Peter Davis

• PhD
• Professor at University of Newcastle Australia

Introduction: Advancements in the modern construction industry have contributed to the development of a range of technology-based interventions to improve the safety behavior of front-line construction workers. Notwithstanding the extensive research on safety behavior, there is still a paucity of research on assessing technology interventions for s...

The contemporary literature emphasizes a need to delve into how project management offices (PMOs) can be effectively operated in construction organizations by embedding integrated project management rather than relying on stand-alone project controls. However, capabilities for running high-performing PMOs in this complex industry are still unknown...

Safety management research in construction is pervasive, therefore, a systematic review and a bibliometric mapping process that provides an overview of how recent mainstream research topics are conceptually structured is timely. Undertaking systematic mapping, contemporaneous with a scoping review of construction safety management research, can con...

Falling from height (FFH) is blamed for causing significant injuries and deaths on construction sites. Previous research has outlined a broad range of technological advances facilitating the management of the FFH safety risk. However, the extant literature lacks a comprehensive assessment to investigate the contribution of various FFH technologies,...

Off-site manufacturing (OSM) offers a wide range of benefits to the construction industry by saving time, reducing waste, being an environmentally friendly solution, and providing a much safer onsite environment. However, safety management of OSM has become a concern due to the worker-related safety issues, which increase the safety incidents in of...

The emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has revolutionized the infrastructure construction industry by introducing real-time and collaborative information management tools to be used throughout the lifecycle of projects. The importance of BIM in this industry has been emphasized in previous research. However, strategies for the implem...

Planning is the first phase throughout the project lifecycle that ensures proper execution based on correct estimations to achieve objectives. Leveraging previous lessons learned significantly help to rectify planning mistakes and use more effective techniques. This paper explains the application of lessons learned for improving the planning outcom...

Infrastructure development contributes to economic growth and constitutes the backbone of industries. The importance of this underpinning sector of the construction industry has led contracting organizations to adopt robust project management mechanisms; enabling them to tackle ever-increasing complexities and uncertainties associated with infrastr...

Purpose Off-site manufacturing (OSM) has emerged as a method of modern construction that provides several benefits including achieving lower costs, a quicker schedule and environmentally friendly solutions. Although numerous researches are available that advocate the adoption of OSM, the devotion towards OSM safety is somewhat limited. However, OSM...

Construction waste management remains in its infancy compared to other industrial sectors. In Australia as well as in the UK, Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW) represents a significant proportion of solid waste going to landfill. In both countries, 44% of the C&DW is directed to landfill, which is higher than the worldwide average of 35%. Ev...

The complex nature of contemporary construction work is associated with numerous stressors that not only affect the well-being of the workforce but also their productivity. Employers' expectations and work demands may exceed the capacity of fresh graduates who aim to progress their career upon graduation. When this reality is coupled with the lack...

Previous research enables managers to apply appropriate safety management factors for increased site safety. However, the heterogeneity of such factors in contemporary studies makes it difficult for practitioners to keep up to date with relevant alternatives. There is a paucity of systematic reviews that examine factors, map out their relationships...

A Psychological Contract of Safety (PCS), based on mutual obligations between supervisors and workers, has been observed in an Australian construction context applied to safety. It has been described in recent research explaining the influential role of supervisors. In the past, there have been numerous studies establishing that the mainstream theo...

Public and private organizations are distinct in terms of ownership structure and stakeholders because they approach project management processes and structures differently. Thus, it is likely that they operate project oversight structures such as a project management office (PMO) differently and focus on a diverse set of functions. This study is d...

The contribution of an organization in environmental sustainability is reflected in its processes, supply chain, operations, and services. A sustainable construction contracting organization leaves a positive impact on the environment and society since it does not limit its concerns to the border of its business but extends its considerations to th...

Information technology (IT) is evolving rapidly and benefits a wide variety of industries to break conventional communication barriers. Recent advancements in management information systems have enabled project-based organizations to monitor and control their projects more effectively. Although the role of IT tools (ITT) has been explored in previo...

Recent advancements in information technology have benefited the construction sector in more effective storage, analysis, and transmission of information. Making proper project decisions is hinged upon the verified and timely information provided by systems. It is especially the case in large construction projects in which many partners collaborate...

