Associate Professor Marcus Jefferies

Introduction: Advancements in the modern construction industry have contributed to the development of a range of technology-based interventions to improve the safety behavior of front-line construction workers. Notwithstanding the extensive research on safety behavior, there is still a paucity of research on assessing technology interventions of safety behavior to provide an overview of their strengths and limitations. The present study aims to bridge this gap in the literature and identify the main trends of research. Method: A systematic review and critical content analysis are adopted to capture an overview of the state of knowledge on safety behavior technologies. As a result of searching Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases in the period from Jan 2010 to Feb 2023, a total of 359 potential studies went through the systematic screening process and finally, 48 representative studies were selected followed by an assessment of the feasibility and applicability of the safety behavior technologies. Results: It was found that safety behavior technology is characterized by seven technologies including virtual-reality simulation (T1), eye-tracking technology (T2), prediction modeling of safety behavior (T3), computer-based training (T4), drone/sensor-based hazard monitoring (T5), vision-based behavior monitoring (T6), and real-time positioning (T7). Conclusions: This research improves understanding of the status of safety behavior technologies and provides a critical review of their feasibility from the perspective of four assessment criteria including application, limitation, benefit, and feasibility. Practical applications: The categorizations of technologies add value to the body of knowledge in terms of generic requirements for their implementation and adaptation on construction sites.

The contemporary literature emphasizes a need to delve into how project management offices (PMOs) can be effectively operated in construction organizations by embedding integrated project management rather than relying on stand-alone project controls. However, capabilities for running high-performing PMOs in this complex industry are still unknown to this growing body of knowledge, which is considered a barrier to the realization of their full potential. To address this gap, the current research explores a factor structure for core capabilities using a cross-validation method with survey data from 395 experts in general contracting organizations. The results revealed that the five-factor measurement model encompasses constructs of competent human resources and supportive culture, strategic alignment, delivery support, knowledge management, and leveraging organizational capabilities. This study extends the current literature by establishing a new measurement model explaining the dimensionality of PMO capabilities.

By their nature, building refurbishment projects display unique characteristics, surfacing uncertainties, and complexity. These lead to unforeseen safety risks when compared to 'new build' projects. In recognition of this, resilience engineering (RE) provides a significant contribution to safety management in uncertain and complex work settings. Despite a recent trend in RE studies concerning construction, a model that explores the relationships between RE factors, specifically in the unique category of construction refurbishment, is yet to be produced. This research aims to examine the relationships between the RE factors (i.e., top management commitment, awareness, flexibility, and learning culture) that enable a resilient work environment in construction refurbishment projects. One hundred and twenty-six (126) responses were collected from participants involved in building refurbishment projects in Australia. The distinct nature of a four-factor RE model was confirmed using factor analysis. Structural equation modelling (SEM) identified the relationships among the RE factors. The results highlight that the action of top management toward safety was prominent and determined as a positive influence on the other RE factors. Learning culture also has a positive effect on flexibility and awareness and in addition, the effect of top-management commitment to awareness and flexibility is partially mediated by learning culture. Overall, the model shows the interplay between RE factors in attaining a resilient work environment that can anticipate, cope, and adapt to safety risks. The findings of this research provide guidance for practitioners and researchers in the design of safety interventions and can prevent prevailing differences in safety practices between head office and work site to achieve a resilient work environment in construction refurbishment work settings.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to identify major project management (PM) complexities in principal construction contracting; and second, to study the contribution of project management offices (PMOs) to addressing such complexities. Design/methodology/approach: A two-stage research design was adopted through a structured literature review (SLR) and a qualitative survey study. Findings: The two-stage study resulted in mapping out the contribution of 10 functional areas to 15 complexity factors that were retrieved from the literature and categorized using the TOE (technical, organizational and environmental) framework. Six outcomes including (1) facilitated processes, (2) improved decisions, (3) improved coordination, (4) enhanced alignment, (5) addressed uncertainties and (6) integrated oversight were identified that describe how PMOs can contribute to tackling complexities. Research limitations/implications: Similar to other qualitative studies, this study has some limitations in terms of the replicability of results. Regarding the exploratory nature of this study to explain the contribution of PMO to complexity, further quantitative surveys can be conducted using a larger sample to statistically examine the significance of proposed relations between capabilities and complexity factors. Practical implications: This study provides an understanding of the contribution of PMOs to tackling ever-increasing complexities embedded in construction contracting. The authors suggest requirements to be considered by professionals toward overcoming such complexities. Originality/value: Although prior studies have separately investigated PMO functions and PM complexities, this study explores the link between these two spheres to discuss one important application of PMO in this context.

