safety. This was also discovered in a recently completed PhD project where workers openly discussed a common sense approach to health and safety on site. The use of this term can be problematic. Different workers labelled different behaviours under this generic term. Also, some used it to refer to positive experiences and application of knowledge based on experience. Others employed the term negatively, or dismissively: "It's just common sense…" general use of the term puts emphasis on 'basic knowledge' required for attaining minimal or satisfactory achievement of a given task or activity. This is in conflict with some workers' interpretation of skilled and experience based action. In academic language ideas in this field are more substantially and in depth explored under 'communities of practice' and 'local knowledge'. These concepts offer an avenue for analysis not tied to specific wording employed by respondents but interpreting broader sets of data particularly for this study (i.e. observation material and text around specific extracts of text). This paper presents findings from five micro construction firms regarding the concept of common sense and site safety. Practical constraints, such as a researcher's stage of development and skill in qualitative analysis, potentially hinder the development of argumentation. The interpretative school of thought accepts researchers' influence on the processes; and we add depth and nuanced understanding to this discussion via practical examples of such issues. Interpretation of the data collected through ethnographic case studies indicates although workers interpret common sense differently, although it is essentially a means of working safely. However, common sense safety techniques tend to fall outside strict site rules which are often bureaucratic.

The acknowledgment of the use of tacit knowledge as a safety praxis in the mining industry has been in existence for over half a century. This is referred to as pit sense. \ud On the contrary, the use of tacit knowledge for site safety is only gathering steam in the construction industry. Research on common sense in construction suggests that \ud the conflicts with official practices and policies, and resistance from individuals in managerial roles, hold back advancements in employing tacit knowledge. Common sense in construction and pit sense in coalmining substantial similarities including their heavy dependence on self-preservation and the use of a bottom-up approach i.e. \ud both focusing on the discretion of the workers. We\ud introduce the concept of 'site sense' as an approach to site safety which is based on tacit knowledge and reflects \ud situatedness of knowledge. Non-participant observations and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data on the practices of workers of micro construction firms in relation to site safety. The research findings indicate that unlike site sense, pit sense has evolved from first being regarded as a mere informal practice to then \ud being acknowledged by managers as a way of workers \ud taking responsibility and accountability for their own safety. Site sense and pit sense are both recognised as \ud safety practices that are not formally taught but acquired through continuous practice. They are both situational knowledge gained through informal techniques and close \ud interactions among team members. In both schools of thought, it is widely known that experienced workers are proud to possess and demonstrate pit sense and site \ud sense respectively whereas newcomers do not yet possess this tacit and situated knowledge.

peer-reviewed Building Information Modelling (BIM) is growing in pace, not only in design and construction stages, but also in the analysis of facilities throughout their life cycle. With this continued growth and utilisation of the BIM processes, there comes the possibility to adopt such procedures to measure accurately the energy efficiency of buildings; and therefore, their energy usage. To this end, the aim of this research is to investigate if the introduction of BIM Energy Performance Assessment in the form of software analysis provides accurate results, when compared with actual energy consumption recorded. Through selective criterion sampling, three domestic case studies are scrutinised, with baseline figures taken from existing energy providers, the results scrutinised and compared with calculations provided from two separate BIM energy analysis software packages. Of the numerous software packages available, criterion sampling is used to select two of the most prominent platforms available on the market today. The two packages selected for scrutiny are Integrated Environmental Solutions - Virtual Environment (IES-VE) and Autodesk's Green Building Studio (GBS). The results indicate that IES-VE estimated the energy use in region of ±8% in two out of three case studies, while GBS estimated usage approximately ±5%. The findings indicate that the introduction of BIM energy performance assessment, using proprietary software analysis, is a viable alternative to manual calculations of building energy use, mainly due to the accuracy and speed of assessing, even the most complex models. Given the surge in accurate and detailed BIM models and the importance placed on the continued monitoring and control of buildings energy use within today’s environmentally conscious society, this provides an alternative means by which to assess accurately a buildings energy usage, in a quick and cost effective manner.

In comparison to the rest of the United Kingdom (UK) the Northern Irish Construction Industry was disproportionately affected by the recent economic recession. During this period, use of the New Engineering Contract (NEC) has proliferated in the public sector, however no study has been undertaken to examine the impact of the recession on this contract in Northern Ireland. The aim of this paper is to explore NEC contract implementation in Northern Ireland and the impact of the recession on its operation. A qualitative methodology is adopted using a literature review and semi structured interviews with six construction professionals. A qualitative analysis identifies themes and issues arising exploring connections and links between them using thematic coding. The initial findings are that the introduction of the NEC contract in Northern Ireland makes demands of contractors and consultants in terms of additional resources and training. Some consultants show a clear lack of understanding of the contract and its provisions. Whilst there is general agreement that the contract does help to stimulate good project management, the interviewees find the contract time consuming and complicated to administer, describing it as “unforgiving for the architect and unforgiving to the contractor.” Due to the impact of the recession, both contractors and consultants are still reporting a drop in income from pre-recession levels. Project resourcing levels have dropped significantly since the onset of the recession. Adversarial and opportunistic behaviour has increased. Many consultants and contractors are struggling to adequately administer the NEC contract at current income levels. The introduction of the NEC contract and the economic recession have exerted opposing forces on the implementation of the contract, hindering its execution. As the pressures exerted by the economic recession abate and a greater understanding of the contract develops, these opposing forces will ease leading to a more consistent implementation of the contract.

