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Purpose: This study aims to analyze the critical factors affecting workplace well-being at construction sites across countries with different income levels. Accordingly, this study's objectives are to identify: critical factors affecting workplace well-being at construction sites in low-, lower-middle-, upper-middle- and high-income countries, overlapping critical factors across countries with different income levels and agreements on the critical factors across countries with different income levels. Design/methodology/approach: This study identified 19 factors affecting workplace well-being using a systematic literature review and interviews with construction industry professionals. Subsequently, the factors were inserted into a questionnaire survey and distributed among construction industry professionals across Yemen, Zimbabwe, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, receiving 110, 169, 335 and 193 responses. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including mean, normalized value, overlap analysis and agreement analysis. Findings: This study identified 16 critical factors across all income levels. From those, 3 critical factors overlap across all countries (communication between workers, general safety and health monitoring and timeline of salary payment). Also, 3 critical factors (salary package, working environment and working hours) overlap across low-, low-middle and upper-middle-income countries, and 1 critical factor (project leadership) overlaps across low-middle, upper-middle and high-income countries. The agreements are inclined to be compatible between low- and low-middle-income, and between low- and high-income countries. However, agreements are incompatible across the remaining countries. Practical implications: This study can serve as a standard for maintaining satisfactory workplace well-being at construction sites. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt to analyze factors affecting workplace well-being at construction sites across countries with different income levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction sector is increasingly shifting towards sustainable and efficient methodologies, with the industrialized building system (IBS) playing a pivotal role in this transformation. Despite this, the adoption of total quality management (TQM) in IBS projects faces significant challenges, including a lack of comprehensive understanding of TQM standards and resistance to change within the industry. This study addresses these gaps by developing a comprehensive framework for implementing TQM in sustainable IBS construction projects. The objective is to enhance project quality and sustainability by addressing critical issues such as limited stakeholder awareness and opposition to TQM adoption. Using qualitative methodology rooted in phenomenology, this study explores the lived experiences of key stakeholders involved in IBS projects, including project managers, construction professionals, and government officials. Data were collected through in-depth interviews to capture their perspectives on TQM integration in the IBS context. The findings highlight the crucial role of TQM in fostering continuous improvement, enhancing stakeholder collaboration, and ensuring adherence to quality standards throughout the project lifecycle. The proposed framework incorporates essential TQM principles such as process optimization, employee engagement, and customer focus, providing a structured approach to overcoming the barriers to effective implementation. Furthermore, the framework promotes sustainability by reducing waste and improving energy efficiency in IBS projects. This study offers valuable insights for construction professionals, policymakers, and industry stakeholders, presenting practical solutions to improve the quality and sustainability of IBS construction. Leadership, cultural transformation, and continuous improvement are identified as key factors for successful TQM integration, ultimately leading to more efficient and sustainable building processes in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing consumption of natural resources to meet the needs of road construction has become a significant challenge to environmental sustainability. Additionally, the increase in industrial by-products has raised global concerns due to their environmental impacts. The utilization of industrial by-products in asphalt mixtures offers an effective solution for promoting sustainable practices. The objective of this article is to conduct a bibliometric analysis and citation-based review to characterize and analyze the scientific literature on the use of steel slag aggregates, copper slag, phosphorus slag, bottom ash, fly ash, red mud, silica fume, and foundry sand in asphalt mixtures. Another aim is to identify research gaps and propose recommendations for future studies. The bibliometric analysis was conducted using VOSviewer software version 1.6.18, focusing on authors, co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, and countries. A total of 909 articles were selected for the bibliometric analysis. The findings indicate that more effort is needed to expand the application of industrial by-products in asphalt mixtures. Furthermore, these by-products should be utilized in different types of asphalt mixtures. The incorporation of industrial by-products into asphalt mixes also requires field validation and further laboratory investigations, particularly concerning aging and moisture resistance. In addition, the effects of chemical reactions involving industrial by-products on the long-term performance of asphalt layers should be evaluated. Finally, this article encourages engineers and researchers to intensify their efforts in utilizing industrial by-products for environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) is a dynamic, complex system that is chaotic in nature, and represents many challenges and issues. Recently, building information modelling (BIM) has been commonly utilized in the construction industry to solve complex and dynamic challenges. However, BIM has not been thoroughly considered for managing PDR, and there is a lack of comprehensive scientometric analyses that objectively examine the trends in BIM applications in PDR. A literature search was performed considering studies published from 2010 to March 2021 using the Scopus database. A total of 75 relevant studies were found to meet the inclusion criteria. The collected literature was analyzed using VOSviewer through scientific journals, authors, keywords, citations, and countries. This is the first study in its vital significance and originality that aims to investigate the current states of research on BIM applications in PDR and provide suggestions for potential research directions. The findings showed that "Reconstruction" and "Safety Management" have emerged as mainstream research themes in this field and recently attracted scholars' interest, which could represent the directions of future research. Five major research domains associated with BIM were identified based on the most frequently used keywords, namely "Disasters", "Earthquakes", "HBIM", "Damage Detection", and "Life Cycle". Moreover, a proposed conceptual framework of BIM adoption for PDR is provided. Accordingly, the outcomes of this study will help scholars and practitioners gain clear ideas of the present status and identify the directions of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]