Today’s project management offices (PMOs) in the construction sector need to be equipped with breakthrough capabilities necessary for making a difference in multi-project management. Although there is an upward trend in academic research on PMOs, a comprehensive framework of potential success variables is still lacking in the literature. This resea...

The project management office (PMO) plays a key role in linking the strategic and operational levels of a project-based enterprise. Fulfilling this mission requires effective collaboration with stakeholders since PMOs can no longer operate in organisational silos. This research aims to tackle the knowledge gap regarding the conceptualisation of the...

Sustainable procurement management (SPM) as an approach to integrating sustainability into project procurement takes into account the social, ecological, and economical consequences of procurement decisions. Several challenges hinder the proper achievement of SPM objectives in the construction industry. Previous studies have delved into such barrie...

Decision support systems (DSS) have a wide variety of applications in management decisions and optimization of engineering processes. Nowadays, the construction industry calls for state-of-the-art mechanisms to take control of the waste generated on construction sites. Executives need advanced systems and technologies to help them get instant infor...

Environmental and ecological impacts associated with construction activities have become an ever-increasing concern, especially the considerable amount of waste generated on construction sites. Regulations and growing client pressure on meeting environmental standards have led contractors to adopt sustainable practices and try to embed this concept...

Purpose The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to identify major project management (PM) complexities in principal construction contracting; and second, to study the contribution of project management offices (PMOs) to addressing such complexities. Design/methodology/approach A two-stage research design was adopted through a structured liter...

Project uncertainty is an inherent attribute in safety-critical projects, such as building refurbishment. While it has been suggested that project safety performance is often challenged due to project uncertainty, uncertainties are yet to be conceptualised in building refurbishment projects. The purpose of this research is to propose an industry-sp...

The management of Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW) is complex and adds significantly to the overall life cycle cost of projects. On site waste sorting using technologies that automatically identify different materials has the potential to assist in classifying C&DW and reduce costs. The aim of this research was to design and describe a deep...

Academic institutions play a prominent role in nurturing resilience skills in their graduates especially in fields, such as construction management (CM), which deal with a challenging work environment. Although resilience is a well-established topic in the literature, there is still a paucity of research that examines the importance of academic res...

The concept of the project management office (PMO) is well-established in academic literature. This organizational phenomenon has revolutionized practices applied by organizations toward coordinating and overseeing multiple projects throughout the design, engineering, initiation, execution, and handover stages. The construction industry is one of t...

Safety interventions targeted at strengthening safety climate are needed to improve safety behaviour and minimise accidents. This study describes the development of the human safety intervention questionnaire (HSIQ) to better the understanding of climate formation and related safety outcomes at the group level. A 12-item questionnaire was developed...

Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW) represents a significant proportion of industrial waste going to landfill. The aim of this research was to determine the current factors affecting C&DW management on construction sites in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In order to achieve this aim, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 C&D pra...

Purpose: The advance of resilience as a safety approach has contributed to improved safety performance in complex work systems. Although, passive forms of safety behaviour are more than appropriate for managing known risks, proactivity is crucial in achieving enhanced safety outcomes. This is particular to uncertain work environments such as buildi...

Purpose Despite many studies that aim to argue, develop and position the concept of psychological contracts, few have explored how a psychological contract may be applied to safety in the construction industry. A psychological contract of safety (PCS) describes an individual's conceptualized belief that relates to mutual safety obligations, drawn f...

Linking structures, processes and resources with corporate strategies is a key requirement of today's organizations, bringing about integration toward achieving long-term objectives. Organizations can no longer rely on traditional practices since advanced systems and management approaches are being applied by their competitors. The project portfoli...

The purpose of this study is to identify the most appropriate resilience measures in the literature for construction management (CM) graduates. Evaluation criteria are required to assess established instruments in terms of covering pivotal dimensions of resilience in the targeted population. A systematic review and qualitative synthesis of the lite...

Purpose The propose of this study is to focus on the mediating role of compliance with procurement regulatory frameworks in implementing public road construction projects. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional research design was adopted. Structured questionnaires were developed in a three-step process including generating items, purifying...

A safe work environment is crucial in high-risk industries, such as construction refurbishment. Safety incidents caused by uncertainty and unexpected events in construction refurbishment systems are difficult to control using conventional safety management techniques. Resilience engineering (RE) is proposed as an alternative to traditional safety m...