Falling from height (FFH) is blamed for causing significant injuries and deaths on construction sites. Previous research has outlined a broad range of technological advances facilitating the management of the FFH safety risk. However, the extant literature lacks a comprehensive assessment to investigate the contribution of various FFH technologies, as well as their implementation feasibility on construction sites, which provides rationale for this study. The study aims to assess recent safety technologies which can be used to control the risk of FFH on construction sites, especially in urban building construction projects. A scoping review was conducted to identify such technologies and provide insight into their application in the construction industry. As a result of searching Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases between 2010 and 2021, a total of 86 representative studies were selected and reviewed. Following this stage, an assessment of their feasibility was carried out based on a set of criteria from the literature. A total of 7 FFH technologies were identified, characterising the contribution of recent technologies to the prediction, prevention, and mitigation of FFH risks. These technologies include (1) Safety risk assessment and propagation, (2) real-time sensing and monitoring, (3) automated prevention through design, (4) ontology and knowledge modelling, (5) virtual reality for FFH training, (6) personal fall arrest systems, and (7) collective fall protection systems. This research contributes to an improved understanding of the status of FFH technologies. The feasibility assessment provides insight into suitable technologies for construction projects of various sizes and features.

Sustainable procurement management (SPM) as an approach to integrating sustainability into project procurement takes into account the social, ecological, and economical consequences of procurement decisions. Several challenges hinder the proper achievement of SPM objectives in the construction industry. Previous studies have delved into such barriers in the public sector while the private sector is still less explored and requires further in-depth investigation. Regarding limited research in this area, the purpose of this study is to identify barriers hindering SPM in the private sector through an empirical study. A case study analysis based on interviews was conducted to solicit the viewpoints of construction professionals in a high-profile construction organization. Two categories of intra-organizational and extra-organizational barriers were identified; The intra-organizational barriers relate to the mechanisms, resources, and capacities within an organization while extra-organizational barriers relate to a broader environment in which an organization interacts with stakeholders in an integrated supply chain. The findings provide an improved understanding of SPM obstacles and shed light on the possible solutions, which can be used by both academics and practitioners to improve the current status of SPM practice.

Today's project management offices (PMOs) in the construction sector need to be equipped with breakthrough capabilities necessary for making a difference in multi-project management. Although there is an upward trend in academic research on PMOs, a comprehensive framework of potential success variables is still lacking in the literature. This research aims to assess the extant literature from the perspective of the construction sector to provide a single consolidated overview of potential PMO success variables. A systematic search process was adopted to retrieve publications and narrow them down to eligible studies followed by a qualitative synthesis. A set of 32 success variables was synthesized and inductively categorized under four emerging themes of (1) establishing PM infrastructure, (2) promoting PM practices, (3) PMO structuring, and (4) organizational support. This set of variables refers to three kinds of functional, structural, and contextual variables characterizing potential features of successful construction PMOs. These variables were compared between the construction industry and other industries to reflect contextual contrasts and similarities. A research agenda was proposed to encourage empirical studies on examining success variables. This study contributes to an improved understanding of PMO success variables in the construction industry and directs future research towards the most important topics.

The emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has revolutionized the infrastructure construction industry by introducing real-time and collaborative information management tools to be used throughout the lifecycle of projects. The importance of BIM in this industry has been emphasized in previous research. However, strategies for the implementation of this system is still less explored, which requires more elaboration and validation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate such strategies considering all necessary dimensions of the BIM system in infrastructure construction projects. The findings are based on theoretical discussion and semi-structured interviews in a case study project in New South Wales, Australia. The results revealed that BIM integrates various elements of infrastructure construction, which include but are not limited to risk, time, cost, energy, safety, and sustainability. It was found that implementation strategies should focus on improving the contribution of the BIM system to infrastructure construction in terms of improved (1) integrity and automation, (2) collaboration, and (3) optimization. Identification of seven technical and managerial implementations strategies is the core contribution of this research. These strategies provide practitioners with insight into technical and managerial measures to be taken for the successful implementation of the BIM system.

Environmental and ecological impacts associated with construction activities have become an ever-increasing concern, especially the considerable amount of waste generated on construction sites. Regulations and growing client pressure on meeting environmental standards have led contractors to adopt sustainable practices and try to embed this concept in their processes. Sustainable procurement management (SPM) as a potential solution takes the environmental consequences of procurement decisions into account and integrates sustainable practices into project procurement to bring positive environmental outcomes. Previous research has mainly focused on the public sector in achieving green procurement, yet this study attempts to highlight internal capacities that help private organisations manage the requirements associated with practicing sustainability. It is theorised that robust management structures, specifically project management offices (PMOs), would enhance the oversight capabilities of contractors in implementing the SPM process. The objectives of the current study are to (1) identify the requirements of a sustainable project procurement process in construction sites based on a literature review, and (2) explore the facilitative role of PMO units in achieving these requirements in the private sector. A literature review was conducted followed by a qualitative survey to solicit the viewpoints of construction professionals in principle contracting firms. As a result of the study, we identified 17 sustainability requirements and found that PMOs boost collaboration and improve the quality of decision making towards sustainable procurement. The findings (1) explain how PMOs support sustainability, (2) provide insights on implementing sustainable practices in project purchases, and (3) improve theoretical understanding of the SPM principles.

A Psychological Contract of Safety (PCS), based on mutual obligations between supervisors and workers, has been observed in an Australian construction context applied to safety. It has been described in recent research explaining the influential role of supervisors. In the past, there have been numerous studies establishing that the mainstream theory of the Psychological Contract (PC) affects behaviour when applied to various cultural backgrounds. Despite this, there is no established theory that explains how PCS may influence workers' behaviour in alternative cultural backgrounds. To test this theory, data were collected from construction projects in two divergent cultures, Australian and Chinese. A sample of 352 Australian and 374 Chinese construction workers completed a survey related to PCS and its influence on safety behaviour. Results from using Structural Equation Modelling show that there is a strong influence of the PCS on the safety behaviour of individual workers in both countries. Specifically, the Chinese workers placed higher PCS influence on both compliance and participation behaviour than the Australian workers. The research findings have been contextualized with managerial and cultural implications allowing practitioners to apply the mechanism to improve safety behaviours of workers in their respective cultural contexts. Conceptualising the extant PC theory as a framework from which to leverage PCS management initiatives brings a new approach to construction safety studies, revealing the influential role of supervisors in interpreting safety obligations in a cross-cultural construction setting.

Previous research enables managers to apply appropriate safety management factors for increased site safety. However, the heterogeneity of such factors in contemporary studies makes it difficult for practitioners to keep up to date with relevant alternatives. There is a paucity of systematic reviews that examine factors, map out their relationships, categorize research gaps, assess the practicality of research findings, and offer direction for future research. In this paper, a systematic review of 2574 articles published between 2010 and 2020 and a full-text examination of 75 quantitative surveys were conducted to catalogue, synthesize, and assess safety management factors in contemporary literature. Thematic analysis subsequently revealed 38 interrelated safety management factors to be classified under three individual, workgroup, and organizational groups. A critical content analysis of the representative studies was conducted to identify five future research trends as well as associated research gaps and directions on construction safety management in the form of an agenda suggesting a shift in research emphasis from physical safety issues to organizational and culture-related factors that have the potential to systematically enhance the overall safety performance. Furthermore, directions are provided to safety practitioners concerning the useful implementation of safety management factors.

