Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemDecision-making of municipal urban forest managers through the lens of governance(ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2020-02)Awareness of the benefits of urban trees has led many cities to develop ambitious targets to increase tree numbers and canopy cover. Policy instruments that guide the planning of cities recognize the need for new governance arrangements to implement this agenda. Urban forests are greatly influenced by the decisions of municipal managers, but there is currently no clear understanding of how municipal managers find support to implement their decisions via new governance arrangements. To fill this knowledge gap, we collected empirical data through interviews with 23 urban forest municipal managers in 12 local governments in Greater Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia, and analysed these data using qualitative interpretative methods through a governance lens. The goal of this was to understand the issues and challenges, stakeholders, resources, processes, and rules behind the decision-making of municipal managers. Municipal managers said that urban densification and expansion were making it difficult for them to implement their strategies to increase tree numbers and canopy cover. The coordination of stakeholders was more important for managers to find support to implement their decisions than having a bigger budget. The views of the public or wider community and a municipal government culture of risk aversion were also making it difficult for municipal managers to implement their strategies. Decision-making priorities and processes were not the same across urban centres. Lack of space to grow trees in new developments, excessive tree removal, and public consultation, were ideas more frequently raised in inner urban centres, while urban expansion, increased active use of greenspaces, and lack of data/information about tree assets were concerns for outer and regional centres. Nonetheless, inter-departmental coordination was a common theme shared among all cities. Strengthening coordination processes is an important way for local governments to overcome these barriers and effectively implement their urban forest strategies.
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ItemWho is to blame for crashes involving autonomous vehicles? Exploring blame attribution across the road transport system(TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2020-05-03)The introduction of fully autonomous vehicles is approaching. This warrants a re-consideration of road crash liability, given drivers will have diminished control. This study, underpinned by attribution theory, investigated blame attribution to different road transport system actors following crashes involving manually driven, semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles. It also examined whether outcome severity alters blame ratings. 396 participants attributed blame to five actors (vehicle driver/user, pedestrian, vehicle, manufacturer, government) in vehicle-pedestrian crash scenarios. Different and unique patterns of blame were found across actors, according to the three vehicle types. In crashes involving fully autonomous vehicles, vehicle users received low blame, while vehicle manufacturers and government were highly blamed. There was no difference in the level of blame attributed between high and low severity crashes regarding vehicle type. However, the government received more blame in high severity crashes. The findings have implications for policy and legislation surrounding crash liability. Practitioner summary: Public views relating to blame and liability in transport accidents is a vital consideration for the introduction of new technologies such as autonomous vehicles. This study demonstrates how a systems ergonomics framework can assist to identify the implications of changing public opinion on blame for future road transport systems. Abbreviation: ANOVA: analysis of variance; DAT: defensive attribution theory; IV: independent variable.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableRaising higher education access and success for care leavers under COVID-19(Engagement Australia, 2020)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableThe work readiness-career resilience linkage: implications for project talent management(EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD, 2021-05-20)Purpose There is a need for project management practitioners to adapt and thrive in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) project-based workplaces. In this paper, the linkage between work readiness and career resilience is developed, presenting both concepts as critical for effective strategic responses and adaptation to the changing labor market in organizations. Design/methodology/approach The resource-based view (RBV) and integrated dynamic capabilities (IDCs) are the theoretical lenses that are used to link the concepts of work readiness and career resilience across the individual and organizational levels. Findings A framework and model are proposed to establish a holistic understanding of catalysts for addressing the VUCA context that organizations face. The proposed conceptual linkage adds a chronological dimension to the formation of the interrelated dynamic capabilities during the early career phase of project management practitioners. Practical implications The contribution to the project management literature includes a theoretically driven conceptual framework that links two complementary concepts to address the career challenges faced by project managers. Work readiness is positioned as an enabler of career resilience and together they constitute vital attributes which foster talent retention in the current VUCA work environment. Originality/value Work readiness and career resilience are underexplored topics in the project management literature, both individually and in conjunction. Specifically, there is a research gap in view of linking these two concepts to present them as a catalyst for project management talent sustainability, and the proposed framework is an initial step in addressing these gaps.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableEmployers' perspectives on work readiness in construction: are project management graduates hitting the ground running?(EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD, 2020-09-07)Purpose There is a need for graduates who can quickly adjust and thrive within the current increasingly dynamic project-based workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to present the employers' perspectives on the work readiness of project management graduates entering the Australian construction industry. Design/methodology/approach To gain the industry's perspective, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants from 18 different construction companies that employ project management graduates. Findings Thematic analysis revealed that from the employers' perspective, work readiness constitutes (1) empathic communication, (2) passion and (3) technical construction knowledge. Graduates' areas of strength (e.g. application of technology) and weakness (e.g. responding to confrontational situations) were identified. Practical implications The findings provide valuable insights into employers' perspectives of the work readiness of project management graduates which can serve as feedback to universities to assist in aligning their educational programmes with industry needs. Social implications While employers recognize that the responsibility for fostering work readiness should be shared between themselves and universities, this research highlights that currently adequate collaboration does not occur. This paper advocates for both universities and employers to be open to engaging in the conversation to enhance graduate work readiness. Originality/value No research to date has investigated the work readiness of project management graduates, nor whether their work readiness levels meet employers' requirements. This paper addresses this gap.
