Xianbo Zhao’s scientific contributions

The field of safety leadership, despite significant growth, remains fragmented. This paper aims to consolidate this field by conducting a bibliometric review of 2,098 articles and 86,495 secondary documents to provide a comprehensive view of safety leadership research. Co-citation analyses revealed three foundational knowledge clusters: leader roles in safety climates and systems; mechanisms of leadership influence on safety outcomes; and the theoretical/empirical foundations for safety leadership. Additionally, bibliographic coupling analyses spotlight five emerging frontiers: leadership practices and safety climates; enabling safety performance and behaviors; holistic and contextualized perspectives informing safety leadership; multilevel lenses of leading safety climate/culture; and active, social, and transformative elements of safety leadership. We synthesize these findings to propose a future research agenda aimed at fostering both theoretical and empirical advancements of safety leadership research.

Purpose Construction workers’ safety compliance is attracting considerable critical attention as it plays a decisive role in improving safety on construction sites. This study applied the concept of differentiating safety compliance into deep compliance (DC) and surface compliance (SC) and relied on trait activation theory to investigate the effects of situational awareness (SA) and emotional intelligence (EI) on safety compliance. Design/methodology/approach Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 239 construction workers in Australia, and these responses were statistically analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to validate the proposed model. Findings Results revealed that both EI and SA positively impacted DC and negatively impacted SC. Moreover, SA partially mediated the link between EI and two types of safety compliance (DC and SC). The outcomes showed that construction workers’ ability in regulating their emotions could influence their perception of environmental cues and the effectiveness of safety compliance behavior. Originality/value This study sheds light on investigating the antecedents of DC and SC from the perspective of trait activation theory. The findings also have practical implications, stating that construction site managers or safety professionals should consider providing training on construction workers’ EI and SA to enhance their willingness to expend conscious efforts in complying with safety rules and procedures, which can lead to improved safety outcomes.

Safety compliance is crucial in maintaining construction safety. This study applied the concept of differentiating safety compliance into deep safety compliance and surface safety compliance and set out to investigate the effects of perceived ease of use, management commitment to safety, and safety communication on deep and surface safety compliance, respectively. By using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a model was developed and validated based on the cross-sectional survey data collected from 239 construction workers in Australia. Results revealed that safety communication could directly and positively impact deep safety compliance, while negatively impact surface safety compliance. Moreover, management commitment to safety was found to impact safety communication directly and positively, while perceived ease of use could moderate this relationship. Last but not least, safety communication played a mediating role in the relationship between management commitment to safety, and deep and surface safety compliance. By investigating the contributing factors of deep and surface safety compliance in the construction industry, this study contributes to the literature on safety management and provides practical implications as understanding the proposed model helps site managers or safety professionals enhance safety performance by achieving deep safety compliance or minimizing surface safety compliance.KeywordsConstruction safetyManagement commitment to safetyPerceived ease of useSafety communicationSafety compliance

Construction is one of the most hazardous occupations worldwide. Among all the factors, construction workers' safety compliance plays a decisive role in improving safety performance on site. The study applied the concept of differentiating safety compliance into deep compliance and surface compliance based on workers' safety compliance behavior and aims at identifying the influential factors and their effects on construction workers' deep and surface compliance, respectively. Four existing theoretical models relating to safety compliance are reviewed and analyzed, including technology acceptance theory, theory of job performance, trait activation theory, social exchange theory, and social identity theory. The key factors from these theoretical models are identified, which include perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, safety motivation, management commitment to safety, situational awareness, emotional intelligence, safety communication, and safety knowledge. Then, a conceptual framework is developed to describe the relationships among those factors and the effects of them on deep and surface compliance, respectively. This conceptual model sets a basis for the empirical study focusing on safety compliance of Australian construction workers. This study also provides practical implications as understanding this framework can help construction workers achieve improved safety performance by enhancing deep compliance or avoiding surface compliance.

Within the Australian construction industry, small subcontractors are highly vulnerable to insolvency risk due to poor payment practices. The Security of Payment legislation was introduced to ensure that those subcontractors are timely paid for the work they do. However, since the enactment of the legislation in Australia, the utilisation rates of the legislation have been relatively low. Through a desktop study, this paper aims to identify and discuss the main causes of the legislation under-utilisation including affordability, lack of industry confidence, lack of knowledge and awareness, impact on business relationships and limited right to access the regime. Moving further, this paper will acquaint the lead author's PhD study, which aims to address the barriers and solutions to achieve an appropriate utilisation of the security of payment legislation.