Category: Construction

Case 1: Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom
Submit
your responses to the

Case 1: Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom
Submit
your responses to the following case in a Word document. Be sure to
follow APA 7th guidelines. Please answer the questions completely.
**All cases can be found at the end of the textbook**
Please answer the following questions:
1. What are the major issues in this case? What does Walmart’s experience tell you about the business and society relationship?
2.
Assess Walmart’s corporate social responsibility using the four-part
CSR model. For example, is Walmart socially responsible even though it
has had a devastating impact on many small merchants?
3.
What about Walmart’s impact on communities in terms of sprawl, traffic
congestion, and impact on the environment’s appearance? What
responsibility, if any, does the company have to the communities it
enters?
4.
Sam Walton has been called a motivational genius. After reading this
case, and with what you have observed at your local Walmart store, do
you think the associates still feel his motivational genius? What is the
“Walmart Way”? How would you characterize the store’s culture now that
Sam is no longer visiting the stores?
5.
Walmart was an early leader in the area of corporate social
responsibility. Is the company’s detrimental impact on merchants offset
by the benefits of its recent corporate citizenship and sustainability
initiatives?
6.
Walmart continues to resist its expansion into New England and some
parts of the United States. What are the true goals of the opponents of
Walmart? Include a consideration of the following: (a) stopping
Walmart’s expansion, (b) preserving the status quo (e.g., downtown
community and social fabric), (c) developing a cause that will pay their
bills, (d) fighting for an ideology, or (e) something else. What should
Walmart do when it encounters resistance?
7.
With Walmart now having to close stores due to the economy and/or
competition, does it have any social responsibilities to the communities
it is leaving? If so, what would those responsibilities be?
8.
When you are the largest company globally, how do you protect yourself
against the kind of criticism Walmart has received? Does it seem that no
matter how hard you try, it is difficult to make things better?

Discussion week 1
Why is there a tendency to focus on
large-sized rather than sm

Discussion week 1
Why is there a tendency to focus on
large-sized rather than small- or medium-sized firms? For example, have
the corporate ethics scandals of the past decade affected small- and
medium-sized firms? If so, in what ways have these firms been affected?
please use a scholarly appropriate article as a reference.

The Increasing of Role of Ethics in the Profession of Sri Lankan Quantity Surveying

The construction industry of Sri Lanka has become a key driver of economy and it is necessary to sustain this growth by facilitating sectoral development.(‘Construction industry, a key driver of the economy’ | Sunday Observer, no date). Sri Lankan Construction Industry continues to play an important role in the country’s economy.(Construction Expo | 2020, no date). Quantity surveying is one of the prominent professions in the construction industry. With the increasing complexity in construction projects, competencies of QSs have become utmost significant.(Yogeshwaran, Perera and Perera, 2018). Construction industry involved with large number of stakeholders. This industry has a complex contractual structure besides facing with several of psychological human behavior that exposed to the unethical conducts and practices among professionals.(Ibrahim, Hamzah and Khoiry, 2019).

Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.(What is Ethics? – Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, no date) that ethics can be merely on personal opinion.(Butts and Rich, 2013). Ethical practice and behaviour is a means for improving inter-organisational relationships by providing a clear understanding of the rights and obligations of all parties, improving productivity, affecting long-term business dealings, and influencing quality, time and costs.(Participants, Ceo and Crc, 2006) Professional ethics is a set of standards adopted by a professional community.(Vee and Skitmore, 2003) Professional ethics are those that apply to a specific profession and will vary based on the specific knowledge, skills and duties of those in the role.(Types of Professional Ethics, no date).

Ethics is important to business, personal career and image of the industry.(Road, 2004). Good ethics is the only way to gain the trust and confidence of customers. (Mohamad et al., 2015). Professional institutions have a crucial role to play in minimizing ethical lapses in the construction industry.(Ameh and Odusami, 2010). Each professional body or organization has its own professional code of conducts and policies to guide the ethical behaviour among the members.(Hassim et al., 2010)

Common ethical issues highlighted were tendering practice, sub-standard quality of construction work, safety culture, payment woes, corruption, and most importantly, public accountability for money spent on public buildings and infrastructure.(Mohamad et al., 2015). In construction, we face many ethical dilemmas in contract procurement, cost estimating, project management, accounting/financial management, customer relations, subcontractor relations, and material vendor relations.(Anon, no date). unethical conduct by project managers, architects, contractors, client and other participants, to identify the ones most likely to be involved.(Vee and Skitmore, 2003). contractors to be the most unethical overall.(Vee and Skitmore, 2003). Ethical issues not only occur among the contractors and suppliers but also the client as well.(Hassim et al., 2010)

Unethical performance is an impediment for economic development and good governance.(OYEWOBI et al., 2011). unethical conducts can be the main cause of poor quality in construction industry.(Abdul-Rahman, Wang and Yap, 2010). Behaving ethically is at the heart of what it means to be a professional; it distinguishes professionals from others in the marketplace.(Ethics, no date). Construction parties should always be alert and try to avoid any unethical behaviour among the construction players.(Abdul-Rahman, Wang and Yap, 2010)

Construction of Cultural Identity in Immigrant Youth

Introduction

The study of acculturation is rooted in a number of subfields of psychology including social psychology, counselling psychology and cross-cultural psychology (e.g. Liebkind, 1996; Wang, Schwartz, & Zamboanga, 2010; Yoon, Hacker, Hewitt, Abrams, & Cleary, 2012). A number of studies have defined acculturation to be a concept involving two different processes of cultural and psychological changes that take place due to contact between at least two cultural groups and their individual group members (e.g. Berry, 2005, Smith & Khawaja, 2011). These processes involve different forms of mutual compromise that lead to adaptations in psychological and sociocultural aspects between both groups (Berry, 2005).

At the group level, members experience a number of changes in areas including cultural practices as well as social structures. At the individual level, on the other hand, it entails changing one’s behavioral repertoire (Berry, 2005). These changes occur for a variety of reasons including migration and sojourning, and carries on long after the establishment of initial contact in culturally plural societies, where ethnic groups maintain characteristics closely tied to their cultural heritage (Berry, 2005). While the process of acculturation continues for as long as culturally different groups coexist and come into contact, there are some longer-term adjustments required to live in such culture-contact environment that take different forms which are, in many instances, the result of compromise and accommodation among groups in contact (Berry, 2005). More often than not, this entails, for example, learning a starkly different language from that of one’s own, sharing each other’s preference for food, as well as adopting the way in which members of the respective cultural groups interact that are characteristic of their group (Berry, 2005). At times, these mutual adjustments occur fairly easily through culture learning, a concept widely studied by Berry (1992). However, culture conflicts and acculturative stress during intercultural interactions may also arise. Hence, acculturating individuals learn to adopt different coping strategies.

Four acculturation approaches were discovered as the foundation upon which individuals adopt to better help themselves adjust to the dominant group’s cultural way of living (Berry, 2008). The first strategy described by Berry (2008) was assimilation, which stated that a person is willing to adapt to the dominant group’s culture at the expense of compromising and possibly losing his or her own cultural identity. The second strategy postulated was separation which Berry (2008) defined as the preference for the acculturating individual to hang on to his or her own cultural identity, while avoiding any form of interaction with others. On the other hand, the integration strategy was described as the interest displayed to retain the individual’s own culture, while simultaneously engaging in interactions and partaking in some aspects of the dominant group (Ndika, 2013). Finally, the last strategy described by Berry (2008) was marginalization, defined as a person’s reluctance not only to retain his or her own cultural practices, but also to acquire and experience the new culture.

The goal of this paper seeks to outline the concept of acculturation stress specifically targeting at immigrant students as it has been extensively researched on and studied in the fields of cross-cultural psychology. Following the aforementioned discussion on the general concept of acculturation, the phenomenon of acculturation stress will be further elaborated below.

Acculturation Stress

According to a study conducted by Berry (1992), two conceptualized outcomes of acculturation have been posited. The first conceptualized outcome has been referred to as “behavioral shifts”, which has been found to be changes in a person’s behavioral repertoire that occur fairly easily and are typically non-problematic. This process of an individual’s shifting behavior encompasses three sub-processes which are cultural shedding, culture learning, as well as cultural conflict (Berry, 2005). Cultural shedding and culture learning involve the intentional loss of behaviors and the replacement of other acquired behaviors that enable the acculturating individual to better integrate. This process, often times also referred to as adjustments, are generally made with little difficulty. However, a certain level of cultural conflict may arise, which in the case of those seeking to assimilate, will resolve the conflict by adopting the dominant group’s behavioral norms (Berry, 2005). For those seeking separation, individuals may disengage from acculturating in order to keep away from cultural conflicts continuing. In the case of people pursuing integration, cultural conflict can be circumvented only when the two cultural groups in contact agree to mutually accommodate to each other. Finally, for those seeking marginalization, individuals tend to seek little involvement in either of the cultures as a form of resolution to culture conflict (Berry, 2005).

When an individual experiences higher levels of cultural conflict and these less than positive experiences become problematic albeit controllable, then acculturative stress, which is the second approach, is the befitting conceptualization (Berry, Kim, Minde, & Mok, 1987). This concept has been defined as a stress reaction in regard to life events stemming from acculturation experiences, and have been found to reduce one’s health status in psychological and social aspects, specifically, experiencing feelings of confusion, anxiousness, depressed mood, as well as identity confusion (Berry et al., 1987).

Acculturative Stressors International Students Experience

Moving abroad to a foreign country to pursue studies can result in a number of possible challenges; international students may encounter acculturative stress which is a result of life changes in the process of acculturating, and problems with adjusting to the new environment and host culture (Smith & Khawaja, 2011). When the individual encounters an acculturative stressor, a further evaluation occurs in correspondence to whether he or she has adequate coping strategies to deal with the stressor. If sufficient strategies to cope are employed, the acculturative stress encountered may be little, however, if the employed strategies are not adequate to overcome the stressor or incorrect coping strategies are used, the experienced acculturative stress levels may be higher, and in more serious cases, depression and anxiety may develop (e.g. Rachel & Khawaja, 2011).

Based on previous extensive studies, researchers have found and underscored the prevalence of life changes an international student may experience being in a new environment and culture (e.g. Berry, 2005; Rachel & Khawaja, 2011). These changes could become stressors to him or her, if they are negatively appraised and thought of as being a challenge (Rachel & Khawaja, 2011).

According to a study conducted by Rachel and Khawaja (2011), the acculturative stressors within the literature pertaining to international students include language, educational stressors, sociocultural stressors and discrimination.

Language Barrier

The first and major stressor faced by international students is language barrier, to which Chen (1999) argued that anxiety derived from having to speak a foreign language is a stressor that interacts with academic and sociocultural related stressors. In the academic aspect, language barriers can have an effect on essay writing, comprehending lectures, and the ability to present in class (Chen, 1999, Mori, 2000). Poyrazli and Kavanaugh’s (2006) study showed that international students studying in the United States of America (U.S.A) who were low academic achievers reported their English proficiency to be lower and greater overall strain on adjustment. In addition, a qualitative study carried out by Trice (2003) which investigated on the perceptions of university academic staff, including professors and deans, underlined that English proficiency was the primary difficulty for international students, and reported that this challenge could have a negative impact on students’ academic achievement.

