The purpose of this paper is to unpack the shared understandings of safety held by workers on large UK construction sites using a complexity lens, and so provide empirical support…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to unpack the shared understandings of safety held by workers on large UK construction sites using a complexity lens, and so provide empirical support for the inclusion of situational self-organising within construction site safety management systems (SMS).
Design/methodology/approach
A social constructionist epistemology supports the discourse analysis of talk (semi-structured interview and conversational), text (SMS and documentation) and visual (safety related signage) data collection from five large (+£20 m) UK construction sites.
Findings
Construction workers readily understand safety to be an emergent phenomenon with the complex system that is the construction site. Contemporary safety management approaches struggle with this complexity, yet there is the potential to mobilise situational self-organising on sites to improve safety in practice.
Research limitations/implications
Epistemological foundations mean no claim is made to generalisability as perceived by traditional positivistic parameters. The data are limited to large (+£20 m) UK construction sites; however, underlying construction management systems are common to the industry as a whole and can find fit with practitioner experiences and other empirical academic work from both the UK and other countries.
Practical implications
Situational self-organising of safety management within the construction workforce is proposed as a key contribution to a relevant, dynamic and effective SMS.
Originality/value
Data are analysed from a social constructionist perspective and considered through a complexity lens. This approach unpacks these data in an original way to seek synergy with existing adaptive safety approaches, specifically situational self-organising and make recommendations for practice.
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David Oswald, Fred Sherratt and Simon Smith
It is well-known that significant production pressures exist on many construction projects and previous studies have suggested that this pressure is a contributory factor in…
Abstract
Purpose
It is well-known that significant production pressures exist on many construction projects and previous studies have suggested that this pressure is a contributory factor in safety incidents on sites. While research has established that production pressures exist, less is understood about the construction practices that occur when projects are under such pressures and their repercussion for safety. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an ethnographic approach on a large construction project in the UK, these practices were explored and unpacked. The lead researcher was a member of the Health and Safety department, and undertook participant observation as a main research tool for three years.
Findings
It was found that informal, covert and dangerous “piecework” strategies were adopted at the site level in direct response to scheduling demands. Construction workers were incentivised through extra finance and rest periods to finish the work quickly, which, in turn, prioritised production over safety. Unreasonable production pressures remain an unresolved problem in the construction industry and are, perhaps consequentially, being informally managed on-site.
Originality/value
This study improves our understanding of the complexities involved in the unresolved demands between production and safety on construction sites, which marks a step towards addressing this substantial challenge that is deeply ingrained within the industry.
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Kenneth Lawani, Sarah McKenzie-Govan, Billy Hare, Fred Sherratt and Iain Cameron
This study identifies that bricklaying trade has not benefited much from off-site production, and bricklaying has been highlighted as a trade significantly affected by the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study identifies that bricklaying trade has not benefited much from off-site production, and bricklaying has been highlighted as a trade significantly affected by the documented skills shortage in Scotland with 66% of small and medium enterprises reporting difficulties in recruiting bricklayers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used an interpretivistic philosophy adopting the phenomenological qualitative research approach using purposeful sampling technique and semi-structured interviews to allow for emergent themes to develop. The theory of proximal similarity that connects the study’s characteristics and the characteristics of the group under study was adopted.
Findings
Findings from the emergent themes identified issues grouped into key themes such as inconsistency of income, lack of care and self-employed workforce. The sub-themes included the Scottish climate, risk and profit, physical strain and government expectations and the cost of innovation. These were considered in relation to their existing and future implications for the industry.
Research limitations/implications
A wider and more diverse group of industry participants from different parts of Scotland would have made the study more representative.
Practical implications
It is imperative that the Scottish construction industry supports, develops and trains future bricklayers capable of maintaining existing housing stock and to deliver on future construction projects in Scotland.
Originality/value
This study explores the shortage of skilled bricklayers within the Scottish construction sector.
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Georgios Kapogiannis and Fred Sherratt
Research has shown that the lack of forming team collaboration works as a barrier in the use of collaborative technologies such as Building Information Modelling. So, there is a…
Abstract
Purpose
Research has shown that the lack of forming team collaboration works as a barrier in the use of collaborative technologies such as Building Information Modelling. So, there is a need to investigate whether and how integrated collaborative technologies have an impact on team collaboration between stakeholders, including clients, in the planning, design and construction stages. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to investigate this interrelationship, researchers used a survey methodology involving gathering both quantitative and qualitative data, and used regression analysis to assess the strength of impact of integrated collaborative technologies on team collaboration. For the qualitative data researchers used content analysis.