Australia’s population is expected to grow from 24.6 million to 36.4 million inhabitants from 2017 to 2047. This is a challenge for providers of social infrastructure and requires an increase in the funding sources of both the public and private sectors. Simplifying private sector investment in Australia’s infrastructure networks is essential. Publ...

The establishment of a construction safety culture index is of specific significance as it offers an objective measurement of the status of safety culture on construction projects. Considering the dynamics and complexities in the construction industry, the safety culture on a project may differ from other projects. This paper formulates a safety cu...

Over the last 30 years, the rise in studies relating to safety behaviour in the construction industry demonstrates its importance to construction safety management. In improving safety behaviour, safety climate has been used to mould the perceptions workers form about their organisations. However, recent findings suggest that there is a lack of a c...

Issues regarding relationships between supervisor safety behavior (SSB) and worker safety behavior (WSB) are well recognized in construction management research. Nevertheless, how safety plans are articulated through the actions of supervisors to the workforce remains unclear. By conceptualizing safety from the window of the “psychological contract...

Most recent Australian data indicates that 20.4 metric tonnes of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste was generated in 2017, 13.6 of which was recycled. In New South Wales (NSW), to promote recycling and resource recovery, those wishing to dispose of waste are required to pay a levy per tonne of waste received at landfill sites. The NSW governme...

Simplifying private sector investment in Australia's infrastructure networks is essential due to the current over-complex models and the continued increase in population that drives their utilisation. Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) allow the private sector to play a major role in provisioning public infrastructure and related services, as well...

Globally, the rise in accident rates in the construction industry has prompted an increasing number of studies in the last two decades, suggesting that understanding safety behaviour (SB) is a significant element of successful construction safety management. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on predictors of SB published in...

The construction industry is known for its underperformance. Globally, construction projects are often delayed and completed above-estimated budgets because of inferior works and contract variations. These in turn negatively affect the goals set by public sector client. Many studies aim to establish factors for successful construction projects that...

Viewing safety through the lens of the ‘Psychological Contract’ and considering the influence of supervisor on construction site, this research proposes a ‘Psychological Contract of Safety’ (PCS) which is based on the mutual obligations to safety between supervisor and workers, predicts safety behaviour at a construction site. In order to test this...

In this study, an artificial neural network model is developed to predict the level of safety performance on construction sites. Adopting an experimental research design, the model employs safety behaviour, near misses, incidents, fatalities, and the safety risk levels as the inputs, while the safety performance level acted as the output. 339 datas...

The construction industry faces a lack of compliance with policy that in Uganda public road construction projects affects the attainment of Government goals and disrupts infrastructure project delivery. For decades, public entities have been known for a lack of compliance that manifest in: poor performance, poor personnel management, poor resource...

Effective communication with stakeholders enables a project management office (PMO) to gain the necessary support for executing its functions. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the study on this subject. In this regard, the aim of the current research is to identify the generic stakeholders of a project management office and the p...

Introduction: The fact that safety climate impacts safety behavior and delivers better safety outcomes is well established in construction. However, the way workers safety perception is inclined and developed is still unclear. Method: In this research, the influence of supervisors' developing safety climate and its impact on workers' safety beha...

Purpose Safety climate (SC) is considered a leading indicator of safety performance, but scholars suggest that a common SC assessment framework is yet to be developed. Following the debate between the importance of facet analysis and agent analysis, the purpose of this paper is to test a factor structure, developed by the authors in previous work...

Purpose Safety climate and its impact on safety performance is well established; however, researchers in this field suggest that the absence of a common assessment framework is a reflection of the state of development of this concept. The purpose of this paper is to propose a five-factor model that can be used to diagnose and measure safety climate...

As Australian universities welcome significant numbers of inbound international students and increasingly encourage outbound domestic student mobility, the opportunities for global discipline connectedness, cross-cultural understandings, and fertile learning interactions abound. Yet these two “strands” of students rarely engage in deliberately orga...

In Australia, Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste presents a significant proportion of industrial solid waste going to landfill. Although C&D waste has received increasing attention from industry practitioners and researchers since the early 1980s, current studies imply that waste management in the construction industry is still in its early st...

Instructional materials such as textbooks typically utilize well-structured problems because it is believed that such simple problems will sufficiently prepare learners for more ill-structured and complex problem-solving tasks. But when it comes to reality, problem solving is contingent on many factors depending on the context. Construction problem...