In the social aspect, language barriers can hinder the attempts of international students to befriend and interact with locals (Chen, 1999; Mori, 2000). Studies have found an association between English proficiency and higher levels of self-esteem, and shown to be positively associated with more interpersonal relationships with locals (e.g. Barratt & Huba, 1994). Additionally, Zhang and Goodson (2011) reported that English competency was a predictor of psychological and sociocultural adaptation. Furthermore, there is extensive evidence that poor English proficiency predicts acculturative stress (e.g. Dao, Lee, & Chang, 2007; Poyrazli, Kavanaugh, Baker, & Al-Timimi, 2004).

Educational Stressors

There are several possible acculturative stress factors that all international students experience; academic stress is believed to be intensified as a result of other added stressors including that of foreign language anxiety and having to adjust to a new educational environment (Smith & Khawaja, 2011). For example, in a study conducted by Misra, Crist and Burant (2003), it was reported that international students pursuing their studies in the U.S.A who encountered academic stress had stronger reactions to other stressors experienced when adapting to the educational environment.

International students may also experience difficulty aligning their academic expectations versus the reality of university life, wherein students may expect to perform better in the host country than that in their home country (Chen, 1999; Mori, 2000). However, their academic achievement may fall below what was expected due to acculturative stressors of studying in a foreign language and adjusting to the new cultural and educational setting (Smith & Khawaja, 2011).

Sociocultural Stressors

In addition to the experienced acculturative stressors in the language and educational aspects, frequently international students are required to establish new social relationships and network after leaving their loved ones and friends back in their hometown (Smith & Khawaja, 2011). A growing body of research have suggested that this may leave an impact on the ability of international students to form new friendships, and in turn, influence sociocultural and psychological adjustment (Brisset, Safdar, Lewis, & Sabatier, 2010), both of which, could lead to feelings of loneliness in the host country (Smith & Khawaja, 2011).

Discrimination

Discrimination has also been reported to be another possible acculturative stressor faced by international students. Previous qualitative studies have revealed that international students not only experience significant discrimination ranging from inferiority complex, employment discrimination and verbal attacks (Poyrazli & Grahame, 2007). According to a plethora of studies, these feelings and experiences of being discriminated can leave a negative impact on the adaptation of international students, and have been found to associate with poor psychological well-being (Atri, Sharma, & Cottrell, 2006; Jung, Hecht, & Wadsworth, 2007).

Conclusion

This piece of assignment has discussed the extensively researched acculturation concepts to examine the extent to which these concepts are representative of the acculturation experience of international students, and are aligned with existing literature for this student group. Although much of the empirical evidence have been supported, there are some limitations in this area of research. Firstly, future research could perhaps further explore acculturation attitudes of locals from the host country so as to better align both their attitudes, thereby reducing the detrimental effect of acculturative stress in the sociocultural domain (Smith & Khawaja, 2011). Secondly, further domains of the postulated models and concepts could perhaps investigate the individual factors that occurred before or during the acculturation process, which include a person’s motivation level that could potentially influence how he or she adapts (Chirkov, Vansteenkiste, Tao, & Lynch, 2007).

References

1. Atri, A., Sharma, M., & Cottrell, R. (2007;2006;). Role of social support, hardiness, and acculturation as predictors of mental health among international students of asian indian origin. International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 27(1), 59-73.
2. Barratt, M. F. & Huba, M. E. (1994). Factors related to international graduate student adjustment in an American community. College Student Journal, 39, 422–435.
3. Berry, J. W. (1992). Acculturation and adaptation in a new society. International Migration, 30, 69-85.
4. Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 5-34.
5. Berry, J. W. (2005). Acculturation: Living successfully in two cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(6), 697-712.
6. Berry, J. W. (2008). Globalisation and acculturation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 32(4), 328-336.
7. Berry, J. W., Kim, U., Minde, T., & Mok, D. (1987). Comparative studies of acculturative stress. The International Migration Review, 21(3), 491-511.
8. Brisset, C., Safdar, S., Lewis, J. R., & Sabatier, C. (2010). Psychological and sociocultural adaptation of university students in france: The case of vietnamese international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 34(4), 413-426.
9. Chen, C. P. (1999). Common stressors among international college students: Research and counseling implications. Journal of College Counseling, 2(1), 49.
10. Chirkov, V., Vansteenkiste, M., Tao, R., & Lynch, M. (2007). The role of self-determined motivation and goals for study abroad in the adaptation of international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31(2), 199-222.
11. Dao, T. K., Lee, D. & Chang, H. L. (2007). Acculturation level, perceived English fluency, perceived social support level, and depression among Taiwanese international students. College Student Journal, 41(2), 287–295.
12. Hashim, I. H., & Yang, Z. (2003). Cultural and gender differences in perceiving stressors: A cross-cultural investigation of african and western students in chinese colleges. Stress and Health, 19(4), 217-225.
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20. Poyrazli, S., Kavanaugh, P. R., Baker, A. & Al-Timimi, N. (2004). Social support and demographic correlates of acculturative stress in international students. Journal of College Counseling, 7(1), 73–82.
21. Smith, R. A., & Khawaja, N. G. (2011). A review of the acculturation experiences of international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(6), 699-713.
22. Trice, A. G. (2003). Faculty perceptions of graduate international students: The benefits and challenges. Journal of Studies in International Education, 7(4), 379-403.
23. Wang, S. C., Schwartz, S. J., & Zamboanga, B. L. (2010). Acculturative stress among cuban american college students: Exploring the mediating pathways between acculturation and psychosocial functioning: ACCULTURATIVE STRESS. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40(11), 2862-2887.
24. Yang, B., & Clum, G. A. (1994). Life stress, social support, and problem-solving skills predictive of depressive symptoms, hopelessness, and suicide ideation in an asian student population: A test of a model. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 24(2), 127.
25. Yoon, E., Hacker, J., Hewitt, A., Abrams, M., & Cleary, S. (2012). Socal connectedness, discrimination, and social status as mediators of acculturation/enculturation and well-being. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(1), 86.
26. Zhang, J. & Goodson, P. (2011). Predictors of international students’ psychosocial adjustment to life in the United States: A systematic review. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(2), 139–162.

Diversity within the UK Construction Industry: Literature Review

This research examines the literature on diversity within the UK construction industry. This research has been prepared for Birmingham City University individual master’s project, as my proposal and literature review. This proposal consists of literature on aspects of diversity in the Construction Industry. Focusing on four main aspects of diversity pertaining to the industry, ethnicity, disability, gender and age. The information acquired from anthropological and sociological research shows that the implementation of positive diversity practice pushes creative boundaries, (Mark Thompson, 2012). This research aims to produce a framework for action towards a more diverse workforce at all tiers of employment within the industry.

The Equality Act 2010 has brought awareness through legislation within the construction sector. The Act has toughened procurement procedures for public funded projects a landmark achievement for diversity within the sector. Brexit, the leaving of the UK from the European union has left concerns regarding diversity management. As stated by (Dougan 2017) the ‘de-Europeanisation of the UK may affect progress that has been made through the European union’s contribution to diversity laws. The addition of sex, age and religious beliefs are owed to the European union, (Tatli, et al. 2012). An examination of where improvements and shortfalls can be rectified is also reason for why this research is being undertaken.

The construction industry has made strides in improving its inclusiveness of ethnic minority, disabled, female and ageing operatives within its workforce. Still a major concern, groups such as ethnic minorities and females are yet to be acknowledged as all round suited employees. Still issues to be examined, this research aims to highlight and quantify achievements and quantify diversity shortfalls within the construction sector. As stated by (Pepper, 2005) traditionally homogeneous in its practices the industry has a marked propensity to recruit predominantly white-nondisabled males.

Prior research has presented many theories as to reasons why ethnic and other minority groups were at the lower end of the list to be chosen for construction vacancies. Some theories, for example jobs were not being applied for by these groups hence they were not given a chance to employ, a theory that requires further research to establish basis for these findings.

Methodology

The basis of this research focuses on diversity within the context of gender, age, ethnic background and disability using examples and evidence gathered through research. Being a social science-based research there will no single answer to a question, as argued by Neuman (2013). In search for solutions to the way forward of increased participation of all equality groups protected by law, interviews and meetings with operatives on all levels will be interviewed for the purpose of information harvesting. The aim of information gathering from current industry operatives, will be for the analysis of their general perception and awareness of diversity issues within the sector.

A qualitative methodology of research will be applied for the gathering of the findings within this report. The employment of methods such as surveys and interviews will also be used to collate insight into the recruiting process within the industry. A qualitative approach was employed due to the nature of the research with use of some numerical data for analysis. Participants of the surveys and interviews will involve and not limited to Employers, recruitment agencies, higher education institutions with a focus on employment of ethnic minority, disabled, the aged and female candidates.

Findings

Evidence garnered from preliminary research shows several areas of the construction industry needs fundamental changes to be made in areas of diversity and inclusion. Areas identified requiring improvements are, a more clear and coherent communication encouraging better practice of diversity within construction inclusive of its supply chain. The coming together of efforts for a concerted approach towards diversity and inclusiveness within UK construction. Regular review of effective monitoring and cost analysis of practices and results from diversity implementation.

Information about the benefits of diversity is not widely published leaving a void in knowledge among industry players. Not many success stories are readily available or widely published in order to encourage companies to adopt good practice. The main findings being to do with the lack of communication about diversity within the construction industry, the topic is somewhat of a taboo subject, hindering the implementation of best practice. On the other side much is being done to change the current the industry fuelled partly by the 1994 Latham Review, The Race Relations Act 2000, Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2010) among others.

Implications

Implications drawn from preliminary research shows much effort from mainly corporate contractors who have implemented diversity assurance schemes within their recruitment schemes. Much innovative ideas for diversity practice have mainly come from NGOs for example Age UK, who organises it activities prioritising diversity and equality of opportunity. The Davies report Women on Boards (Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), 2011) has highlighted the benefits of women on boards, presenting many positive attributes inclusive of increased profits for that company. As stated Mr. Abisogun in the article Can construction overcome BAME bias? (Construction News, Dec 2019), the removal of employer prejudice is the key to diversity on an extensive scale. The idea of an eclectic industry seems to get a lukewarm reception from employers within the sector.

Women in construction still seems to be an idea that needs to be sold to the industry and some parts of society. The article, Women in construction a brief history, (Go Construct, February 2018) presents arguments as to reason why women are needed within the industry. There still seems to be an explanation required as to how women are suited to work within construction. Also, a need to convince the masses as to why women should be employed within the construction sector.

There are also issues with women who are currently working within the industry who feels less valued than their male counterparts. As stated by Robinson, (Women in Construction UK Magazine, August 2019) fundamental change is needed when it comes to the general mindset towards women in construction. As even whilst in employment minorities continue to face issues of inequality in terms of obtaining promotion and leadership roles.