Findings
Findings show that integrated collaborative technologies impact on team collaboration by assisting the development of a collaborative culture throughout a project. This collaborative culture is deployed due to access to information by stakeholders from anywhere at any time. In this culture environment, stakeholders can share and access knowledge and awareness about the project and thus gain common ground and understanding about the project brief. In addition, integrated collaborative technologies give stakeholders the capacity to control the project process, to enhance the interaction and networking project processes as well as to pre-identify and promptly respond to project errors and uncertainties.
Originality/value
The value of this paper is to contribute in the identification and impact of collaboration culture in the architecture, engineering and construction sector.
Details
Keywords
Nadeeshani Wanigarathna, Fred Sherratt, Andrew D.F. Price and Simon Austin
A substantial amount of research argues that built environmental interventions can improve the outcomes of patients and other users of healthcare facilities, supporting the…
Abstract
Purpose
A substantial amount of research argues that built environmental interventions can improve the outcomes of patients and other users of healthcare facilities, supporting the concept of evidence-based design (EBD). However, the sources of such evidence and its flow into healthcare design are less well understood. This paper aims to provide insights to both the sources and flow of EBD used in three healthcare projects, to reveal practicalities of use and the relationships between them in practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Three healthcare case study projects provided empirical data on the design of a number of different elements. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify the source and flow of evidence used in this design, which was subsequently quantised to reveal the dominant patterns therein.
Findings
Healthcare design teams use evidence from various sources, the knowledge and experience of the members of the design team being the most common due to both ease of access and thus flow. Practice-based research and peer-reviewed published research flow both directly and indirectly into the design process, whilst collaborations with researchers and research institutions nurture the credibility of the latter.
Practical implications
The findings can be used to enhance activities that aim to design, conduct and disseminate future EBD research to improve their flow to healthcare designers.
Originality/value
This research contributes to understandings of EBD by exploring the flow of research from various sources in conflation and within real-life environments.
Details
Keywords
Nadeeshani Wanigarathna, Fred Sherratt, Andrew Price and Simon Austin
The re-use of good design solutions is a key source of evidence and knowledge in the design of healthcare buildings. However, due to the unique nature of healthcare built…
Abstract
Purpose
The re-use of good design solutions is a key source of evidence and knowledge in the design of healthcare buildings. However, due to the unique nature of healthcare built environments, the critical application of this evidence is of paramount importance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the features of such critical application and identify the aspects that need to be considered during the re-use of good designs.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from three case studies of hospital designs in the UK were used to explore the processes behind the adaption and re-use of design solutions during the design of healthcare buildings. Data were thematically analysed to distinguish the aspects that should be carefully compared and contrasted during design re-use.
Findings
Existing designs of healthcare buildings should be captured and evaluated along with: patient demographics, care models of the hospital, other local departmental needs and facility operational aspects in order to ensure the effectiveness of re-use. In addition, properly introducing the design to the users is also a part of successful design re-use.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this research were integrated into a framework to support healthcare designers on the effective re-use of good designs. This data-driven framework could be validated further with design practitioners. Further, this research relied on memory recall of the interviewees and the accuracy and completeness of documentary records.
Practical implications
This research provides details of how healthcare built environment designs are embedded in project-unique circumstances. The results could therefore be used to develop meaningful and informative evaluation mechanisms for new and re-used healthcare building design features.
Originality/value
This research extends the understanding of the critical application of healthcare design evidence, by explaining how healthcare design solutions should be evaluated during the design process.
Details
Keywords
Dev Jani and John R. Philemon Mwakyusa
The purpose of the paper is to test the perceived economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts on the satisfaction of local residents with the Zanzibar International Film…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to test the perceived economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts on the satisfaction of local residents with the Zanzibar International Film Festival.
Design/methodology/approach
Structured questionnaires were administered to 299 local Zanzibaris, to obtain the data necessary for hypotheses testing using Structural Equation Modelling through Smart PLS 3.0.
Findings
The findings reveal that locals' perceptions related to economic, cultural, environmental and pride impacts of the festival had greater positive significant effects on the level of satisfaction of local residents compared to image, entertainment and social impacts.
Research limitations/implications
The findings uphold the utility of Social Exchange Theory in explaining local residents' perceptions of the festival. The results contribute to the existing literature on festivals by affirming the multidimensional nature of their social consequences.
Practical implications
Managerially, the results shed light on possible areas to be improved by festival promoters from both the public and private sectors in enhancing the positive perceptions held by local residents as well as improving festivals in the area or similar context.