Public and private organizations are distinct in terms of ownership structure and stakeholders because they approach project management processes and structures differently. Thus, it is likely that they operate project oversight structures such as a project management office (PMO) differently and focus on a diverse set of functions. This study is dedicated to investigating PMO functions in these two cohorts of organizations to highlight their functional contrast through a quantitative survey in the Australian construction industry. The sample includes PMO units in high-performing organizations delivering successful projects in the construction industry. A literature review was conducted to identify possible functions followed by an empirical survey to solicit expert comments on the importance of each function. The results of an independent-samples t-test revealed a significant difference in the importance of three functions including (1) benchmarking best practices, (2) project management compliance, and (3) project governance, which indicate a distinction between the underpinning role that PMOs play in the public and private sectors. Following this test, the relative importance index (RII) was calculated to compare the importance level of functions and rank them across two sets of public and private organizations. The unique value that this work contributes to the construction engineering and management global community includes (1) exploring similarities and differences of PMO practice in the public and private sectors and (2) revealing the most important PMO functions in high-performing organizations, which can be applied to enhance the chance of PMO success. The findings address a research gap in the literature and contribute to the extant body of knowledge on how to configure effective PMOs in the construction context.

Purpose: Safety climate and its impact on safety performance is well established; however, researchers in this field suggest that the absence of a common assessment framework is a reflection of the state of development of this concept. The purpose of this paper is to propose a five-factor model that can be used to diagnose and measure safety climate in construction safety research and practice. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review was adopted, and following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, 574 articles were selected at the start of the study based on a developed review protocol for investigating safety climate factors. While examining the factor analysis of different studies, data reliability and data validity of the individual research findings were considered and frequency of factors uploaded was used to determine the significance as a quantitative measure to develop the ranking of safety climate factors. Findings: The review identified that, from the established measures of safety climate in construction, there is little uniformity on factor importance. However, management commitment safety system role of the supervisor; workers' involvement and group safety climate were found to be the most common across the studies reviewed. It is proposed these factors are used to inform a five-factor model for investigating safety climate in the construction industry. Originality/value: The findings of this study will motivate researchers and practitioners in safety to use the five-factor safety climate model presented in this paper and test it to develop a common factor structure for the construction industry. The fact that the model is comprised of five factors makes it easier to be used and implemented by small-to medium-sized construction companies, therefore enhancing its potential use.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is seen as a panacea to many of the ills confronting the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector. In spite of its well documented benefits the widespread integration of BIM into the project lifecycle is yet to occur. One commonly identified barrier to BIM adoption is the perceived legal risks associated with its integration, coupled with the need for implementation in a collaborative environment. Many existing standardised contracts used in the Australian AEC industry were drafted before the emergence of BIM. As BIM continues to become ingrained in the delivery process the shortcomings of these existing contracts have become apparent. This paper reports on a study that reviewed and consolidated the contractual and legal concerns associated with BIM implementation. The findings of the review were used to conduct a qualitative content analysis of the GC21 2nd edition, an Australian standardised construction contract, to identify possible changes to facilitate the implementation of BIM in a collaborative environment. The findings identified a number of changes including the need to adopt a collaborative contract structure with equitable risk and reward mechanisms, recognition of the model as a contract document and the need for standardisation of communication/information exchange.