There are other factors such as number of minorities going for jobs in construction which may be difficult to quantify as the research must remain within its parameters and limitations. There are positive signs for the future of diversity within the construction industry, however delivery is hampered by unfaced challenges. There are schemes such as Age UK, Remploy and other equal opportunity projects which has supports diversity for all industries. There are companies who have embraced the change examples which will need to be explored. The Health and Safety Executive states health and safety should not prevent disabled people from gaining employment in construction, a closer look into the feasibility of these stipulation in certain projects.

With most mainly large companies operating within diversity best practice, research into the how confident minorities feel in going for construction jobs must be researched. If found a mindset of low confidence in going for construction jobs is found it may affect the number of minorities employed within construction. Above all the industry seems to need a uniformed coherent strategy for improving diversity practices in order to attract minority applicants.

Introduction

I chose this research for two main reasons the first being, research into the untapped pool of knowledge being overlooked for traditional homogenous recruitment by employers as described by (Pepper, 2005). The second is to research the view minorities have of the construction industry in order to justify insinuations of low number of applicants to the industry, hence the lack of diversity.

The construction industry functions upon a system made up of subcontractors, bid procurement and building standards that may conflict with diversity and equality within the sector. Diversity within construction has been addressed by recent articles and reports, (Lowe, 2019) pointing out the positives it brings to the sector in aim of influencing change. McCarthy, et al 2013 highlights the mainstreaming of diversity, pointing out the three phase of development theory. The phases being equal treatment, positive action and mainstreaming. A move from diversity management towards mainstreaming is the now approach to diversity. An aim to normalise the acceptance of diverse industries is the aim of the latest approach. The Construction Industry Council (CIC) diversity and inclusion panel sets out to promote and identify diversity policies within the sector. With aims of normalising diversity the CIC strategize ways of engaging with industry leaders, also opening career paths opportunities for minorities and youths. Despite the current pandemic contributing to continued economic downturn and unemployment the construction industry is still short of skills. Figures up to the 1st quarter of 2017 shows the parallel between workload and employment of skilled and specialist operatives (see figure 1,2,3). This information provided by surveys done by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB, 2016).

Construction is a vast industry sector covering a wide range of trades and skills namely managers, planners, architects, engineers, surveyors, among others. The construction industry is unique in comparison to other sectors due to its transitory workforce, capital investment dependent, project milestone and timeframes, workforce flexibility and reliance on a supply chain. Unique in that (C Skills, 2010) reported less than a percent of the industry employs more than 250 workers and 93% of the sector employs less than 10. The industry is found to depend to a high degree on subcontractors and supply chains to deliver its contracts. With a great portion to the tune of 40% of contracts coming from the Government the industry is dependent on public funded projects. As reported by (Weinfass, 2020) the government has placed investments of £5bn for infrastructure projects £1.2bn for schools. Small and medium enterprises which make up north of 90% of construction firms are usually affected more than large contractors in times economic downturn. The construction sector has solidified its place within the economy as a significant contributor and one of the largest employers in the UK.

Essay on Construction Management: Common Issues in Construction Projects

The organization that often involved in construction projects either on a large scale or a small scale there are will be facing several challenges, problems, and risks during implementation of these projects. Therefore, it is necessary for the parties in charge to identify the possible issues that may occur when making plans for undertaking certain projects. The risks of construction projects typically can be categorized into construction, physical, technology, and design project.

There are several common issues in a construction project. One of the common issues facing the construction project is construction waste. There are more waste materials are produced in construction activities, which has become a challenging issue for the operators of construction sites. The waste is continually causing environmental difficulties and global warming problems to the world (Rawshan et al.,2009). According to Alarcon (1994), building waste not only concentrated on the amount of material wasted on site but also with overproduction, waiting for time, material handling, processing, inventory, and worker turnover.

A case example, there have been several recent news reports that 30 tons of construction waste have been transported to Bandar Hilir, Malacca, and that 17 sections of Petaling Jaya have experienced unusual construction problems, which can cause a variety of health problems for people in that area (The Star, 2011). Overstocking also can be a waste in construction projects such as after a certain period the cement may expire. (Ikau, Joseph, & Tawie, 2016)

Moreover, the waste is usually caused by a combination of events, rather than by an isolated factor. Similarly, Poon et. (2012) found that due to careless and use like Poon et. (2012) also call as wasted. While Rounce (2011) has noted that design changes and variability of design details are the major construction waste sources that appear in design stage. As Craven et. (2012) and Gavilan and Bernold (2013) have been categorized and classified that “construction waste sources into six groups which include design, material procurement, material handling, operations, residual, and ‘others’”. Inadequacy of skilled, knowledge or experience in managing construction waste will make construction projects facing big challenges or issue and it may cause project failure due to wasted too much at the project and cannot overcome it.

According to Fenn, Hall, and Carmicheal, construction disputes that are caused by clients, contractors and designers in the project have identified. Fenn and Speek (1997), the client as a poor communication among the team members, inadequate tracing mechanism for request of information, failure to respond in timely manner, coordination efforts on the part of the project and deficient management supervision, the client mentality to contractors and designers are lowest price in engagement for the project. Next, the reluctance to check constructability, completeness, clarity and also for the project manager position has failure to appoint.

Factors of construction disputes have identified the cause of the consultant itself. Example, the failure to understand the scope of design team contract, underestimating the costs involved and over design. Next, the cumbersome approach to request for information, information delivery, for the specification oversights and design has errors resulting from uncoordinated architectural, structural, mechanical, civil and electrical designs. The drawings and specifications are incompleteness (Hall, 2000). Construction disputes have identified it is caused by the contractors themselves. For example, the inadequate contractors’ management and coordination delay or suspension of work, inadequate CPM update and scheduling requirements (Carmicheal, 2000).

As we know that a successful project is those that meet client requirements, satisfied by the client, delivered the project on schedule and within the allocated budget is the main goal of every project manager. Unfortunately, most construction project still facing a common issue which it fails to deliver project within the cost that estimate at the planning phase and this become a common issue in the construction project and are a big challenge to the project manager.

Cost overrun in the construction project is caused by many factors such as contractor inadequate site management, inaccurate in estimating materials. An example of a case is in Afghanistan construction industry and a survey is conducted to identify the common factors of cost overrun. From the research result in Afghanistan Construction Industry, corruption is the first major factor cause cost overruns which are with an RII value of 0.89 and it has serious impact on construction cost growth. (Niazi & Painting, 2017).

The material management is one of common issues in construction projects. This is very important in order to improve productivity and avoid wasted material. Next, the planning, vendor evaluation, selection, expenditure, purchasing, shipping, warehousing, material receiving, inventory and material distribution that include in materials management functions. The improper handling and managing material on-site during a construction process will influence the time, quality and total project cost.

Delays can have many negative effects on the construction project and their participant parties and considered one of the most common problems in construction projects. The factors delay come from three-stage in the construction project, which is from the construction stage, pre-construction stage, and post-construction stage sequentially. Cause of delay can be categories for four categories which are responsibility, resource-related causes, contract condition relate cause and external cause. From the collection data of cause of delays in Ethiopian researcher found that the top rank cause of delays is corruption which is in the external cause category. The analysis results show that in Ethiopia the time limit and cost limit are the two most common effects of construction delay. (Gebrehiwet & Luo, 2017).

The over delays have found the 56 causes and one of their main delay causes is related to contract disagreement in large projects. The indicated that change orders, site conditions, design, economic conditions, late deliveries and increase in quantity are the main causes of disputes. The consequent delay of construction schedule is one of the factors too. Next, inadequate contractor experience, payment and financing, slow decision making and labor productivity that is the five most important causes of delay and disputes construction project in the contract.

Construction workers have a higher risk of death than any other type of worker. Therefore, the construction industry is at the top of the most dangerous jobs list. Construction workers are more likely to lose their lives on the job and the most common case is when a construction worker falls from a height and loses his or her life on their job. Therefore, having the resources and incentives to ensure that construction workers are properly trained and protected is very important in the construction industry. (Mohammadi, Tavakolan, & Khosravi, 2018)

Tam et al. (2004) investigated the current situation of safety management in Chinese’s construction industry and found that the main factors affecting safety performance included weak safety awareness of senior management, lack of training, weak safety awareness of project managers, reluctance to invest safety resources and reckless operation.

2. Recent technologies/innovations to improve construction projects

Construction is one of the biggest industries in the world, worth approximately $8.5 trillion a year. In 2018, by making this largest industry more efficient and growing more rapidly, new technology and innovation must be used to achieve the goals of every company.

According to (Siebert and Teizer 2014). Drones are widely known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and Remote Piloted Vehicles (RPVs). Multirotor, fixed-wing, single-rotor and fixed-wing hybrid are the types of drones. (Australia UAV 2017). To aid in mapping construction sites and modeling construction projects, these devices can use add-on equipment such as infrared, geo-location and thermal sensors. The captured footage can be transformed into 3D models with integrated real-world conditions, allowing better replication, higher viability, and more accurate bids during the pre-construction phase.

UAVs can be used for controlling huge construction projects as it can be fitted with infrared cameras, radar and laser-based scope detectors that can greatly improve their monitoring and control capabilities on a construction site (Irizarry and Costa 2016). UAVs is quicker and efficient rather than sending personal worker to the ground. According to (Knight W 2015) the video recorded by using UAVs than will be converted to the site’s 3D image as it reveals how accurately the progress. In addition, UAVs can enhance safety construction. For example, by using UAVs, the risk of workers falling from great height and during maintenance inspection of tall structures such are skyscrapers, bridges, and towers can be avoided and give benefits for managers and workers (Watson M 2016). UAVs can also be used to detect unsafe conditions, tools and hazardous structures in construction sites without putting a worker at risk (Gheisari M, Esmaeili B. 2016).

Based on (Meža et al., 2015). Augmented reality was the better among 2D plans, BIM on a PC, and viewing of schematics on tablets. AR mixed one’s physical environment with computer-generated information and presents it in real-time. Augmented reality helps to build teams’ drive more performance, reliability and overall trust in their projects by integrating digital and physical views. The construction company can produce details models by mixing 3D modeling software and building information modeling (BIM) so that designers and clients can preview structure and make a change before construction begin. This will prevent costly changes in which automatically reduce the cost of the project.

Augmented reality also can be used for real-time visualization and monitoring of activities and tasks also provide great opportunities to enhance construction quality assurance work. job outcomes can be automatically verified by workers and managers since augmented reality created information into real objects. (Kwon et al. 2014) stated that Such technologies have the ability to allow site management and business managers to recognize and resolve quality issues that would effectively reduce time and cut the cost of rework on construction sites

Another latest technology is using self-healing concrete. In construction building concrete is one of the most important materials. Unfortunately, due human mistakes, incorrect handling and unskilled labors cause concrete to crack and collapse as the ground beneath the concrete settles over time. To overcome this matter self-healing concrete it introducing in this industry, although Self-healing concrete is relatively new and it can be pricey, but benefits that these techniques help in another way. Bacillus pseudofirmus or Sporosarcina pasteurii, are the bacteria that used in self-healing concrete which they found out that these bacteria can survive up to 200 years without oxygen or food. And they will be activated when contact with water and calcium lactate used as a source of food, it will produce limestone that will close up the cracks. The main benefit of self-heling concrete is, the lifespan of the building predicted to be 200 years. It will decrease the number of maintenance costs for the building.