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ItemPriming the Project Talent Pipeline: Examining Work Readiness in Undergraduate Project Management Degree Programs(SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2020-04)Undergraduate education is emerging as a direct pathway into the previously deemed ‘accidental profession’ of project management. We introduce the concept of graduate work readiness and explore whether undergraduate project management degrees are imparting industry-required work-readiness attributes. Documentary analysis of 12 Australian bachelor’s degree programs identified that many (but not all) of the work-ready attributes taught are consistent with those sought by industry. The results revealed that graduates’ work-readiness profiles vary according to university employer reputation. The findings suggest the need for a more industry-consultative approach to the way universities prepare their graduates for the project-based workplace.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableLCB approach for construction safety(ELSEVIER, 2020-08)The unsafe behavior that is seen everywhere on construction sites is the biggest challenge for further improvement of construction safety performance. Focusing on the “human” related issues in construction safety, this paper reviews the research and practices of safety management and comes up with three key elements to look at, namely safety leadership, safety culture, and safety behavior. Through systematic exploration on the connotation of and interaction between safety leadership, safety culture, and safety behavior, a Leadership-Culture-Behavior (LCB) approach for construction safety is proposed with the kernel - leadership driven culture development and behavior control. The LCB approach emphasizes the role of safety leadership to not only directly reduce unsafe behavior but also to fundamentally change the causes of unsafe behavior through safety culture development, ultimately achieving the goal of reducing unsafe behaviors sustainably and preventing accidents. The LCB approach has been implemented in a number of railway and building projects in mainland and Hong Kong SAR, China, and Singapore. Significant improvement of L/C/B has been observed. Taking a high-speed railway project in China as an example, safety leadership, safety culture, and safety behavior of the project stakeholders at all levels were significantly improved. In the end, based on LCB, new directions and potential areas for future research of construction safety are discussed.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableCorporate Social Responsibility on Disaster Resilience Issues by International Contractors(ASCE-AMER SOC CIVIL ENGINEERS, 2021-01-01)Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is gaining importance in the construction industry as an effective tool to communicate social citizenship. Despite the increasing attention on the role of the construction industry in disaster resilience, CSR reporting on resilience issues among construction practitioners has yet to be explored. The present study adopted the concept of disaster risk management and stakeholder theory and first established a CSR-resilience evaluation framework with 20 resilience issues and 46 indicators through a modified Delphi technique. Thereafter, a sample of 295 international contractors was selected from the Engineering News-Record (ENR) list from 2014 to 2018, and a systematic content analysis approach was conducted to analyze their CSR-related reports and compare the corresponding results among regions. Results indicated that Asian and Middle Eastern contractors have the highest and lowest levels, respectively, of CSR reporting on resilience issues. Clients' and governments' concerns were given the top priority by all regions, except Chinese contractors emphasized the client's and community's concerns. Asian and Chinese contractors showed a higher emphasis on the community's and employees' concerns than those of partners and suppliers, whereas the European, US/Canadian, and Middle Eastern contractors showed otherwise. The present study contributed to filling in the gap to establish a CSR-resilience indicator system for the construction industry and provided a useful reference to comprehensively understand and measure the CSR reporting on resilience issues by the construction industry.
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ItemRevelation of Wuhan City’s Response to COVID-19 Pandemic on Urban Resilience Enhancement(World Scientific Pub Co Pte Lt, 2020-10)The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant economic and social impacts worldwide and revealed the importance and urgency of urban resilience enhancement. To learn the lessons from this pandemic, this study undertook a case study in Wuhan City, which was the first city in China where the outbreak was declared, and analyzed the process of its response to the pandemic. Based on the theory of emergency management, this study identified four stages of the emergency management process and conducted an in-depth analysis of the experience gained at each stage from the perspective of urban resilience. Then, this study evaluated the level of urban resilience of Wuhan City, and put forward suggestions for enhancement of the emergency system of China. The findings provided important revelation for other cities to cope with major disasters in the future.
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ItemImplementing Remote Working Policy in Corporate Offices in Thailand: Strategic Facility Management Perspective(MDPI, 2021-02)There was a sudden shift in the way people work during the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep business continuity, many organizations have implemented a remote working policy for employees to work from home. Strategic facility management (FM) acted to support remote working policies by developing organizational norms in an organization. Meanwhile, the human resource (HR) department chose to achieve business performance while remote working by gaining job motivation among employees. However, there is limited understanding of how well organizations adapted to the remote working policy, and what are the critical factors affecting their remote work performance. The present study aimed to explore the effect of organizational norms on remote working, on remote work productivity, and organizational commitment among Thai employees. The study conducted an online questionnaire survey to a total of 414 Thai employees from various corporate offices. Hierarchical component modeling was applied and achieved a good model fit on the measurement and structural models. Results indicated that organizational norm has a significant effect on perceived productivity and organizational commitment, while sustaining work demand. Moreover, employees’ job motivation can sustain employees’ commitment to the organization in a remote working context. These findings proposed the strategic FM guide, through which a remote working policy can further enhance FM practice.