Manuscript Submission Deadline 30 September 2022
Construction has often been criticized for the lack of productivity, as compared to the other sectors, such as manufacturing. Technological advancements are often characterized as the catalyst for industry’s way forward, particularly in improving output and productivity. Nonetheless, even with the industry’s notion to ride along with the wave of Industrial Revolution 5.0, the challenge of embracing, adapting and adopting technologies in the industry still remains a major hurdle. The nature and culture of the industry, still strongly rooted in traditional methods and approaches, cause change to be difficult. Thus, scholars have called for the need to incorporate perspectives of social sciences to complement the common hard techniques in the industry. The empathic nature of social science that concerns human relationships and cultural elements of human behavior could act as an agent for change in construction, where strategies should be reflected back to their roots.
This Research Topic intends to explore and encourage studies on advancing changes in the construction industry through the interdisciplinary notion of incorporating social science into the technical studies of construction management. Management has often been associated with “people” but the study of people in construction, such as their attitude, behavior, and needs is still limited, amidst the current societal and technological challenges looming over the construction industry. Thus, the urge for interdisciplinary approaches suggests professionals to look outside the box in the search for solutions that could go beyond answering just the “what”, to also include “why” and “how” questions. Such a notion aims at digging deeper into the “people” aspect across the layers of construction management (industry, organization, group, individual), and to enable the recognition of patterns, interactions, and the interplay among project stakeholders. As a result, a better understanding of the true driving forces among project stakeholders across the cultural and social stands in construction can further create an avenue for attitude and behavioral change among project stakeholders in construction projects.
This collection welcomes articles for construction management with regard to the field of social science, across the different disciplines such as economics, history, sociology, anthropology and psychology. The aim is to initiate and develop new understandings and approaches that can make positive contributions toward improving the status quo of construction management from the aspects of strategic management and/or organizational behavior. The subject matters could include (but are not limited to) technological enhancements, the concerns of sustainability, corporate as well as operational strategy, and human resource management and development, etc. Articles of qualitative, quantitative, or other suitable research approaches are welcomed. It is envisaged that this Research Topic would be of interest to academics and industry practitioners through the development of ideologies and conceptual bases for addressing sociotechnical challenges through sustained changes in the industry.