Construction work on the job site is where most accidents occur. However, awareness of workers tends to lead or cause an accident seriously. Construction industry leaders must strive to safeguard their employees by emphasis awareness. A leader should ensure all workers fully understand safety and caution on the site. It is the construction manager’s job to make sure that every worker is aware of the dangers that come with working on a construction site and they must protect workers from these dangers. Any manager that fails to tell their crew and staff about how to avoid getting hurt and how to ensure safety is failing as a manager. Ensuring the safety of the construction workers and everyone on the site should be the number one priority of any construction manager. If the workers have no concept of construction site safety, they shouldn’t be allowed on the construction site.

Other than that, although workers are expected to attend regular safety training sessions about construction safety throughout the year, being able to practice safety training skills on-site would help construction workers enforce the safety rules. Practicing construction site safety training skills on-site will force workers to practice these skills in an environment where safety is essential and will make sure they are trained. Without proper training, construction workers can be easily injured or even killed. In such an environment where injuries and fatalities are highly likely, training is necessary and will prevent things like workplace injuries that will hurt you ethically and economically.

According to Francouis Buy (2015), many factors affecting project delay due to design error cost overrun, inappropriate and inadequate procurement, complexity of project and post-execution phase. A project manager should play roles on how to overcome those issue by involving their professional skills and expertise handling project. To eliminate or reduce the effect of delay and cost overrun due to project issues, vigorous planning should be done, incorporating every important aspect of the project scope, milestones, detailed WBS, delivery time, stakeholders, and methodology to be used. In addition, effective project planning, controlling and monitoring should be established to enhance project performance throughout the project life cycle. Proper site investigation also should be done to ensure that all site conditions are noted in the design, and application of value management could be used to obtain.

The implementation of these regulations and effective ways to archive project goals will lead to a better understanding of the issues in which the project manager needs to address and design a control system that will monitor these issues. The project owner and the project manager should be able to clearly define the management success and product success so that the project team has clear knowledge of its objectives.

Good waste management needs coordinated and actions of a state, business and professional groups. Several societies and non-governmental organizations successfully identified best management practices in the interest of public health and welfare. Absent coordinated regulations, realistic business opportunities, and the commitment of design and construction professionals and their clients for sustainability improvement of industry practices, consistent and stable markets for recovered materials cannot be achieved or sustained.

Management of building-related waste is expensive and often presents unwanted accidents. However, every work team plays roles to reduce, reuse and recycle to keep environmental safety. It stands to reason that efficient and effective elimination and minimization of waste, and reuse of materials are essential aspects of design and construction activity. Creativity, persistence, knowledge of available markets and businesses and understanding of applicable regulations are important skills for design and construction professionals

References

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A Professional Perspective on Sustainability in the Construction Industry: Analytical Essay

1. Background

The construction industry is the pinnacle of human development. Construction defines the process of reshaping the physical environment to establish human settlements. Construction however alters the physical landscape including soils and the natural drainage system. It is therefore irrefutable that the construction industry negates the natural environment, disrupt ecosystem services, and perpetuate climatic variability (Janak, 2009).

Human induced climate change is probably one of the greatest tragedies of this century and beyond. Climate change is largely a result of greenhouse emissions from power generation, agricultural activities, and buildings. Conventional buildings emit substantial amounts of CO2 (Rehm & Ade, 2013). In more economically developed countries, residential and commercial buildings emit one-third of the total greenhouse gas emissions (Rehm & Ade, 2013; UNEP, 2009). Furthermore, conventional buildings in the European Bloc consume 16% of potable water, 50% of raw materials (Rehm & Ade, 2013; Keeping, Dixon, & Roberts, 2007).

1.2 Aim and objectives

As the world grapples with increased demand for natural resources due to population implosion and urbanisation, it is imperative to rethink construction with a focus on sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to discuss the role of sustainability in the construction industry. Besides, the research shall suggest sustainable options to minimise the negative environmental consequences of construction.

The aim and objectives of this research was answered by a literature study. The review was done with the aid of a number of databases and journals, including Web of Science, LUBSearch, Science-Direct and Taylor & Francis Online. The research was founded on broad search on sustainability, construction practice and environmental management.

2. Sustainability in the construction industry

According to United Nations’ Brundtland report, (1987) sustainability refers to ‘development which meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs’. It is clear from literature that the capacity of the earth and its environs to sustain life is undergoing severe exploitation since the beginning of the Industrial revolution (Uher and Lawson, 1998). The duo further alleges that if the current way of doing things in the construction sector persists an irreversible degradation of the planet particularly land and forests is imminent (Uher and Lawson, 1998). Ultimately, ecosystems services will be disrupted further deteriorating the quality of life (Uher and Lawson, 1998).

2.1 Impact of construction on the environment

The impact of the construction industry on the environment is tremendous. It includes loss of soil and agricultural land, forests and woodlots, air and water pollution and severe depletion of energy and mineral resources (Uher and Lawson, 1998; Spence and Mulligan, 1995). It has a high-energy demand, and emits significant amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) (Yu et al, 2018). These twin evils inflict severe impacts on the environment.

In terms of the total environmental burden, the construction industry accounts for between 12 to 42% of the major environmental stressor categories (Levin, 1997; Uher and Lawson, 1998). Viz are consumption of raw materials (30%), land (12%), generation of wastewater effluents (20%) and solid waste (25%) (Levin, 1997; Uher and Lawson, 1998; Lam et al., 2011; Zolfagharian, 2012).

The construction sector consumes 40% of energy and emits almost 40% of CO2 in developed countries especially in North America and Europe (Yu et al, 2018; Berardi, 2015; USGBC, 2007). Besides, 56% of the input resources are lost during the construction process (Yu et al, 2018). The loss of input resources in the construction sector is quite high in comparison to other industries averaging 26% (Yu et al, 2018). In the United Kingdom, on average 6tonnes of construction materials are used for person per year (Cooper and Curwell, 1997).

The construction industry is inherently unsustainable and exert negative direct and indirect impacts on the environment (Levin, 1997). As shown in the aforegoing discussion the construction industry tramples upon every aspect of environmental sustainability both in developed and in developing countries. The sector has a very low productivity. The importance of sustainability in the construction industry hence cannot be overemphasized. There is need for the sector to rethink and re-engineer (Uher and Lawson, 1998) the entire construction system to minimise its environmental impact.

2.2 Sustainable construction

Sustainable construction is a subset of sustainable development (Uher and Lawson, 1998). According to Hill and Bowen (1997) cited by Uher and Lawson (1998), sustainable construction elucidates the role of the construction industry to realise environmental sustainability. The duo described sustainability based on four key attributes namely social, economic, biophysical, and technical (Uher and Lawson, 1998). Sustainable construction entails a process of developing a healthy environment with a focus on resource efficiency and sound ecological principles (Kibert, 1994). Figure 1 shows the sustainable construction model proposed by Kibert (2005).

Figure 1: The process of sustainable construction (Source: Kibert, 2005)

In this model, Kibert (2005) asserts that sustainable principles are supposed to be taken into consideration in all the stages of the life cycle of a construction project. As mentioned by Yilmaz and Bakis (2015) design is at the heart of this sustainable construction model. In sustainable construction, the aim of the design is to minimise negative environmental impact (Yilmaz and Bakis, 2015). The sustainable construction model enhances resource utilisation and construe a balance between environmental, economic, and social objectives (Burgan and Simon, 2006).

Although sustainable construction is a novel idea, the model its implementation is quite low in most countries. In fact construction companies and project managers alike prefer to follow conventional construction methodology that is overly profit-oriented. An interesting observation however is the apparent lack of enforceable policy and regulation with regard to sustainable construction. At best, national governments have designed laws specific to projects in their respective jurisdiction. The next section discusses policy and regulation in the context of sustainable construction.

3. The Legislative and Policy Context for Sustainability

The UK has made significant strides to develop legislation and policy with a focus on sustainable construction. The UK government has identified the construction industry as a key enabler to meet sustainable development goals (Rostami and Thomson, 2017). The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insists that buildings emit 50% of the UK CO2 emissions, 50% of water consumption, 35% of landfill waste and 13% of all input resources in the UK (DEFRA, 2007; Rostami and Thomson, 2017). As a result, the UK has set out ambitious CO2 emission reductions targets in the Climate Change Act of which the construction industry is a key sector to achieve the set targets (Rostami and Thomson, 2017).

UK has formulated several policies to promote sustainable construction. In 2004, the government created the Sustainable Buildings Task Group whose report established recommendations of minimum standards of energy and water efficiency, waste and use of key raw materials (Akadiri and Fadiya, 2013; Rostami and Thomson, 2017). In terms of legislation, the UK Government has directed that starting in 2016 all new constructions should be zero emission on heating and cooling (Rostami and Thomson, 2017; Akadiri and Fadiya, 2013). In 2013, the UK Government introduced the new Strategy (BIS, 2013) that set new objectives with a focus to position the UK as a global leader in sustainable construction by the year 2025 (Rostami and Thomson, 2017).

Sustainable construction in the UK is still in infancy even though several legislative and policy initiatives were developed. Knowledge and skills remain a key barrier in adoption of sustainable construction model (Rostami and Thomson, 2017). The duo also identified numerous barriers that include cost and profitability, risk, time, culture, poor information dissemination, responsibility and communication (Rostami and Thomson, 2017).

4. Environmental management as a tool to enhance sustainability

Knowledge and skills in environmental management is cited by several studies as a barrier to promote sustainable construction in the UK. Sustainable practice demands the development of human resources with a capacity to implement resource-efficient and ecologically sustainable construction process (Reffat, 2004).

Environmental Management for the Consruction Industry discipline should equip participants with knowledge and skills that enhances the capacity of, professionals, tradesmen and laborers to enact sustainable construction principles. Besides, there is need for the discipline to reconstitute the curricula to suit the new legislation and policy on sustainable development. Moreover, the discipline should suggest sustainable options to address environmental issues bedeviling the world today. People need to be aware of the negative impacts of conventional buildings and understand the benefits of sustainable building. There is need to ensure that the principles of sustainable construction disseminate to clients, project contractors and relevant government departments. The success of sustainability calls for integration of planning activities amongst diverse project team members.

The discipline, Environmental Management for the Construction Industry, should enable participants to develop tools and techniques to enable project professionals to incorporate environment management systems in construction. Professionals must be equipped with capacity to undertake environmental impact assessment, as well as social impact and biodiversity impact assessment. These tools and processes minimize conflict and dissuades unorthodox cultural perspectives on sustainable construction.

5. Sustainability and profitability in the construction industry.

Sustainability is associated with an increase in cost of construction. Project managers as well as environmentalists concur that sustainable development comes at a cost. The reality is however contrary to his widely held belief. Green building, for instance, is considered relatively more expensive than conventional buildings. The additional investment costs of building green ranges between 15-17% (Lützkendorf, 2005; Persson et al, 2008). Nonetheless, the works of Kats et al (2003) and Matheissen and Morris (2007) asserts that a green building do not require additional investment at all. Furthermore, the benefits of a green building exceeds the initial investment by over ten times (Persson et al, 2008). In the US, Kats (2010) estimates that the majority of green buildings require an additional cost of between 0% and 4%.

