Pirzadeh, P; Lingard, H and Blismas, N (2020) A multilevel socio-technical perspective on work health and safety related design decision making. In: Scott, L and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 36th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-8 September 2020, Online Event, UK.
Abstract
Research in construction has identified considerable benefits in the integration of construction expertise and knowledge into early project decision making. Improved constructability and health and safety (H&S) have been frequently highlighted among other benefits. Research evidence has suggested that early-stage collaboration and effective interaction within and between design and construction participants are vital to make construction process knowledge accessible to design decision makers. Nevertheless, effective interaction still seems to be a problem in practice and in many cases, the efforts to promote collaborative interactions have failed to cope with the complex nature of the design process. A case study was undertaken to explore the way in which the interactions between design and construction decision makers impact on the quality of design decisions and H&S outcomes. Social network analysis (SNA) was applied to explore the patterns of interaction between project participants. Unlike the previous applications of SNA in construction, which have largely been cross-sectional and single-level in their focus, a multilevel framework was implemented to recognise the socio-technical complexities and interdependencies in design decision-making. Thus, the design process and its underlying interactions were explored jointly. The study evidence suggested that positive outcomes could be achieved through an alignment between the information interdependencies of the design decisions and the communication patterns that underpin them. The findings of this study can be used to understand, proactively design and maintain interaction networks that support effective decision-making in the context of 'safety in design'.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | design, decision-making, construction health and safety, communication, social network analysis, multilevel |
| Index terms: | complexity, design decision, constructability, interaction, evidence, design and construction, multilevel framework, collaboration, decision-making, construction process, integration, social network analysis, socio-technical, case study, health and safety, design process |
| Subjects: | design methods, research design and methodology, evaluation and assessment methods, data collection methods, contractual arrangements, health safety and environment, construction integration, research methods, management, design practice, systems engineering, behavioral psychology, decision analysis, building construction, organizational analysis |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Procurement, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Organizational Design, Site Management, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here