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This paper aims to investigate the application of lean construction (LC) techniques in reducing accidents in construction projects.

A quantitative approach was used to collect the required data using a questionnaire survey and descriptive analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The LC techniques that were investigated in this paper are related to the tools of the last planner system (LPS), increased visualisation (IV), 5S, error-proofing, daily huddle meetings (DHMs), first-run studies (FRS), continuous improvement (Kaizen) and accident investigation (5Whys).

The overall results indicated that LC techniques are poorly implemented in construction projects in the Gaza Strip. The top three LC tools used to reduce the causes of accidents in the Gaza construction projects were 5Whys, 5S and LPS, while the highest three LC techniques applied to reduce the causes of accidents that were applicable were cleaning the workplace and removing materials and machines that are not required; conducting accident investigation and root cause analysis programmes; and using safety signs and labels on site.

There is a lack of information and published studies regarding the links between LC and safety, especially in the Middle East. This paper is limited to the perceptions and geographical boundaries; therefore, it cannot be generalised. However, it could form the basis for useful comparison in the future. Triangulation research method could also be used in future research to minimise the bias and validate the conclusions.

The findings of this paper will stress professionals and construction companies in Gaza to reconsider their behaviour towards using LC techniques. The findings of this paper will aid them to shift their attention and resources towards including LC techniques in their plans to reduce the causes of accidents on construction sites.

The findings of this paper will encourage professionals and construction companies in Gaza to reconsider their behaviour towards using LC techniques. The findings will also aid them to shift their attention and resources towards including LC techniques in their plans to reduce and/or avoid the causes of accidents on construction.

Because of the lack of published works that are specific to the Middle East, the authors believe that the originality lies in the paper’s serious attempt to explore the application level of the LC concept to safety in this part of the world. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the applicability of LC techniques in terms of accidents reduction. Findings from this paper provide a clear picture of the current status of using LC techniques to reduce accidents in the Gazan construction projects which drive them to investigate the main barriers and try to overcome them.

The Gaza Strip in Palestine is suffering from a shortage of water and energy. To manage the current situation and address future issues, practical approaches need to be adopted to enhance water and energy efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to elicit professionals’ perceptions of the drivers affecting water and related energy consumption in residential buildings in the Gaza Strip.

In total, 19 drivers were identified from previous research and modified according to the results of a pilot study. These drivers were ranked under a Relative Importance Index (RII). A questionnaire survey was then administered and non-random purposive sampling used. The population of this study comprised stakeholders, including the United Nation Refugee Work Agency, Gaza Strip Governorates Municipalities, and the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility.

The results of all drivers (i.e. RII=71.43 per cent, mean=3.57) indicated that the respondents agreed about which drivers were affecting water and energy consumption. The sign Test-value was a positive 4.55 and the p-value was 0.000 (i.e. smaller than the level of significance a=0.050). The means of these drivers differed significantly and were greater than the hypothesised value of 3. Accordingly, it was concluded that the drivers investigated significantly affected household residents’ consumption of water and energy in residential buildings. The study revealed that climate changes, knowledge of how to conserve water and energy and household size were the most important drivers affecting household residents’ consumption of water and related energy in residential buildings.

The study will assist the parties concerned about water and energy use to be aware and understand the drivers affecting water and related energy the consumption in order to provide household residents with the necessary knowledge to ensure conservation and sustainability. Although this study related to a narrow geographical area in Palestine, the findings could be useful to similar locations in the Middle East and Africa.

This research demonstrates the drivers affecting water and related energy the consumption in residential buildings in the Gaza Strip which is considered the first study in Palestine and in the region. The study provides a useful platform for the development of appropriate water and energy strategies in Palestine and other similar geographical locations in the Middle East.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors driving Palestinian construction contractors to implement energy management strategies during the execution of construction projects.

The study was conducted by administering a questionnaire that comprised 26 drivers for adopting energy management strategies. Data were collected from 67 contractors in the Gaza Strip. Factor analysis was adopted to explore the underlying relationships among the identified drivers.

Drivers were grouped into one of the four categories: economic and financial, institutional and legal, organisational and managerial and educational and informational. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents were of the view that economic and financial factors were the most important factors driving the adoption of energy management strategies by construction companies in the Gaza Strip. Of the economic and financial drivers, the cost savings derived from the adoption of energy management strategies was considered the most important item. Energy management education and training programmes are scarce in the Gaza Strip, and local contractors have no formal energy management education and training. The government needs to allocate sufficient funds for policy implementation and regulation enforcement.

Difficulties in accessing energy management data are deemed as a limitation to this study, as the topic of energy management in the construction has received no or very little academic attention so far.

This study provides a valuable reference for studying ongoing research in the practice of energy management development in other industries and locations. The priority of the drivers for energy management will help the local contracting companies to focus on weak and strong points of the company for energy use development to remove these weak points and invest in strong points. This paper results can increase the encouragement for greater social responsibility of the contracting organisations towards energy use. Government and concerned organisations can get benefits from the identified factors in encouraging contractors to adopt energy management strategy in their projects.