It is clear that the additional cost of sustainable building is a mere perception. Construction firms are more likely to maintain their profit margins. It is however imperative to mention that construction firms would need to revise and optimize the design process to achieve maximum returns.

6. The future

Professional environmental management practice is an important component of sustainable construction. Although it is such a vital discipline, its implementation is lagging behind across the globe. In the short term there is need to upgrade knowledge and skills of environment managers to cope with new demands of sustainability in the construction sector. As alluded to in this essay, sustainable construction brings a new paradigm (resource efficiency without jeopardizing the quality of life or cultural orientation) as a result, the discipline should produce managers of repute with the capacity to conform to the new reality.

Sustainable construction is the new norm. As such, the environmental management practice should synchronize its operating modalities with the demands of sustainability in construction and design process. In essence, the discipline should be the core of construction practice and management. It is indeed a long process of change with a fair share of obstacles. Nonetheless, it is probably the most vital intervention to save the earth.

7. Conclusion

The global population is expanding tremendously in this decade and beyond. The growth in population however does not tally with the available resources under siege from conventional exploitation systems. The current construction system exacerbate carbon emissions, consume significant amounts of energy and water resources. Besides, it demands high input resources and generate considerable amount of solid waste. Sustainable construction is possibly the best way to redress the negative environment impact of construction. Sustainability in construction however demands formulation of enforceable legislation and policy, and alignment of its model to environmental management practice.

8. References

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10. Kibert, C. J, 1994. Final session of First International Conference of CIB TG16 on Sustainable Construction, Tampa, Florida, November.
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Identifying and Positively Addressing Real and Perceived Barriers to Inclusion in Construction: Analytical Essay

As the construction industry has grown drastically in the past few decades, the industry is no longer starved for work, however, construction companies are now struggling to find and retain employees. Vital to the success of the construction industry, construction companies, large or small, must increase their inclusiveness and diversity to remain competitive and continue to thrive in one of the leading world markets. In this essay I will talk about the real and perceived barriers to inclusion within the construction industry, and ways in which companies and organizations can help to mitigate these issues. The construction industry is full of opportunities and wonderful people. It is our responsibility as leaders to do a better job at blending the perception with the reality of this industry.

The engineering, construction and infrastructure industry has experienced several changes within the past few decades, from the transformation to BIM and the digital asset model, to stricter regulations and higher expectations. As a result of these drastic changes and improvements to the construction industry, skilled labor and professionals are at a higher demand now than ever. This high increase in demand poses as a great opportunity for anyone with an interest in engineering and construction. However, companies within the industry must improve their recruiting techniques and inclusion factors in order to effectively exploit all individuals interested in this predominately white-male industry. The construction industry faces many inclusion barriers, starting with diversity in regard to gender. Many times, this industry has been referred to as a boys-club, and it is no surprise. According to the Census Bureau, 89.5% of the construction workforce consists of males (see Fig. 1), why any female would want to work in such an environment is beyond me and many others. The chart found below illustrates the gender difference amongst the industry.

Fig. 1 Gender composition in the construction industry in the US. Graph from Data USA (data provided by the Census Bureau)

According to a study done on women in construction rolled out by the National Women’s Law Center, harassment, intimidation and sabotage are a major reason why women avoid or do not remain working in this industry. In past years, women have been vastly discouraged from joining the construction industry, and there is a dire need for their presence in our workforce. Women in Construction Still Breaking Ground (June, 2014) reports that a jaw dropping eighty-eight percent of women working in the construction industry have experienced some form of harassment. In recent years, the female population has increased amongst the construction industry, but the concern of being exposed to harassment still largely exists. Another possible explanation to the lack of women within the construction force is the culture. Much of the perceived culture found amongst our industry is based on old stereotypes suggesting that construction is a male-only occupation. Considering the direction that our industry is headed, and the improvements and realizations that have taken place, perception does not match up with the reality. However, it is not surprising that this is the perception and reputation that the construction industry employs. When you walk on a job site, finding a female laborer is like finding a needle in a haystack. When you walk into job trailers or construction office buildings, the same can be said with the exception of the human resources departments. I can only imagine how discouraging this must be for women considering a career path in construction. The final point I have regarding why women may be discouraged from joining our opportunity filled industry is the pay gap between males and females working in construction. According to the Census Bureau, males in this industry make 1.14 times more than their female counterparts (see Fig. 2). The chart found below illustrates the gender-based wage discrepancy amongst the five most popular occupations in the construction industry.

Fig. 2 Wage by gender in common construction occupations in the US. Graph from Data USA (data provided by the Census Bureau)

President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act more than fifty years ago, yet as seen above, women are still paid less than their male counterparts for performing similar tasks. The construction industry has made large strides in closing this pay gap, but history may be the driving factor in this perceived view.

The lack of representation of women in construction and the perceived culture are not the only inclusion barriers that this industry is faced with. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer or questioning community (LGBTQ) is also faced with discriminatory issues, ultimately curving their interest in the construction industry. The job site environment can be confrontational for anyone that does not fit in with others working amongst them. According to an LGBTQ survey done by Construction News covering 2017, a bulk of this community feels discomforted or obstructed while working in construction due to their sexual orientation. 27.8% of respondents to the survey mentioned above claimed that they have experienced harassment or banter regarding their sexual orientation or gender identity, (see Fig. 3). The chart below illustrates percentages of the LGBTQ community that have experienced insulting comments in 2016 and 2017.

Fig. 3 LGBTQ community experiencing insulting comments in the construction industry. Graph from Construction News (data provided by Construction News LGBTQ survey)

Homophobia appears to still be an issue amongst the construction industry worldwide. This issue of homophobia can relate back to the topic of the construction workforce culture. The term “gay” is an insulting word often used by employees our industry. It is very obvious why the LGBTQ community does not feel comfortable or welcomed on our job sites, job trailers, or office spaces. The “locker room” talk that takes place amongst many of the male employees in the construction industry is creating a toxic culture that could detrimentally affect the industry as a whole.

In my own personal perspective solely based on my experience within the construction industry, the leadership does a great job at mitigating inclusion issues amongst the companies which they are working for. On my nine-month internship with Sundt Construction, Inc. I never once experienced an inclusion barrier or witnessed any form of harassment and or discrimination. Granted I am an able-bodied white male; however, I do not feel that if I were a minority my experiences would have been any different. While on my internship I attended several minority outreach events, soliciting minority owned sub-contractors and vendors. There was an immense amount of emphasis and importance placed on soliciting these minority owned companies, ensuring that they felt included and welcomed to work with Sundt Construction. In addition to this focus on inclusion, our project had minority requirements that we were required to meet to even place a bid on that project. The project was also a joint venture with Davila Construction, a minority owned general contractor located in San Antonio, Texas. Aside from minority and diversity inclusion, we also had several women that worked in site and in our offices. These women held important positions within the company, granting them a vast amount of authority. They were apart of our project teams, and it was very obvious that they felt included and respected. In fact, in many occurrences, they gained the attention and respect from management and craft employees easier than some of the males that I worked alongside. I would be naïve to say or think that my experience is an industry wide representation of inclusion and culture, but based on what I have observed, I do not have any negative experiences with these issues of inclusion and diversity that the construction industry is slandered with.

The world around us is everchanging and the construction industry must keep up with these changes to continue its level of prosperity. The industry is increasing their candidate pipeline to include younger, more diverse employees of all genders. Recruiters are attending career fairs held by universities with greater minority and African American populations. Companies within the industry are partnering with universities to provide scholarships to women, minorities, and economically disadvantaged students studying within a construction related program. Additionally, there are more programs in place today than ever before that focus on making women and diverse groups of people feel welcomed and desired by the construction industry. Many companies have structured departments to assist in diminishing this issue of inclusion and lack of diversity, and it is heavily advertised. The policies and procedures that majority of construction companies have implemented into their structure do not tolerate any harassment, lack of inclusion or discrimination. Leadership within the industry has acknowledged this issue and has proactively worked diligently to transform the culture into a more inclusive and welcoming environment to all ethnicities, genders, and diverse communities. Implementing programs and organizations are great ways to tackle this issue head on. Recruiting from minority populated universities and employing female leadership are also very positive and effective solutions to decreasing diversity and inclusion barriers. As far as the perceived image that the public has of the construction industry goes, improvements to this perception will take time to change. If companies focus on aspects that are within their control and make a strong effort to make necessary changes within, the rest will take care of itself.

While construction companies in the industry have made great strides in improving their diversity and inclusiveness, organizations such as AGC must do more. Hosting seminars and publishing articles regarding diversity and inclusion within the construction industry is a minimal effort on their part. I have yet to see AGC representatives educate the younger generations in universities and high schools on the importance of mitigating this issue. Actions speak louder than words, and organizations such as AGC need to revisit with themselves and collaborate on doing more than just preaching. These organizations play a major role in our industry and carry an equal amount, if not more responsibility for the diversity and inclusion affairs that construction companies are being slandered for. AGC is the forefront of the construction industry, it is their job to lead by example, going above and beyond in every way possible.

With the construction industry growing at the rapid rate that it is, the obstacle of fulfilling job openings will continue to linger. With the older baby boomer generation approaching retirement, women and other diverse groups are a shoulder that we can lean on. Finding and retaining not only hardworking employees, but the right employees within the construction industry is a difficult obstacle to hurdle, but with the correct approach, is very attainable. Leadership within construction companies must continue working diligently to become more inclusive and promote welcoming environments to all genders and ethnicities. Zero tolerance policies must continue to be implemented by industry leaders and companies within. These policies must be followed and employees need to be held accountable for outlandish comments or behavior. This industry is not for the faint hearted, and the reality of the workforce in regard to the difficulty of tasks that construction employees endure will remain what it is today. If the construction industry can continue taking the necessary steps toward encouraging diversity and inclusion to all, the industry as a whole will benefit immensely.

Works Cited

1. · Flood, Matthew. “How Construction Industry Can Address LGBT Discrimination.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Dec. 2014, www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/dec/12/how-construction-industry-can-address-lgbt-discrimination.
2. · USA, Data. “Construction.” Data USA, 2017, datausa.io/profile/naics/construction-group.
3. · Peiffer, Emily. “3 Key Takeaways from ABC’s Summit on Diversity in Construction.” Construction Dive, 27 June 2016,
4. · Jaime Partners. “Diversity and Inclusion: Key to the Construction Industry.” Jaimepartners.com, 2017, jaimepartners.com/diversity-and-inclusion-key-to-the-construction-industry/.
5. · Alderson, Lucy. “LGBT+ Survey: Construction’s Slow Progress Laid Bare.” Construction News, 28 Mar. 2019, www.constructionnews.co.uk/data/data-news/lgbt-survey-constructions-slow-progress-laid-bare-25-01-2018/.
6. · Chatlani, Shalina. “Filling the Void: How Construction Executives Can Embrace Diversity in an Evolving Workforce.” Construction Dive, 2 Aug. 2016, www.constructiondive.com/news/construction-industry-diversity-in-workforce/423550/.