Construction practice has failed to deliver buildings that consistently meet their expected thermal performance; however, examples of good practice do exist. Buildings can be designed and built within acceptable tolerances and meet nearly zero carbon standards. Unfortunately, due to the negative implications associated with the performance gap there have been attempts to divert attention from measurement, with some being critical of methods that were used to identify the variance in building performance. However, the tools have proven reliable and the practice of thermal measurement which was once limited to scientists is finding its place in industry. Measurement is becoming more accepted and different tools are being used to assess thermal performance. The tools can add value to inspections, building surveys and assist with quality control. Construction professionals, not least construction managers, are gaining valuable insights through research undertaken and observations gained. The tests reviewed provide new methods of capturing evidence on building performance, thus allowing valuable information on the quality of design, workmanship and process to be gained. Use of thermal measurement and analysis tools should result in further improvements to building performance. The data from major performance evaluation projects are reviewed and presented

UK Government regularly applies challenging strategic targets to the construction industry, chief amongst these are requirements for more rapid project delivery processes and consistent improvements to the time predictability aspects of on-site construction delivery periods. Latest industry KPI data has revealed a recent increase across measures of time predictability, however more than half of UK construction projects continue to exceed agreed time schedules. The aim of this research was to investigate the diffusion of 4D BIM innovation as adoption of this innovation is seen as a potential solution in response to these targets of construction time predictability. Through purposive sampling, a quantitative survey was undertaken using an online questionnaire that measured 4D BIM innovation adoption using accepted diffusion research methods. These included an exploration of several perceived attributes including compatibility, complexity, observability and the relative advantages of 4D BIM innovation in comparison against conventional functions of construction planning and against stages of the construction planning processes. Descriptive and inferential analysis of the data addresses how the benefits are being realised and explore reasons for adoption or rejection decisions of this innovation. Results indicate an increasing rate of 4D BIM innovation adoption and reveal the typical time lag between awareness and first use.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been conceptualized in a variety of ways and interest groups approach the subject differently. These variations have been observed in the way construction organisations in the UK report on their CSR activities. Research into CSR practices has used annual CSR reports to demonstrate the differences in reporting practices across geographies and sectors. However, what many of these studies have not explored is how reporting CSR practices can provide an insight into the evolution of CSR within these organisations. This paper adopts a sensemaking perspective to explore how construction organisations have labelled and categorised CSR in their annual CSR reports and if these have evolved over time. The annual CSR reports are treated as products of CSR related sensemaking processes within the organisations. A desktop study was conducted of annual reports from 2009-2013 of three large construction organisations in the UK. The data from these reports was analysed and the evolution of CSR within these organisations was plotted on the basis of labels and categories each individual organisation assigned to CSR. The study reveals that these labels and categories are individual to the organisation. Furthermore, the study shows that the labels and categories evolve and change over a time period, thus hinting at an active ongoing CSR sensemaking process within these organisations. An important observation is that the organisations have shifted from CSR to sustainability reporting. Elements of sensemaking theory are applied as a theoretical lens for explaining how the evolution of CSR has occurred within these organisations. This study forms the initial part of a larger piece of work on understanding the dynamics of CSR strategies in large construction organisations.

Effective Bridge Management Systems (BMS) are of paramount importance to bridge owners and bridge managers. BMS in the UK encompass an inventory of existing bridge stock, schedule of inspections, condition rating of structures, budget planning, deterioration modelling, bid for maintenance funds, and maintenance repair and rehabilitation, but fail to consider sustainability and long-term options. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach is currently being proposed to address this problem, which can be incorporated into a BMS. In order to achieve this, a critical analysis was performed on international literatures in the area of BMS study. This presents insights of previous approaches and models towards improving existing BMS functionalities, while responding to generic requirements. Findings revealed that the incremental improvement of BMS does not consider sustainability options to enable sustainable decisions to be made regarding bridge management activities. Therefore, systems should start considering sustainability optimization criteria which can be delivered through a life cycle approach

Communication risk is one of the most important types of risk that occur in construction projects, and trust is one of the most effective ways to minimise it. Interest in communication risk and trust spans economics, sociology and psychology. These social sciences are most relevant for the understanding of different dimensions of trust investigated in the framework of the principal-agent theory. In construction projects, this applies to inter-firm, intra-firm and interpersonal relationships between the project parties. The project owner, contractor, and their respective project managers are among the key parties involved in every construction project. This conceptual paper is based both on empirical research that has evolved in four stages, and on extensive literature review that has developed through three stages. Using the principal-agent theory, this paper offers a framework for interdisciplinary research into communication risk and trust spanning economics, sociology, and psychology. This framework rests on firm theoretical foundations concerning inter-firm, intra-firm, and interpersonal relationships characteristic of construction projects, all of which depend on trust between project parties.

