Byungjoo Choi

Framework for Work-Space Planning Using Four-Dimensional BIM in Construction Projects

AbstractEach participant in a building construction project requires a dedicated work space in which to execute their activities. In this environment, inappropriate work-space planning in a construction site causes work-space problems, which results in a loss of productivity, safety hazards, and issues of poor quality. Therefore, the work space should be considered one of the most important resources and constraints to manage at a construction site. However, current construction planning techniques have proven to be insufficient for work-space planning because they do not account for the spatial feature of each activity. To establish a formalized work-space planning process, therefore, this paper categorizes work space by its function and movability and suggests a framework for a work-space planning process that contains five phases, including 4D building information model (BIM) generation, work-space requirement identification, work-space occupation representation, work-space problem identification, and ...

Role of Social Norms and Social Identifications in Safety Behavior of Construction Workers. I: Theoretical Model of Safety Behavior under Social Influence

AbstractDuring the last several decades, behavior-based safety (BBS) has drawn a considerable amount of attention in the construction industry. The focus of BBS is on improving construction workers...

Role of Social Norms and Social Identifications in Safety Behavior of Construction Workers. II: Group Analyses for the Effects of Cultural Backgrounds and Organizational Structures on Social Influence Process

AbstractThe roles of perceived management norm, perceived workgroup norm, and project identity in construction workers’ safety behavior were described in the companion paper. That paper found that ...

Investigation on construction workers' social norms and managers' desired norms regarding absence : preliminary results from a norm elicitation study

Researchers have found that construction workers’ absence behavior is under the influence of social norms existing in work groups. Although the previous research efforts on social absence norms in construction have significantly expand our understanding of how they might develop in work groups and exert on workers’ absence behavior, we have limited knowledge about what the absence norms actually existing in construction work groups are. Given this background, the objective of this research is to measure the absence norms shared by construction workers in their work groups as well as the norms desired by construction managers. To achieve this, a novel approach to elicit norms in organizations that were developed by Krupka and Weber (2013) has been used in this research. In this approach, experiment participants are asked to evaluate several hypothetical actions plausible in a given situation using their understanding of what a typical member of their team would think about the actions as well as their own opinions on the actions. The elicitation of social norms is facilitated by a coordination game structure and monetary incentives in the experiment. Using this method, construction workers’ social norms and personal standards, managers’ belief about workers’ social norms, and managers’ desired norms, regarding worker absence behavior were elicited at a construction site. Analyses on the differences between workers’ social norms and managers’ desired norms reveal that there is a general pattern of alignment, but also a measurable difference, between workers’ social norms and managers’ desired norms regarding absence at the site.

4D BIM based Workspace Planning Process in Building Construction Project

Each participant in building construction project requires their own workspace to execute their activities. In this environment, inappropriate workspace planning in construction site causes workspace conflicts which result in a loss of productivity, safety hazard and poor-quality issues. Therefore, workspace should be regarded as one of the most important resources and constraints have to be managed at construction site. However, current construction planning techniques such as Gantt chart, network diagram and critical path method have proven to be insufficient to workspace planning. This paper contains formalized process for workspace planning in 4D BIM environment to prevent workspace related problems in construction project. The proposed process in this paper represents workspace occupation status for each activity and suitable solutions for identified workspace conflicts by integrating workspace attributes and activity execution plan. Based on the result of this study, project manager will be able to prevent probable workspace conflicts and negative effect on project performance by devising appropriate workspace plan during preconstruction phase.

Impact of the strictness and cohesiveness of management feedback on construction workers' safety behavior agent-based modeling and simulation

Although workers’ unsafe behaviors are the main causes of accidents in construction projects, there is a noticeable lack of research addressing the mechanisms of workers’ safety behavior. In this paper, an agent-based model that integrates the cognitive process of safety behavior and workers’ interactions with the environment –including coworkers, management, and site condition– has been constructed. Then, model experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of the strictness and cohesiveness of management feedback on safety behavior. The results indicated that while strictness has significant impacts on reducing workers’ unsafe behaviors, the impacts become limited in specific conditions; 1) lenient feedback in the modest-risk condition; 2) whole range of the strictness in the low-risk condition except for very strict feedback; and 3) very strict feedback in high-risk conditions. Also, it was found that construction managers should achieve at least a medium level of cohesiveness in feedback in order to prevent the negative impacts of the low cohesiveness of management feedback. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on construction safety as well as simulation literature by developing the socio-cognitive process model of workers’ safety behavior that examines how the socio-cognitive process interacts with management and the site condition.