Originality/value
The study expands the Triple Bottom Line dimensions of sustainability in the festival context by adding pride, entertainment and image perceived value.
Details
Keywords
This chapter provides a retrospective and prospective exploration of some of the challenges faced by doctoral education, specifically as they relate to advanced studies of…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter provides a retrospective and prospective exploration of some of the challenges faced by doctoral education, specifically as they relate to advanced studies of educational administration (EA).
Methodology
It applies a critical stance to the current status of knowledge in the ‘leadership field’ and the intellectual underpinnings that inform the studies available as reference for doctoral students.
Findings
Nested within wider changing conditions for university and doctoral education, it is argued that the published field as currently constituted suffers from both banal and ‘non-wicked’ leadership orthodoxies that might lead to doctoral stagnation.
Practical implications
Reasons are suggested and prospects considered for revitalising scholarship for the upcoming generation of EA alumni, scholars and practitioners.
Details
Keywords
Mr. Maurice Webb made a very bad start when he became Minister of Food. He announced that his ambition was to increase the meat‐content of sausages, and, soon afterwards, it was…
Abstract
Mr. Maurice Webb made a very bad start when he became Minister of Food. He announced that his ambition was to increase the meat‐content of sausages, and, soon afterwards, it was found that he had “been and gone and done it”. The result, of course, was to increase the scarcity of sausages and to decrease the quantity of meat consumed in that form. There were two views about this strange episode. Some held that it was just an error, begotten by enthusiasm out of inexperience. Others were of opinion that the whole thing was a Machiavellian device to reduce meat‐consumption while offering an illusory boon to sausage‐eaters. It is not for me to express my personal view on this. But at least Mr. Webb made it clear that he was not likely to succumb to the sleeping sickness which for many years afflicted the Local Government Board and the Ministry of Health in everything that concerned the enactment of food standards and definitions. Dr. Hamill, the late Dr. Coutts and their colleagues used to produce quite admirable reports and recommendations, the fate of which was usually to be put in a pigeon‐hole and forgotten. Without spilling more beans or lamenting over spilt milk, I can hand Mr. Webb a bouquet on his new approach to the problem of food standards, as exemplified in the recent orders affecting ice‐cream and cream. The minimum percentage of fat prescribed— a little apologetically—for ice‐cream is to be lower than the 8 per cent advocated over a long series of years by enthusiastic dieticians with the approval of many of the people engaged in producing and selling ice‐cream. My own experience is that the views of scientific experts often require modification in the light of economic circumstances. When the Public Assistance Committee of a County Council asked my opinion on a suggestion by a medical superintendent that sausages bought for inmates should contain not less than 70 per cent of pork, I had little hesitation in advising against so extravagant a proposal. And now the report of the Ministry's Food Standards Committee on cream contains an appendix which shows that the Committee, before framing, its recommendations, considered evidence from representatives of Government Departments, Associations of Local Authorities, three Embassies (Danish, Royal Netherlands and Irish), as well as from seven national and regional milk marketing organisations, three agricultural bodies, and a long list of manufacturing and distributive associations, including those of the grocery, catering and confectionery trades, and the National Institute for Research in Dairying. The result of all this consultation is a well‐thought‐out scheme which, so far as I can see, is hardly open to any criticism, for putting the trade in cream, when it is resumed, on a thoroughly sound foundation. “ Single ” cream is to be easily pourable and is to contain not less than 18 per cent of milk fat. “ Double ” cream with good whipping qualities is to have not less than 48 per cent fat, a figure which is to apply also to clotted cream. So when the strawberry season arrives one hopes to be able to avoid the fate of recent years, when it has been necessary to choose between imported evaporated milk of an offensively deep yellow colour and a cream‐substitute containing vegetable oils and sodium alginate. With approval also I note that the Food Standards Committee proposes to submit a further report on “ artificial ” and “ synthetic ” cream, I always thought it unfortunate that the word “artificial” should be applied to the substance which was made by disintegrating butter, imported at great cost from Australia, and reconverting it into cream which could be marketed at a lower price than natural dairy cream produced in a raw state in Great Britain. The original Artificial Cream Act was presumably passed at the request of British dairy farmers. It would seem wise now to adopt the suggestion put forward by the catering trade that the word “reconstituted” should replace “artificial” as the appropriate adjective here. The word “artificial” could then be attached to a product containing no milk fat, rather than the word “synthetic”, which conveys little or no meaning to the average purchaser.
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and research and…
Abstract
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and research and computer skills that are related to retrieving and using information. This is the fourteenth review to be published in Reference Services Review and lists items in English published in 1987. A few items are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.