A healthcare organization, like any organization, faces the inevitability of change. However, healthcare in the developed world is required to meet increasing demands for, and complexity of, services; together with enhanced consumer expectations and challenging primary healthcare systems. Over the last two decades, governments have been attempting to address these challenges largely through strategies of major health system reform. However, there remains considerable debate over the most effective model for supporting organizational change in healthcare settings. This review considers the main change models adopted in healthcare organizations and aims to identify key enablers and barriers to successfully implementing change in these settings. The findings of the review are then used as the basis for identifying and developing an appropriate model to support change in healthcare organizations. It is argued that a mentoring model of organizational change responds to many of the complex situational barriers to healthcare reform and builds on key enablers of change in these settings. This model particularly develops key skills in management and communication through a balance of tension and support activities. The mentoring model offers an easy to use and scalable tool which supports and guides management, communication and engagement throughout the change process.

Purpose-There has been a significant increase in the use of relationship contracting in the global construction industry, with strategies such as Partnering, Alliancing and Public-Private Partnerships all used. These approaches were introduced to the Australian construction industry in the 1990s in an attempt to overcome the adversarial nature of traditional contracting methods. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that influence the successful implementation of Project Alliancing by means of a case study approach focusing on the procurement of a large water treatment plant. The research findings identify critical success factors (CSFs) both from literature and the case study project.

Purpose: Public-private partnerships (PPPs) and other innovative procurement mechanisms are frequently used to deliver both an asset and a public service over a protracted period. The value streams to the parties involved can be complex, but generally arise from the satisfactory provision of infrastructure that is fit for purpose throughout its life. This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of the facility management (FM) function in delivering long-term value to both the client and consortium. Design/methodology/approach: This paper describes a case study of a PPP in Australia that delivered social infrastructure in multiple locations to a state government. Drawing upon multiple perspectives from within the consortium, it utilises inductive principles to identify the influences on value generation through innovation by the FM function. Findings: The ability of an Australian FM contractor to provide value within a PPP context has been shown to reflect some of the attributes described in literature. However, the extent of innovation, especially in the design and construction phases, has been limited by organisational history and capability, and relational and contextual issues. Originality/value: This research highlights a flaw in the rhetoric relating to PPP delivery, namely the disconnection between the asset delivery and service delivery phases, which stifles the consortium's capacity to innovate and maximise value. It reveals a set of influences that both resonate with the literature and plausibly explain the suboptimal performance of the FM function within an Australian PPP. By using highly iterative analysis leading to within-case generalisability, it provides a robust basis for wider investigation of the problem. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

The concept of the project management office (PMO) is well-established in academic literature. This organizational phenomenon has revolutionized practices applied by organizations toward coordinating and overseeing multiple projects throughout the design, engineering, initiation, execution, and handover stages. The construction industry is one of the contexts in which more research is still needed to provide practical guidelines for achieving effective PMO functioning. This study explores several core capabilities of these entities from the perspective of construction project management practitioners working in the contracting sector. In this regard, we solicited expert judgment based on an online questionnaire followed by thematic analysis. Respondents suggested six drivers that can contribute to improving the effectiveness of construction PMOs in practice. This study provides insight into some capabilities that can be employed for delivering high-performing PMOs.

The emergence of Public-Private Sector Partnerships (PPPs) provides a means for developing infrastructure without directly impacting upon the budgetary constraints of Government. Social infrastructure projects (schools, hospitals, prisons et al) are characterised as generally being smaller in scale than economic infrastructure projects (motorways, bridges, tunnels et al). However, by their very nature, social infrastructure projects also tend to be complex, particularly in terms of on-going involvement with the community. Thus, private sector bidders for social infrastructure PPPs are often presented with a situation where operational complexity, including government policy toward the sharing of revenue, is one of the key differences in whether PPPs are as attractive for social infrastructure compared with economic infrastructure. This research centres on how consortiums manage the many risk factors involved and the results are presented from a case study of a hospital PPP project. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the case study research and in particular focuses on the process for selecting the PPP consortium and the research methodology.