Uas4safety: The Potential of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Construction Safety

Article Critique

Construction leads every other industry in worker casualty as a result of occupational hazards (Jones, 2018). The type of activity carried out on site, the simultaneous interaction of personnel, plant and equipment; coupled with the dynamic movement of construction resources and constantly changing site environment makes the construction environment inherently accident prone (Kim et al., 2017; Idoro, 2011; Al-Tabtabai, 2002; Asan & Akasah, 2015). Hence in a bid to augment construction safety, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) specifically requires employers to be responsible for the safety of the workplace (Koehn 1996). A safety supervisor is usually employed; with the duty to manage safety practices such as the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the oversight of safety training and safety regulation (Kim et al., 2017). To ease the work of the safety manager, there is increasing use of information and technology in construction safety (Wang et al., 2017; Gheisari & Esmaeili, 2016). In the article “UAS4SAFETY: The Potential of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Construction Safety Applications”, Masoud Gheisari., Javier Irizarry and Bruce N. Walker examined the potential application of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in enhancing safety on construction job sites through the provision of real-time visual access to job site environments. While this article produced notable results showing that providing safety managers with a safety inspection assistant drone would be beneficial and can enable them to achieve the goals of the safety inspection; there are some questions with respect to the sample used for the research which might limit the replicability and generalizability of findings. Nonetheless, the article provides a distinctly positive standpoint with respect to the use of information and technology in bolstering construction H&S practices.

Gheisari and Irizary (2014) in their article studied the important concept of health and safety in construction; focusing on the responsibility of employers to provide a safe environment in which employees can safely carry out their duties. The duty of a safety manager to “observe” construction work was specifically highlighted as a means of preventing construction accidents. The writers recommended the use of a communication tool that can enable the safety manager to be present at any time and in different areas of the construction job site; while also providing the workers with real-time feedback. They introduced a quadrotor helicopter (AR.Drone quadricopter) as an early prototype of a safety manager’s assistant drone, and proposed that the drone can be used to fly frequently over the construction job site to provide the safety managers with real-time information about what is happening on the job site through frequent and direct observation as well as direct interaction. Gheisari and Irizary (2014) carried out a usability evaluation of the quadricopter using an expert analysis (Heuristic Evaluation) and a user participation analysis. Ten adult participants (5 male and 5 female) from Georgia Tech community were chosen to carry out a usability evaluation of the AR Drone quadricopter in order to test the hypotheses that the quadcopter would serve as a suitable inspection tool; and that the accuracy of the user in identifying safety-relevant features in a scene is directly related to the size of the screen that displays the scene image (in other words; the larger the screen size, the higher the accuracy of the image identified by the user). To test this hypothesis, the writers carried out an experiment in which the subjects would count the number of hardhats they could see in different images of the construction job site under three conditions (plain view, using iPad, and using iPhone). After performing the experiment, a repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to test the hypotheses that: (1) the quadcopter would serve as a suitable inspection tool; and (2) the accuracy of the user in identifying safety-relevant features in a scene has a direct relationship with the size of the screen that displays the scene image. A Shapiro-Wilk test (appropriate for small sample sizes) was used to derive the conclusion that display screen size is a major factor in satisfaction and perceived effectiveness.

The researchers discussed an important topic, as the construction industry is still experiencing a high accident rate despite its recent adoption of technology in construction health and safety procedure. While the use of drones could be effectively used to augment construction health and safety, there are a few irregularities noticed in the research article which will make difficult the replicability of this sort of program; and this will be subsequently discussed in the text.

Gheisari and Irizary (2014) started off the article by highlighting the importance of creating a safe environment for construction and listed some 8 root causes of construction accidents and eventually reiterated that observation is needed to prevent the root cause of accidents on site. This assertion that onsite observation is tantamount to the creation of a safe environment is disagreed by (Albert and Hallowell, 2012; Harvey, 2001) in their articles in which they opined that the safety performance of work-crew is hinged on the ability of a worker to identify and respond to hazards in the environment; thus stressing the need for workers to be made to go through formal hazard recognition training programs in order to enable them to use their sensory cues to actively gather information necessary for identifying conditions that are precursors to the loss of safety on site. While it is agreeable that the duty of a safety manager to frequently walk around the job site and get real-time data is important, consideration must be given to the fact that different types of accident happen at different construction sites, and some inherent hazards cannot be extinguished by mere observation of the construction site (Williams et al., 2018; Radmin, 2017; Asanka & Ranasinghe, 2015). Safety experts in the industry assert that the primary causes of job site injuries and fatalities could be greatly minimized with advanced planning and coordination as a proactive approach towards construction health and safety (Ventura, 2016; Bigham, 2018). These alternative viewpoints to safety highlight the total incomprehensiveness of the literature review, and a need for a more robust review of construction safety.

Another limitation observed in the literature review is its sole focus on the “usability” of technology, and neglect of “acceptation” of technology. Gheisari & Irizary (2014) in their article asserted that the ultimate goal of their effort was to provide a job site free of hazard to workers, and that UAS can be an ideal safety inspection assistant; providing a safety manager with real-time access to videos or images from a range of predefined paths and locations around the job site, as well as voice interaction with construction workers. While this holds true, no mention was made on how to handle several social challenges that might accompany the use of a drone on the construction job site; hence their proposed conceptual system was not validated by construction safety managers as it carried little information on the opinions of actual safety managers collected in the field (Gheisari & Esmaeili, 2016). The correctness of the study in terms of UAS use in safety-related operations was discredited by the fact that little information was collected from actual safety managers in the field (Gheisari & Esmaeili, 2016). Inherent downsides of a drone such as the loud noise generated by drone (Goering, n.d.), short drone flight time (Ballard, 2018), and the possibility of interference causing a delay in the real-time transmission of images and videos (Yajnanarayana, Wang, Gao, Muruganathan, & Lin Ericsson, 2018) are but some crucial factors that could influence the adoption of the drone system in safety management. As it stands, it remains to be seen if the use of drones will be accepted by construction workers who are already used to having a safety manager walk through the construction job site to check the safety requirements (Gheisari & Irizary, 2014). Having a safety assistant drone which flies over the job site and sometimes allows safety managers to talk to workers remotely might seem awkward to construction workers, hence there needs to be a more robust literature review that is inclusive of the acceptation of the technology, rather than its usability alone.

A critical review of the article methodology showed that there was no explicitly stated ‘research question’ that justifies the significance of the study. However, the selected participants that make up the sample size provides a greater cause for concern with respect to the accuracy of the study findings. The size of the sample that was used consisted of ten adult participants (5 male and 5 female), and such a small sample size makes it difficult to generalize the findings of the experiment on a larger community. Another constraint of the sample size is the location from which they were chosen (from the same institution; Georgia Tech community). The researchers did not indicate the criteria that informed their choice of participants, neither did they specify how they controlled the probable bias of response similarity as a result of the proximity of location the participants were selected from. This means that a larger community might feel differently about the preference of the iPad to the iPhone, hence questioning the universality of the research findings.

Also, the participant preference of screen display size was not established before the experiment. This means that the outcome of the experiment might have been as a result of the predisposition of participants to a larger screen (iPad), and not the unsuitability of the smaller screen (iPhone) as proven by the research experiment. This could have been an important factor that impacted the answers to the subjective survey questions, as well as the observed accuracy of the iPad images over the iPhone images; and the research methodology didn’t indicate how this important observation could have impacted the choice of the gadget by participants during the experiment.

The article of Gheisari & Irizary (2014) concluded with the assertion that providing safety managers with a safety inspection assistant drone will be extremely beneficial to the achievement of the goals of safety management. Even though the research assertion isn’t false, it doesn’t take into cognizance several factors that culminate into site safety, and hence cannot be a generalizable assertion for other site locations. An important factor in consideration is the dynamic nature of the construction industry. According to Fenrick and Getachew (2012), construction accident data are typically large, heterogeneous and dynamic; and there exists a nonlinear relationship among accident causation variables in different construction sites (Gholizadeh and Esmaeili, 2016). This practically makes it difficult for the data generated from the Quadrotor helicopter to be used to generalize inferences to other construction projects, except through the use of other dedicated software. Hence it is safe to say the conclusion of the research finding is fallacious.

This article focused on a crucial topic within the construction industry, as the dynamic movement of construction resources; coupled with the increasing complexity of construction work and the trend of accidents in construction continues to make the issue of construction health and safety a matter of high priority in the industry. The use of information and technology in construction health and safety is gradually increasing (Wang et al., 2017; Gheisari & Esmaeili, 2016); and Gheisari and Irizary (2014) in their research provided insight into the applicability of drones in the performance of site management duty. However, the information considered before conclusions were drawn from the research wasn’t enough for the research findings to gain approval from actual site managers. The study did not explicitly specify the criteria for choosing the small sample size, and there was an observed lack of diversity among participants that could limit the generalizability of the research findings. Moreover, certain subtle but critical information concerning participants that could impact research findings were unprovided (e.g. individual screen size display preference, bandwagon effect due to the similarity of the location of selected participants, etc.), especially for information that could influence the research results. In conclusion, future research on drone suitability for site management should be done with a clear specification of the factors that culminate into the acceptance of the use of drones by construction workers, while the opinion of site managers should not be taken with levity. Improvements can also be made on the research methodology especially in terms of the size and structure of the sample size in order to ease the application of the research findings in the augmentation of the health and safety condition into the construction industry at large.