This study is the first investigation of energy management aspects in a local construction industry, especially from contracting organisations.

Knowledge and application of energy management during the life cycle of construction projects are lacking. The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the key barriers that are faced by contracting firms in the implementation of energy management during building construction projects focussing on construction plants, as they are considered as the major energy users on site.

A questionnaire survey was employed and distributed using stratified random sampling to 100 contracting companies operating in the Gaza Strip. The collected data were analysed using the Statistical Programme for the Social Sciences (SPSS; Version 22) to identify the number of components that could represent the 31 identified barriers.

From the factor analysis, the barriers were clustered into four factors: economic and financial (which accounted for the largest percentage of variance), knowledge and information, legal and contractual, and organisational and management. This indicates that economic and financial aspects are the most important barrier impeding the implementation of energy management; local contractors should seriously consider this issue when making decisions about energy management during project construction. In addition, the lack of energy-management codes and lack of governmental support are significant obstacles to the implementation of energy management on construction sites.

Although the objective of this study was achieved, there were some study limitations. This study is limited to the perceptions and geographical boundaries (i.e. the self-governing territory of Gaza Strip in Palestine as a developing country), therefore, it cannot be generalised. However, it could form the basis for useful comparison in the future. A future study may be carried out with a much larger sample size to validate the conclusions of this study. Triangulation research methods could also be employed in future research in order minimise the bias and validate the conclusion. Further study regarding energy management throughout the whole life cycle of the development is recommended.

This paper has highlighted a number of barriers to efficient energy management during the project construction phase. It is critical for local regulators to take note of the economic and financial barriers to facilitate a more energy-conscious society where incentives (could be via tendering preferences) can encourage both clients and contractors to proactively conserve energy during construction. As for the contractual barriers, the local government should lead by example in including “energy consumption” as a leading indicator for evaluating project performance.

This study also provides practical knowledge for stakeholders so that they can develop effective methods to overcome the identified barriers to attain higher levels of sustainable energy management. This study can contribute to knowledge in the developing countries context concerning energy management and conservation in construction projects.

Construction experts face several types of stresses at construction sites. The purpose of this study is to recognize and investigate dominant coping behaviors to overcome stress among construction professionals at the Gaza Strip.

For the purpose of this paper, a survey which used self-administrative questionnaires was conducted. A total of 320 questionnaires were distributed randomly to construction professionals working at the Gaza Strip. From the total questionnaires that were distributed, 183 were returned. This shows a 51 per cent response rate. Relative importance index and principal component analysis were applied to examine the responses. This study explored two central coping behaviors, namely, problem-focused and emotion-focused behaviors.

In relation to the problem-focused behaviors, a factor analysis revealed three underlying factors, namely, planned and constructive review problem-solving, need for social contributory support and confronted coping mechanism. As for emotion-focused coping behavior strategy, three principal factors were identified and named in order of their significance. These three principal factors include accepting responsibility, avoidance and seeking emotional support.

There is limited attention from researchers with regard to coping behaviors so as to deal with stress and stressors in the Palestinian construction industry. Therefore, this study aims to fill the gap for stress-related issues in the construction sector of Palestine. The outcomes of this study will be valuable for construction companies which pursue improvements in human resources, productivity and future strategy.

Delays and cost overruns are evidently frequent problems in the construction industries of many developed and developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to assess factors leading to time overruns (delays) and cost overruns in construction projects in the Gaza Strip. Since there appear to be additional special contributors to delays here, the relative perceptions of contractors, consultants and owners are compared, based on a listing of causal factors derived from previous studies elsewhere, together with other factors arising from special conditions in the Gaza Strip.

A survey of a randomly selected samples yielded responses from 66 contractors, 27 consultants, and 31 owners. The survey included 110 delay factors/causes which were grouped into 12 major groups. The same survey also included 42 cost overrun factors. The level of importance of the delays and cost overrun factors were measured and ranked by their importance indexes, according to the perspectives of contractors, consultants, and owners.

There seems to be a general agreement between contractors, consultants and owners regarding causes of delays and cost overruns. The main four causes of time delays included strikes and border closures, material‐related factors, lack of materials in markets, and delays in materials delivery to the site. Additionally, the main three causes for cost overruns included price fluctuations of construction materials, contractor delays in material and equipment delivery, and inflation.

The outcome of this paper will assist owners, contractors, and consultants in understanding the reasons for delays and cost overruns, thus eliminating or minimizing these causes. This could be achieved by better management of the projects and by finding new methods for storing the critical materials from the beginning of the project. Furthermore, the local government is advised to initiate legislation to overcome problems arising from monopolies in the supply of construction materials.