Construction and infrastructures projects in Australia are vital components of the country's productive capacity and efficiency. The Australian construction industry is currently observing a paradigm shift in scale of projects i.e. an increased growth in terms of capital cost and complexity. It is evident that the construction sector is a major con...

The current rate of expansion of metropolitan areas requires the expansion of public transportation frameworks like metro, train, and tunnels. This expansion has also led to new residential and commercial buildings development. These developments have resulted in significant volumes of excavated, material and more will be produced. In this study, t...

Upon graduation from University many students lose access to support structures such as peers, academic mentoring, etc. This may lead to tension, stress and failure to perform effectively in their new workplaces, especially if the workplace itself is stressful, as it is in construction. Evidence indicates that the construction sector is a uniquely...

The existence of psychological contracts (PC) in construction procurement is examined. Specific objectives are to identify the presence of the PC in construction project teams and catalogue its effect on procurement delivery. A survey instrument designed with the assistance of two focus groups and subsequently administered to a purposive sample of...

Managing risks and uncertainty are terms that are used interchangeably by project teams. Research on project procurement shows unexpected events in project delivery are often distinguished by these terms. This raises questions concerning how collaboration and coping ability help deal with inherent uncertainty and ambiguity. Using Weick's sense-maki...

The strategic importance of relationship style contracting is recognised in the construction industry. Both public and private sector clients are stipulating more integrated and collaborative forms of procurement. Despite relationship and integrated contractual arrangement being available for some time, it is clear that construction firms have been...

The influence of different level managers on safety management in the workplace has been the subject of interest to many researchers. However, senior managers have little contact with ‘workers’ at the construction worksite who instead take daily direction from lower-level managers/supervisors. As a result, the mechanisms of managerial influence on...

Innovation is key for productivity improvement and advancements in different sectors of the economy, including the construction sector. The criticism of the slow pace of innovation in construction industry may be unwarranted, considering the structure of the industry and nature of the construction business. The loosely coupled nature of firms, most...

The causal relationship between safety climate and safety behavior is examined in numerous studies, however the pathway that mediates this relationship is still unclear. Viewing safety through the lens of the ‘Psychological Contract’ it is argued that ‘Psychological Contract of Safety’ (PCSaf), could be a vital factor for improving safety performan...

The AU$8.3 billion Sydney Metro Northwest in Sydney is Australia’s largest public transport project and includes the construction of twin 15 km tunnels. A temporary pre-cast facility was constructed to produce the wall-linings for the tunnels. The facility is operated 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday, and 12 hours on a Saturday with 100 workers...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the cultures that exist in construction alliance projects. Alliancing is a procurement route that solves many of the challenges caused by adversarial contracts, and as such becomes a useful approach for projects that have high levels of complexity and risk or urgency. The paper begins with a short history of...

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been widely used in the procurement of economic and social infrastructure projects. Since the operation of more and more PPP projects, there have been a number of explorations on the factors that contribute to their success. Project success is often expressed by the quality of the product and project manageme...

This study introduces the principle of an intelligent cooling and compares the life cycle costs of a concrete cooling roof, a metal cooling roof and the intelligent cooling roof. We conclude that the intelligent cooling roof is more cost effective than both the concrete cooling roof and the metal cooling roof. The intelligent cooling roof is friend...

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been used widely to deliver economic and social infrastructure projects. There has been widespread debate about the factors that contribute to their success and failure. Critical to their successful implementation is effective performance measurement of the projects. With this in mind, a comprehensive review...

There has been an increasing interest in the concept of relational contracting (RC) in the construction industry. The performance of RC approaches in construction projects, especially in highly complex and/or time-constrained infrastructure construction projects, is not very satisfying, although there have been sporadic improvements. Hence, this pa...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the cultures that exist in construction alliance projects. Alliancing is a procurement route that solves many of the challenges caused by adversarial contracts, and as such becomes a useful approach for projects that have high levels of complexity and risk or urgency. The paper begins with a short history of...

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to determine the perceptions of a public sector agency’s representatives who are involved in the selection of procurement methods about the benefits and barriers of implementing early contractor involvement (ECI). There have been widespread calls for the public sector to use of non-traditional delivery meth...