The UK Government has outlined a variety of targets for new build housing to be zero carbon (Zc) from 2016. In realising this ambitious target, house builders will be required to deliver high energy efficient housing adding to the existing rules and regulations bedevilling the construction industry. This, combined with the selection and purchase of a new home being the single, largest capital investment that a person is likely to make in their lifetime has resulted in the success of Zc housing depending, to some extent, on consumer acceptance, which must align with the attitudes, values and wants of potential home buyers, particularly when faced with a variety of factors influencing consumer decisions. Consequently, this research presents the findings from a comprehensive quantitative study of 202 questionnaires undertaken by house buyers relating to energy efficient, private housing which highlights a misalignment between perceptions and reality with regards to what buyers consider to be the "ideal" home. The results obtained are particularly important as they go some way in narrowing the gap between the views and opinions of house buyers and builders relating to energy efficient homes and the home buying process.

In order to reach the EU 2020 goals for the climate, Danish vocational training units are currently in a process of institutional change triggered by the need of providing energy, and new process competences for the skilled and semiskilled workforce active in construction. The aim of the present paper is to analyze enablers and barriers for this institutional change. The vocational education system in Denmark is strongly institutionalised with unions, employer’s associations and the schools in central roles. Drawing on institutional theory contributions on labour market-, educational- and professional institutions, the paper presents a study of institutional work inside and across schools and craft disciplines working in SMEs involved in new building and renovation with an energy aspect. Collaboration between four education committees for carpenters, masons, electricians and plumbers and interviews with seven companies come to focus on competences of interdisciplinary collaboration and sustainable innovation in SME. The anticipation of future building regulation of 2015 and 2020 creates an institutional pressure in education for change including handling differentiated demands of customers and contractors, not always just following regulation but occasionally ahead of it. At a time this needs to be balanced with customer needs with a comfort orientation and issues of cost and financing. The committees act in a contradictory, sometimes conservative manner in this change of institutions of knowing. In the future specialization will be supplemented by horizontal and vertical interdisciplinary and innovative competences integrating the complex process industrialized construction sector. Schools, teachers and digital teaching materials need be developed to support this change supported by front running companies and results from innovative building projects. The education committees in Denmark can have a leading role in this development and set high and motivational standards for the improvements. The analysis sees however a lot more barriers than enablers. In order to reach the EU 2020 goals for the climate, Danish vocational training units are currently in a process of institutional change triggered by the need of providing energy, and new process competences for the skilled and semiskilled workforce active in construction. The aim of the present paper is to analyze enablers and barriers for this institutional change. The vocational education system in Denmark is strongly institutionalised with unions, employerÕs associations and the schools in central roles. Drawing on institutional theory contributions on labour market -, educational - and professional institutions, the paper presents a study of institutional work inside and across schools and craft disciplines working in SMEs involved in new building and renovation with an energy aspect. Collaboration between four education committees for carpenters, masons, electricians and plumbers and interviews with seven companies come to focus on competences of interdisciplinary collaboration and sustainable innovation in SME. The anticipation of future building regulation of 2015 and 2020 creates an institutional pressure in education for change including handling differentiated demands of customers and contractors, not always just following regulation but occasionally ahead of it. At a time this needs to be balanced with customer needs with a comfort orientation and issues of cost and financing. The committees act in a contradictory, sometimes conservative manner in this change of institutions of knowing. In the future specialization will be supplemented by horizontal and vertical interdisciplinary and innovative competences integrating the complex process industrialized construction sector. Schools, teachers and digital teaching materials need be developed to support this change supported by front running companies and results from innovative building projects. The education committees in Denmark can have a leading role in this development and set high and motivational standards for the improvements. The analysis sees however a lot more barriers than enablers.

Irish construction reported strong growth towards the end of 2013, after years of industry recession. Following a property led economic collapse which started in 2007 construction output fell by circa eighty percent. Many construction companies went out of business; those remaining are strongly focused on their bottom line and increasing efficiency to ensure survival. Defects and rework, common in construction, are both wasteful and a cost that can be avoided, thus presenting an obvious target for improvement. A regional SME main contractor collaborated on a project to improve the efficiency of their current processes for the identification, management and elimination of defects and rework in their supply chain. An action research strategy was employed on several field projects, to investigate the problems faced by the company in this area and to develop an improvement plan. Action research involves a five stage problem solving cycle (1) problem diagnosing; (2) action planning; (3) action taking; (4) evaluation of results; (5) specification of learning. Action planning elements emerging from the cycle (at stage 2) are presented here. They are very wide ranging and include; process standardisation; sign off procedures; use of ICT as a collaborative platform; freeware information repository; cost modelling; benchmarks for improvement; planning workshops; root cause analysis of defects and subsequent development of learning materials. Preliminary results indicate a sophisticated understanding of the defects and rework process across the supply-chain, but a general lack of forum and opportunity to contribute to improvement. The results indicate a wide diversity of abilities and resources in SMEs, including human, capital and technological, meaning one size fits all solutions to efficiency improvements are difficult to attain. Prescriptions thus need to be both simple to implement and flexible. The results here offer detailed reflective insight into best practice in designing improvement plans of this nature.