References

1. Albert, A., & Hallowell, M. R. (2012). Hazard recognition methods in the construction industry. In Construction Research Congress (pp. 407-416).
2. Al-Tabtabai, H. M. (2002). Analyzing Construction Site Accidents in Kuwait. Kuwait Journal of Science and Engineering, 29(2), 213–238
3. Asanka, W. A., & Ranasinghe, M. (2015). Study on the impact of accidents on construction projects. In 6th International Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction Management (pp. 58-67).
4. Ballard, P. (2018). Drone Refueling. Retrieved from http://www.ballard.com/docs/default-source/uav/uav_hydrogen-refueling_wp_oct_18.pdf?sfvrsn=2
5. Bigham, G. F., Adamtey, S., Onsarigo, L., & Jha, N. (2018). Artificial Intelligence for Construction Safety: Mitigation of the Risk of Fall. In Proceedings of SAI Intelligent Systems Conference (pp. 1024-1037). Springer, Cham.
6. Coglianese, C., Nash, J., & Olmstead, T. (2003). Performance-based regulation: Prospects and limitations in health, safety, and environmental protection. Admin. L. Rev., 55, 705-729 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.392400
7. Fenrick, S. A., & Getachew, L. (2012). Cost and reliability comparisons of underground and overhead power lines. Utilities Policy, 20(1), 31-37.
8. Gheisari, M., & Esmaeili, B. (2016). Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for construction safety applications. San Juan, Puerto Rico, ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), 2642-2650. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.263
9. Gheisari, M., Irizarry, J., & Walker, B. N. (2014). UAS4SAFETY: The potential of unmanned aerial systems for construction safety applications. In Construction Research Congress (pp. 1801-1810). https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.184
10. Gholizadeh, P., & Esmaeili, B. (2016). Applying classification trees to analyze electrical contractors’ accidents. In Construction Research Congress, San Juan (pp. 2699-2708).
11. Goering, A. (n.d.). UAV NOISE REDUCTION. Retrieved from http://users.wpi.edu/~acgoering/docs/STEMThesis.pdf
12. Harvey, J., Bolam, H., Gregory, D., & Erdos, G. (2001). The effectiveness of training to change safety culture and attitudes within a highly regulated environment. Personnel Review, 30(6), 615-636. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005976
13. Idoro, G. I. (2011). Comparing occupational health and safety (OHS) management efforts and performance of Nigerian construction contractors. Journal of construction in developing countries, 16(2), 151-173.
14. Irizarry, J., & Abraham, D. (2005). Application of virtual reality technology for the improvement of safety in the steel erection process. In Proceedings of the 2005 ASCE international conference on computing in civil engineering.
15. Irizarry, J., Gheisari, M., & Walker, B. N. (2012). Usability assessment of drone technology as safety inspection tools. Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon), 17(12), 194-212. Retrieved from http://www.itcon.org/2012/12
16. Jones, K. (2016). Construction leads all industries in total worker deaths. Construct Connect. Erişim, 1. Retrieved from https://www.constructconnect.com/blog/construction-news/ construction-leads-industries-worker-deaths/
17. Kim, K., Kim, H., & Kim, H. (2017). Image-based construction hazard avoidance system using augmented reality in wearable device. Automation in Construction, 83, 390-403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.014
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19. Radmin (2017). Types of Construction Site Accidents. Construction Accidents Article. https://www.radlawfirm.com/types-construction-site-accidents/. Accessed 16 April, 2017.
20. U.S. Department of Labor (2014) National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2014. https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0286.pdf,
21. Ventura, D.: Artificial Intelligence in the Construction Industry. Retrieved 14 Jan 2018, from http://www.conexpoconagg.com/news/august-2016/artificial-intelligence-in-the-construction- indust/ (2016, August 19)
22. Wang, G., Hollar, D., Sayger, S., Zhu, Z., Buckeridge, J., Li, J., … Hu, W. (2017). Risk Considerations in the Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the Construction Industry. Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response, 6(4), 165. https://doi.org/10.2991/jrarc.2016.6.4.1
23. Williams, O. S., Hamid, R. A., & Misnan, M. S. (2018). Accident Causal Factors on the Building Construction Sites: A Review. International Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability (IJBES), 5(1), 78-92. Available at http:// www.ijbes.utm.my
24. Yajnanarayana, V., Wang, Y. P. E., Gao, S., Muruganathan, S., & Ericsson, X. L. (2018). Interference mitigation methods for unmanned aerial vehicles served by cellular networks. In 2018 IEEE 5G World Forum (5GWF) (pp. 118-122). IEEE. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.00223.pdf

Effectiveness of Construction Safety Competency Assessment in Improving Overall Safety Aspects on Construction Site

Abstract

The present study aimed to determine the relationship between competency assessment and the rate of fatalities in the construction industry. Using the construction assessment and some information provided by, the effectiveness of construction safety competency assessment in improving overall safety aspects on construction site can be determined.

Introduction

1. Background

Construction work is known as one of the economy-leading sectors of the national economy but it also the most dangerous and high-risk industry in the world. According to the statistics based on construction workers in Malaysia, the rate of fatalities is increasing with alarming rate. In every 100,000 workers in 2014, the rate of fatalities was 7.26. It increases to 10.74 in 2015 and further increase to 12.78 in 2016. In 2017, the rate of fatalities has reach 14.94. (Lajiun, 18AD). From this statistic, it can prove that construction workers have the highest possibilities for accident occur compare to the other industry. To decrease the rate of fatalities in construction industry, a competency assessment must be applied.

Competency is one`s ability to achieve and complete a task successfully. In the construction industry, the parameter for competency of worker are the knowledge, skill and behaviour to manage safety, during the construction work. These competencies will affect their performance on construction site. If the workers are lack of the knowledge and skill of their current post, they will not be able to accomplish their task efficiency and might make mistake that will cause accident and fatalities. According to the star(2016), a senior lecturer in Building Technology, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Dr Mohd Zailan Sulieman stated that some of the authorities demanded their construction worker without providing health and safety induction courses. He also stated that many of the accident investigation showed that the carelessness of incompetent handlers are the causes of the accident. Thus, to improve the construction safety and the efficiency in the construction, right person has to be assigned to a right task. The physically and mentally capable person that can use the right knowledge, experience and skills to complete the assigned tasks are defined as a right person. (Aksorn & Hadikusumo, 2008). Competence plays a main part to control the number of accidents on construction site. To check the competence of a worker, a competency assessment is provided for every worker by human resources before hiring them.

2. Problem statement

Safety performance for construction site can cause by many reason such as due to lack of knowledge or training, a lack of means to carry out the task safely, or due to an error of judgment, carelessness, apathy or downright reckless. (Mohammadi, Tavakolan, & Khosravi, 2018)

Low level of safety awareness in construction site for the unskilled workers is one of the main cause of the construction site accidents. According to (Mohammadi et al., 2018), they state that the main factor cause the accident is `unsafe behaviour’, which such as not responsible, not awareness and less of communication. (Mohammadi et al., 2018). We can found that most of the construction site accidents are mainly caused by the ignorance of the workers. They intent not to wear the required PPE for their safety purpose, when the accidents occur, yet the responsibilities being counted to the construction developer or contractor.

The certification being provided for the workers based on their attendance of the safety training is very important for anyone who working in the construction site. From the statics required inspection items (RII), Non-certified skill of worker ranked 6 in 25 elements, with a RII of 0.84. In construction, some of the activities needed high standard skill, such as tower crane and gantry operations, and framework and scaffold erection. (Tam, Zeng, & Deng, 2004). Form the statistical data, we can found that certified training is very important towards machinery operating in a high-risked construction site. Any single mistakes being made by the workers which do not know how to operate the machine such as tower crane, will eventually lead to a catastrophic disaster.

3. Objective of the Study

• To identify the different types of construction safety competency assessments
• To assess the current construction safety competency assessments
• To propose strategies to effectively utilizing the construction safety competency assessments

4. Scope of Study

The methods that are going to be used to collect relevant data are designed questionnaire and interview. The series of questionnaire are design for the construction staff to answer, based on the understanding and experience about safety performance in construction site. The data collected will be further analysed to determine the effectiveness of competency assessment.

A portion of people accepted answering the questionnaire will be asked to have a detailed interviewing by answering a couple of questions, basically designed to determine current construction safety competency, and how they going to apply competency assessment in safety performance. As stated above, the area of study will be covering on the infrastructure construction site, Kuantan, Pahang.

The focus of this research is the effectiveness of construction safety competency assessments; hence no sample will be taken from the Building construction site in Kuantan area. This is because the type of construction in building and infrastructure have big differences, the activities under construction will come to a big contradiction if did not analysed separately.

5. Significance of Study

This study will offer a new analysis on the effectiveness of Construction Safety Competency Assessment. Other than analyse the construction safety framework, which focus on risk control of activities. For this research will more on competence of worker, which is education level, skill and behaviour.

Besides, this research will provide a platform for construction industry as a detailed report on the effectiveness of Construction Safety Competency Assessment. Action must be taken to improve Overall Safety Aspects on Construction Site

Safety

The act or regulation be established for safety important to employer and employee, which discuss the duty and protection of them.

1. Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 or Act 514

Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 or Act 514 important on ensure safe and healthful working conditions for worker. The law mention that employers should provide worker are good working conditions, which are mitigation of hazard and risk of activity. Before beginning the activity, employers should prepare and publish the document: 1. Safety and health policy, 2. Duties of the employer, employees and the safety and health officers, 3. The safety and health committee of companies, and 4. Occupational safety and health inspections and officers.(Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 1994)

1. Health and safety at work Act 1974

Health and safety at work, etc Act 1974 is the main law of health and safety. This law discusses about the duty of employers and employee on how to ensure the health and safety standard.(Health and Safety 2008/09, 2008)

2. Occupational Safety and Health in Malaysia

There are few ministries help for ensure worker safety. Below is the ministry of human resource and act related to Occupational Safety and Health in Malaysia. (YUSOF, 2015)

Ministry of human resource

Act

Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH)

• Factories and Machinery Act 1967 (FMA)
• Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 or Act 514

Labor Department

• Employment Act 1955
• Worker Compensation Act 1952

National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

Social Security Organization (SOSCO)

• Employees’ Social security Act 1969

History construction safety

Late 1800s

Worker have awareness about construction place is no safe after Civil War. Insurance are being bought by workers to protect worker if in case of an accident happening on job. Worker got the insurance plan by company. While injured worker’s due to construction accident will got de suitable job from company. Company raised the salary worker to attract and retain the worker. This due to worker realize construction job is dangerous than other job which cause some of the workers.

1900s

During 1900, 0.3% workers killed on jobs every year in 100 000 workers. That mean every day will has 1 accident about died on job happened. Worker have action take in order for getting indemnify due to injuries happened on job site. However, that action does not gave big impart for guarantee worker safety.

1910s

A workers’ compensation law passed by New York in 1910, which law benefitted both workers and company. Company should provide better and more reliable benefits to workers. At the same time company not need worry about competency of worker and get more predictable cost. Workers’ compensation law abolished except six states on 1921

In 1913, an organisation, which named The National Safety Council(NSC), was founded in 1913. The aim of founding this organisation is to promote the health and safety of Americans. A Congressional chamber is granted to NSC by the U.S. Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower as awarded for appreciate NSC effort.

Another organisation, which have the same motivation as NSC, are also founded in 1913. The organisation is U.S. Department of Labour and their main focuses are on occupational safety .

In 1916, the workers who sustain injuries or contract illness during or on the job benefits from the Federal Compensation Act. By using this act, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs are also created.

1930s

After Golden Gate Bridge built, it comes out a safety mandatory which construction company realize the important of safety measure. There only 11 accident about fatalities in 4 year of construction Golden Gate Bridge.

1970s

Occupational Safety and Health Act found on 1970 which include National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for analysing and improving safety. In 1971 established Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This organization take care about workplace safety and organize safety program to make sure safety and health worker.

1990s

National Occupational Research Agenda was created for decrease the accident fatalities on job site.

Nowadays, construction accident reduce to 7 construction only happen 1 accident case.

2.2 Construction safety

History

High risk industry

There are various different of industry all around the world. An industry is the production of goods or related services within an economy and it involves many sectors, which are manufacturing, agriculture and construction. These industries may include some of the accident and injuries during their operation.