Estimating is a fundamental part of the construction industry. The success or failure of a project is dependent on the accuracy of several estimates through‐out the course of the project. Construction estimating is the compilation and analysis of many items that influence and contribute to the cost of a project. Estimating which is done before the physical performance of the work requires a detailed study and careful analysis of the bidding documents, in order to achieve the most accurate estimate possible of the probable cost consistent with the bidding time available and the accuracy and completeness of the information submitted. Overestimated or underestimated cost has the potential to cause loss to local contracting companies. The objective of this paper is to identify the essential factors and their relative importance that affect accuracy of cost estimation of building contracts in the Gaza strip. The results of analyzing fifty one factors considered in a questionnaire survey concluded that the main factors are: location of the project, segmentation of the Gaza strip and limitation of movements between areas, political situation, and financial status of the owner.

The purposes of this paper are to identify the most significant job-related stressors that influence construction project professionals’ safety, identify the form of stresses and job burnout experienced by construction professionals and investigate the impact of stress and job burnout on safety performance from the perception of construction project professionals in the Gaza Strip construction industry. Construction is characterized as a stressful industry, which influences the safety performance of construction personnel, especially when the stress transfers into burnout.

The views of a variety of construction professionals operating in Gaza Strip were sought using a questionnaire survey. Project managers, project coordinators and site engineers were targeted. Of the 45 questionnaires distributed, 33 were returned. Data were analyzed using the relative importance index (RII), Pearson correlation and regression analysis that used one-way ANOVA test.

Findings revealed that an organizational stressor is the major contributor to physical stress, behavioral stress and job burnout. In addition, the findings showed that construction professionals suffered from emotional stress and invisible burnout. Of significance, the findings revealed that job stresses and job burnout did not affect safety performance in the Gaza Strip construction industry because the first priority for most construction professionals was to maintain permanent employment and, therefore, stresses were often hidden.

This study is limited by its small sample size. However, the findings represent novel results, which can be taken into consideration by construction organizations.

The findings may help construction organizations in the Gaza Strip to understand job stressors’ factors, which affect construction project professionals to help minimize or eliminate their impact on safety performance and, hence, improve productivity in construction projects. Furthermore, the study promotes personnel health and safety and enhancement of the quality of work and construction workers’ personal life. The recommendation of this study may also apply to other developing countries.

The study contributes to the overall body of knowledge relevant to job stress and burnout in the construction industry of developing countries. It draws attention to the interrelationship between stressors, stresses, burnout and safety performance, and it illustrates a new form of burnout that is invisible burnout.

Subcontractors play a significant role in the Palestinian construction industry as about 90 per cent of the work is performed by subcontractors. The main objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the major problems which exist between the contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry in the Gaza Strip.

A questionnaire was designed to elicit contractors' and subcontractors' viewpoints regarding the most important causes of problems that affect the relationship between them. A total of 53 problems were identified based on a literature review, a pilot study was considered in this study and was listed under five groups. A total of 150 questionnaires were randomly sent to contractors and subcontractors. The respondents had extensive experience in the construction industry with average working experience of 20 years. The questionnaire was validated by the criterion‐related reliability test that measures the correlation coefficients between the factors selected for in each group and for all groups as one entity, and structure validity test (Spearman test).

The result of the survey indicated that, assigning part of the works to new subcontractor without informing the original subcontractor, contractor's financial problems, delay in contract progress payments, non‐adherence to the conditions of the contract, non‐adherence of the subcontractor to the time schedule, and lack of construction quality work were the most important causes of interface problems, while involvement in several projects with the contractor at the same time, weather conditions, and geological problems on site were considered as trivial causes of potential interface problems. Spearman's rank correlation tests showed that there are no differences in the viewpoints between contractors and subcontractors.

The research findings might assist practitioners to focus on major problems which have existed between the contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry in their present and future projects. By eliminating or minimizing these problems, subcontractors are encouraged to contribute significantly to the capital risk, resources, managerial effort, and business expertise supporting the largest industry in Palestine. The paper would be valuable for all academics and industry professionals involved in construction business in general.

This paper aims to investigate the overhead costs of construction contractors at the Gaza Strip, Palestine, specifically the level of contractors' awareness of the concept of overhead cost, their perception of main components of overhead cost, percentage of overhead to total project cost, method used to manage and control overhead cost, and reasons for increasing overhead cost.

In the research 40 contractors classified under the Palestinian Contractors Union (PCU) and United Nation Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) list were surveyed.

The findings indicate that the majority of contractors are aware of overhead costs in construction projects. The staff wages are the highest overhead costs component. The currency exchange rates, inflation, increase in financial costs among others lead to increase in overhead costs. The findings illustrate that the overhead costs are on average 11.1 percent of the total project cost. Controlling and managing overhead costs are considered the main tools to improve the companies' financial situation.

The trend in most companies is to adopt techniques to manage and control their cost components. Using activity based costing (ABCs) is one of the main techniques which the companies should take into consideration. The contractors' knowledge and awareness of the research finding will increase their chances of winning bids within an acceptable profit margin. Applied training courses are recommended for contractors to improve their awareness regarding the importance of overhead costs.

This study will extend contractors' awareness and knowledge through guidance on how to gear their financial resources carefully, and how to bid correctly in order to remain competitive in the market place.