Purpose – Condition assessment on reinforced concrete (RC) structures is one of the critical issues as a result of structure degradation due to aging in many developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the sensitivity and reliability of the conventional dynamic response approaches, which are currently applied in the RC structures....

Innovation and new knowledge often comes from an insight into associated areas of research or industry; relationship marketing has its roots in business and many industries have adopted a relationship approach to solicit work. An insight into marketing and in particular relationship marketing explains how construction firms can benefit from this ap...

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been a preferred procurement method for infrastructure projects in many countries. Performance measurement/evaluation is an important process in relation to the success of PPP projects and however it has received limited attention under the life-cycle perspective. A conceptual dynamic life-cycle performance m...

Building effective pathways for students to transfer from and between education sectors and qualifications has been the subject of extensive research, policy development and practice over the last 20 years, both in Australia and internationally. Different researchers and policy-makers have examined this topic from various angles, but all from the p...

Alliance and relationship projects are increasingin number and represent a large pool of work. Tobe successful relationship style contracts dependon soft-dollar factors, particularly the participants'ability to work together within an agreedframework, generally they are not based on lowbid tendering. Participants should be prepared todo business in...

A review of studies that have examined the integration of Web 2.0 tools into E-Learning 2.0 within built environment educational programs is undertaken. An analysis of studies undertaken reveals five core themes can be derived: (1) students using Web 2.0 demonstrate the capability for effective learning; (2) Skills learned via Web 2.0 can be transf...

More and more design and construction professionals in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) areas have been and now are using Building Information Modeling (BIM). Unfortunately, there were very few efforts exploring the real-time communication and integration of BIM to the site and task conditions, and the interaction of BIM with the f...

Design errors contribute significantly to cost and schedule growth in social infrastructure projects and to engineering failures, which can result in accidents and loss of life. Despite considerable research that has addressed their error causation they still remain prevalent in projects. This paper develops a conceptual model of the underlying con...

Purpose – Alliancing and partnering have been extensively used to stimulate collaborative relations between supply chain members as well as to address the need to improve the performance of projects. Recognising the need to build and sustain relationships in alliances, the paper aims to present a model that is developed and tested by industry pract...

Disputes have become an endemic feature of the Australian construction industry, despite the intense introspection into their causes and the identification for avoidance strategies. It is well known that factors, such as scope changes, poor contract documentation, restricted access, unforeseen ground conditions, and contractual ambiguities are cont...

A risk/reward model is described as that which aligns project participants' behaviors toward the achievement of a project's performance objectives through the use of incentives. A risk/reward model typically includes the following mechanisms: risk/reward shared percentages among nonowner participants, project cost risk/reward, noncost risk/reward,...

Purpose – A considerable amount of research has been undertaken with regard to the dispute causation within construction project management. Research has eschewed identifying the interrelatedness of variables, which has blurred researchers understanding of dispute causation and lead to latent work practices being embedded within the contracting env...

The need to identify the critical factors in the successful development and management of the price competitive alliance model has become a priority for public sector clients, as there is an increasing need to obtain better value for money (VfM) for its infrastructure projects. Yet, there has been limited research undertaken about the nature and us...

Construction and engineering practitioners have found it increasingly difficult to learn from their mistakes, particularly with regard to the prevention, identification and/or containment of design errors. Yet, design errors have been the root cause of numerous catastrophic accidents that have resulted in the death and injury of workers and members...

Purpose While a considerable amount of knowledge has been accumulated about dispute causation, disputes continue to prevail and disharmonise the process of construction with considerable cost. This paper seeks to identify the underlying pathogens that clients and contractors perceive to contribute to disputes in construction projects. The identific...

Purpose The determination of the most appropriate procurement system for a capital works project is a challenging task for public sector clients considering the array of assessment criteria that are considered and the procurement methods that are available. This is particularly pertinent to the Western Australian public sector where there has been...

Within Australia, civil engineering works continue to meet the insatiable demand for new infrastructure despite project complexity and cost and schedule overruns. A significant factor that can contribute to such overruns is rework; yet to date research into the root causes and consequential costs of rework in civil infrastructure projects has been...

Within Australia, civil engineering works continue to meet the insatiable demand for new infrastructure despite project complexity and cost and schedule overruns. A significant factor that can contribute to such overruns is rework; yet to date research into the root causes and consequential costs of rework in civil infrastructure projects has been...