Table 1: Fatal occupational injuries for all sectors in Malaysia

Table 1 shows DOSH report, which is the report of fatal occupational injuries for all sector in Malaysia for year 2013 to 2016. Based on DOSH report, construction industry obviously has the top number of cases of injuries compare to the other sector. In year 2013, construction has 69 cases, manufacturing has 58 cases, agriculture has 33 cases and others sector’s number of injuries are lower than 10 cases. These cases increase in each year from year 2013 to 2016. Construction increases from 69 to 72 in 2014, from 72 to 88 in 2015 and from 88 to 99 in 2016. Each year, construction sector dominates the fatal occupational injuries for all sectors in Malaysia as construction sector occupy over one third of the injuries which is 36% in 2013, 34% in 2014, 41% in 2015 and 41% in 2016. From this data set, a conclusion, which is construction industries have the most fatal occupational injuries and this situation increase for each year.

3. Type of construction

Construction is one of the major and primary industries for a country. Construction industries involve all the activity with the process of constructing a building or infrastructure, which can be separated by Residential Construction, Institutional and Commercial Construction, Specialized Industrial Construction and Infrastructure and Heavy Construction.

Residential Construction are mainly focus for the individual and multi-family dwelling. Residential building is designed for sleeping accommodation for residential. When a building has more than half of its floor area for dwelling purposes, it can be defined as Residential building. Residential Construction can be categories to build, repair, remodel and install utilities. The utilities that needed to be installed for residential building are electricity and water and sewer. These utilities are paving around the structure.

Institutional and Commercial Construction refers to the building of schools, medical facilities, sports arenas and stadiums, retail stores, shopping centres and skyscrapers. Institutional and Commercial Construction works are maintenance and upgrading of existing structures.

Specialized Industrial Construction can be categorized in chemical, medical or power generation, which are under industrial or for-profit corporations. Specialized Industrial Construction require a high degree of specialization and technological skill to design and build the building structures.

The purpose for Infrastructure and Heavy Construction is serving public interest, which are normally develop by large private corporations and government agencies. Infrastructure and Heavy Construction focus on constructing roads, railways or communications around an existing building.

4. Type of accidents in construction

Construction industry is the riskiest industry for fatal occupational injuries to occur. This means that the worker will be facing dangerous at any time during their construction work. These dangerous can be come from materials, tools and machinery at the construction site. There are various types of accident that can be found in the construction site. For example, falls, hit by objects or vehicles, machinery accident, fires or explosion, trench or building collapse and overexertion.

Falls are the most common cases among all type of accident. Some of the construction site need its worker to work in a high place. They are required to be work on a scaffolding, cranes, roofs and ladders. This situation made the worker has the high risk to be fall. Other than that, due to the height of the construction site, there might be some object that will be dropped from above, such as tools, building material, chunks or beams. If the object dropped and hit a worker, the worker will be having a serious injury and even death.

In the construction site, there has various truck with a heavy load that go in and out. If the driver does not focus when they are driving, construction worker might be hit by the truck. Heavy machine equipment is an essential element in a construction site to help in the construction work. Each machine equipment has their step to use and SOP. Before using the machine, worker need to be attending a training for that specific machine. Otherwise, a worker without any knowledge and experience that use the machine, it might cause injuries to that worker.

Fire and Explosion are less common compare to the other type of the accident. However, if it really happens in a construction site, it will cause a catastrophic situation to worker. The main reason for the fire and explosion in a construction site are unfinished piping, leaking gases and incomplete electrical systems.

If the design for a construction site are incorrect, Trench or Building Collapses will be occurred. This type of accident will cause a serious injury and even death to more than 1 worker. Incomplete structure for the building to be supported are the main reason for Trench or Building Collapses.

Another type of injuries is cause by the health of a construction worker. Construction work obviously is a work that require someone to work under the sun and a lot of stamina and strength. Worker will have injuries that related to overexertion and heat stroke. These health problems can lead to brain, heart, kidney damage or even death.

5. Cause of accident

The reason for a fatalities accident to be occurred can be classified into different sectors, which are working experiment, transport and lifting equipment, other equipment, machines and other.

Table 2: Details of facilities accidental agents cause in the construction sector from 2013 to 2015.

Table above shows Details of facilities accidental agents cause in the construction sector from 2013 to 2015. From the table, working environment is the main factor that cause the fatal accident. For the indoor working environment, working surface, floor, stairs and confined quarter are the causes of accident. For underground environment, roof, faces of mine and tunnel are the causes of accidents. In 2013 to 2015, working environment, which have 43 cases or 47.78% from the overall cases, is the main factors that affect the worker safety.

Accident cause by transport and lifting equipment have 24 cases or 26.67% from the overall cases. Under this sector, the dangerous factors are caused by vehicle such as crane, lift/elevator, and lorry. They are use to transport and lifting construction material from one place to another place. The communication between worker and driver also can cause fatal due to miscommunication.

Other equipment that use in construction site, such as scaffolding, and ladders also will cause accident such as fall and hit by an object. Machines are another cause of accident in construction. This is because the equipment is not well maintained, not properly guarded or not used correctly will cause the serious injuries. Worker that does not have experience and training might be injured if they using the machine.

For the others sector, the dangerous factor that causes accident is health problem of a worker. A worker might experience overexertion and heat stroke during their operation in construction site.

6. Safety plan

To ensure the safety of workers, construction safety should be strictly enforced by government and organism all around the world. There exists a law that ensure the safety of worker is Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1994 (OSHA 1994) by Department Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). The OSHA is making sure the employer provides the safety working condition and keep the possible factor that cause accident away. The OSHA also provides information, training and assistance to both the employers and workers. ((OSHA), 2017) There are few factors that affect the safety performance in a construction site.

6.1 Safety program

A safety program is a definite plan of action designed to prevent accidents and occupational diseases. Safety program introduces the rules and regulation inside a construction site, which also known as safety measures. These measures are used to help employer to maintain construction site in a minimal safety standard. Each of the company or employer should organize a safety program for their construction worker. By attending this safety program, workers will have a more understanding to the safety rules. If they follow the compliance, the safety in the construction site will be increased. These programs should be organized regularly, for the workers to reminding of the safety rules. Shin, Gwak, & Lee stated that safety regulations and rules can increase the safety motivation but cannot make sure the safety awareness always be there. Thus, safety awareness has to build in construction worker by training course and risk management.

Health, safety and environment (HSE) competency training course should be provided for worker to rise their safety awareness. The training course are useful for the workers to gain protection skills, understand the real situation of construction and apply the safety regulation on construction. Employer should make sure their workers have attended the training course before starting construction work to ensure them have safety knowledge and strong awareness of safe practices around them. The way and step to control a machine or safety equipment will also be learned from that training courses. Through the training courses, construction worker are able to understand their aspect of work.

Moreover, company should contain a risk management in the construction site, which are used to identify and analyze risks. By using risk management, construction project management can be improved and resources can be used effectively. Before the beginning of the construction work, the hazard and risk should be identified. There are three steps of identification which are task analysis, hazards identification and causes identification. Task analysis is the first step of risk management. In this step, a list of activities that will be carrying out during the construction. All the possible hazard during the activities also need to be list out. Then, the next step is hazards identification. The hazard that are listed out in the previous step need to validate with other third-party files and reports. Finally, the cause identification has to be carried out. Each of the validated hazard need to find out their causes and list out. After identified the hazard, controlling hazard should be used as controlling hazard is used to take action to reduce or eliminate hazard. Hierarchy of control is one of the popular methods for risk controls which can determine how to implement feasible and effective control solutions.

6.2 Project condition

Each of the construction need to calculated their safety instrument and cost as in the project budget. Some of the company will cut down the costs for the protective equipment, so that they will save up the money. The shortage of protection equipment for the worker will increase the risk of an accident occur. Company should provide necessary protection equipment for their worker such as Personal protection equipment (PPE) and teach them the correct way to used it. Safety Officer are responsible to make sure the worker use PPE in construction site. The worker, who failed to apply PPE, will be fined by safety officer. There are 3 steps to reduce the accident by protection equipment. Firstly, get the protection equipment based on the worker task and activities. Secondly, enforce and make sure the worker uses the equipment. Lastly, make sure the equipment is always in good condition.

Furthermore, schedule delay is another reason of accident occur. Schedule delay, which is a common event that will occur in construction site, stressed out the manager as well as the worker. Manager will push worker to work harder as the manager wants to catch up the schedule without considering of the worker safety. For example, manager will ignore worker and other condition as manager only want their goal to achieve on time. Even if the worker didn’t wear PPE and don’t have any other protection, they still ask them to work. Manager will also force the worker to work day and night that cause fatigue and affect their physical condition. This situation increases the probabilities for an accident to be occur in a construction site.

1. 6.3 Organization

Organization are a major role in making sure the safety of their workers. Thus, a good safety culture should be brought up in the organization. According to OSHA, a good safety culture means that every worker responsible on their own safety and apply it in daily. They make safety as a task, which change any unsafe conditions and behaviors, and intervene every working day. Management should create a safety culture that encourages workers to actively report any accident onsite and involve themselves in hazard identification. This can help and enhance workers’ skill and capability. A good safety culture is a great strategy to reduce the number of accidents as the workers have awareness on safety.

Attitude and behaviour of worker are the main factors that affect the working condition. The major root causes of construction accidents are because of the behaviour of worker in safety training, processes, and programs. The good emotional state is vital to keep employees to work more effectively, whereas negative attitudes, which are underestimate the risks and take shortcuts to get the job done, posed great threats to safety.

3. Competency

3.1 Labourer at construction

The job scope for construction labourer is providing the physical labour to perform all kind of tasks at construction sites no matter construction phases or production phases. The Labourer be a main person to conduct the activities on construction site such as hand tools, transferring materials, site cleaning, site preparation, digging and controlling basic equipment. (Labourer – Job Description Key Responsibilities :, 2014)

3.2 Competency

The competency related to skills, knowledge, attitudes and personal characteristics. The competency criteria important for measure potential and job performance when during selection, recruitment and hire employees. The requirement of job for recruitment employee is based on the competency criteria. Each of the job has its specific competency. Competency models will use by Human Resource Department to match needed and strategic objectives of a company. That help for increase the progress of task when placing the right people in the right job.(Seema Sanghi, 2016) According to (Shahhosseini & Sebt, 2011), the competency criteria hierarchy will divide into 3 part which are technical, behavioural and contextual competency

3.2.1 Technical Competency

Technical Competency is about the knowledge and skills needed for the specific role and task. The knowledge and skill are based on the training and education. When mastered the know-how and soft-skills together, the worker will performance well in specialized fields. Based on (Shahhosseini & Sebt, 2011), the table Labourer technical competency criteria analysis show the Instructing is the main of the technical competency which has the higher score with the mean is 4.34. Monitoring also one of the important the technical competency, which has mean is 4.o9. From both high score can make a conclusion, the technical competency focusses on how progress method.

Table: Labourer technical competency criteria analysis

3.2.2 Behavioural Competency

According to (Register, n.d.), behavioural Competency divide into 6 categories which are external focus, working together, professional expertise, setting direction, delivering results and improving and innovating. Firstly, external focus is about understanding the company need ensuring meet with the mission and vision of company. Secondly, working together discuss about team work, how motivate other people and how communication with colleagues. Thirdly, professional expertise is talk about the develop and maintain of own expertise. Setting direction is thinking about the strategies plan and setting goals for future planning. Furthermore, delivering results is the process achieve the goals which from problem solving to decision making, planning and managing performance. (Register, n.d.)