Seungjun Ahn

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...

Exploring Absenteeism Control Policies with Awareness of the Effect of Group Norms on Absence Behavior, Using Agent-Based Modeling

An organization’s culture has an indirect but significant effect on the performance of its workers. The development of a positive organization culture in construction projects is especially important, because most operations in construction projects rely heavily on a workforce. Further, new members in construction projects constitute a new project organization, and so can develop either a positive or negative culture. Group norms in organizations are a clear manifestation of the culture. Within this background, the objective of this paper is to demonstrate the effect of group norms on the absence behavior within projects and to explore absenteeism control policies using agent-based simulation research methodology. To fulfill this objective, we investigate the dynamic mechanisms of the formation and exertion of group norms among workers, model them as a computer simulation model, and identify control factors underlying these mechanisms using the simulation results. We discuss: when and how absence norms take effect, the importance of education in a worker’s unbiased understanding of others’ absence behavior, and the effect that a worker’s attachment to a project has on his/her absence behavior.

Current Status of Interface Management in Construction: Drivers and Effects of Systematic Interface Management

AbstractInterface management (IM) is an emerging construction management practice that industry finds necessary for megaprojects that have become more complex and global. Defined as the appropriate management of communications, relationships, and deliverables among stakeholders, effective IM is integral to project success. Yet, because it is an emerging discipline, IM implementation has varied widely across the industry. Furthermore, the effect of IM on project performance is still unclear. To address these gaps, the construction industry institute (CII) chartered a research team, to identify the current state of IM and to investigate the relationship between systematic IM and project performance. To accomplish this, the authors conducted structured interviews for 46 projects. The study results showed that IM practices are most often found in industrial projects, with dollar values of more than one billion. In addition, IM adoption is positively correlated with the project dollar value and number of inter...

Exploratory Study on the Effectiveness of Interface-Management Practices in Dealing with Project Complexity in Large-Scale Engineering and Construction Projects

AbstractRecently, formal approaches to interface management (IM) have been adopted in a number of large-scale engineering and construction (EC however, they are not as effective for dealing with project complexity originating from large numbers of engineered ite...

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.

Enhancing the Credibility of Agent-Based Model for the Study of Workers' Group Behavior by Comparing Simulation Data with Survey Data

Construction workers’ behavior is an important factor of productivity and safety on a job site. Worker behavior is not only determined by individual’s inherent characteristics, but also largely shaped by contexts which include the social interactions within a project. As a result, construction workers’ behavior on a job site is under the influence of the social norms and work culture of their workgroup. However, our current understanding of the social aspect of worker behavior is limited. To expand our understanding of workers’ social behavior and its impact on project performance, researchers have begun using an agent-based modeling approach because it allows researchers to observe the complex group-level behavior emerging from individuals’ interactions. One of the important issues in using agent-based models for organizational research is enhancing the credibility of model predictions. With this background in mind, the objective of this paper is to propose a methodology that can help enhance the credibility of an agent-based model for the study of workers’ social behavior using survey data. Specifically, it is suggested in this paper that the perceptual/attitudinal/behavioral data from surveys and the corresponding data from simulations be transformed into categorical data, and then compared to each other to show a quantitative agreement of the model behavior with empirical data. The proposed methodology is illustrated by an example of construction workers’ absenteeism research that we have conducted. With the results of this research, it is argued that demonstrating the correspondence of simulation data to survey data using a data categorization method is an effective means to enhance the credibility of an agent-based model.

Identification and Association of High-Priority Safety Management System Factors and Accident Precursors for Proactive Safety Assessment and Control

This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Industrial Research Chair in Construction Engineering and Management (IRCPJ 195558) and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) Ministry of Education of Brazil (Scholarship No. 0393-12-6). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSERC and CAPES. Last, the authors thank the anonymous survey respondents for their valuable contributions.

Fuzzy Cognitive Maps as a tool for modeling construction labor productivity

Labor productivity is a fundamental building block of planning and controlling in construction, and therefore, predicting labor productivity levels for a given condition is very important in construction management. However, predicting labor productivity is extremely difficult due to a large number of factors that can affect productivity in perplexing ways. Another obstacle to predicting labor productivity is the qualitative nature and subjectivity of productivity factors. To address these issues, a soft computing technique called Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) is proposed as a tool to model the complex inter-relationships between productivity factors based on expert knowledge, and for assessing the impact of the productivity factors on labor productivity. In this paper, the methodology for creating and using FCMs for this purpose is introduced, and then an exercise is presented for demonstration purposes. Additionally, issues identified from this exercise are described, and the way that FCMs can be practically used in the field for predicting labor productivity is also discussed in the paper.

Motivation for interface management in contruction : a project complexity perspective

Understanding project complexity is crucial for determining—or designing—the tools, methods, and skills required to effectively deal with interface issues in a construction project. However, understanding project complexity is not an easy undertaking; the concept of project complexity is composed of many interrelated sub-concepts, and thus is complex in itself. Given this background, this research aimed to define the dimensions of project complexity based on empirical data focusing on the variations in the project complexity factors between projects. To achieve this research objective, data for project complexity factors were collected via semi-structured interviews from 45 large-scale construction projects, and were analyzed using principal component analysis. As a result, 6 interpretable principal components were extracted from the dataset: ‘unclear scope of work for multiple stakeholders in the definition and design of projects with new technology’, ‘the uncertainty in boundaries and communication relative to other complexity factors’, ‘unfamiliarity with other project participants’, ‘the multiplicity of stakeholders relative to the amount of cost pressure and execution risks’, ‘the relative multitude of engineered items’, and ‘the high-level program/project administration’. These complexity dimensions can help with understanding sources of project complexity and determining the skills, tools, and systems to effectively cope with the sources of project complexity. Additionally, the analysis results hint that organizational interfaces should be effectively managed to prevent project failure in construction projects, and therefore support the need for advanced interface management in complex projects.