Organizational research argues that under relational forms of governance a high degree of both information pooling and physical interaction are necessary for inter-organizational knowledge creation. Yet, recent studies of information and communication technologies (ICTs) suggest that both...

A multi-level safety climate model was tested in the Australian construction industry. Subcontracted workers' perceptions of the organizational safety response (OSR) and supervisor safety response (SSR) in their own organization and that of the principal contractor were measured using a safety...

Control is purposive or goal directed, hence, there are underlying drivers and consequences of the exercise of control modes and mechanisms. In response to recent empirical findings that cast doubts on the empowerment-control incompatibility thesis, the broader question of whether control is...

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is mobilized to investigate some of the assumptions that lie behind the text of the Respect for People reports (2000, 2004), part of the 'Egan agenda' in the UK. The concept of respect is examined, contrasting the humanist view of people as ends in themselves...

The coordination of design is a multi-faceted problem in construction. In design interactions in particular the real-time coordination of design activity is a persistent concern. The use of objects to coordinate the activity of design is studied as this happens in interactions between an...

Building contractors are generally small private firms. Bank loans are their major, if not only, source of external finance. However, building and construction loans represent a mere minuscule portion of all bank loans in Hong Kong, suggesting that contractors may have been neglected by banks....

The built environment and the way in which it is understood critically affect many business enterprises. Despite its importance, few studies have explicitly investigated the process through which changes to the built environment are introduced into ongoing businesses. To this end the...

Unbalanced bidding models have largely ignored the risk aspect of item pricing. Many researchers have acknowledged that there are considerable risks associated with unbalancing a bid but little has been done to describe these risks, let alone model them. A new framework is proposed by which all...

All construction projects in Hong Kong have in common a cast of key contract participants, consisting of clients, consultants (designers) and contractors. The aim of this research is to examine, from different points of view, these practitioners in regard to the importance of perceived...

A major infrastructure project is used to investigate the role of digital objects in the coordination of engineering design work. From a practice-based perspective, research emphasizes objects as important in enabling cooperative knowledge work and knowledge sharing. The term 'boundary object'...