The findings of the study were consistent and indicative of the future development of safety management practice and the sustainable safety improvement of Hong Kong construction industry in the long run.

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What are the different perceptions on safety climate (SC) by workers and managers/supervisors engaged in the construction industry of developing countries? Reconciling these two differing views is pivotal for mitigating and avoiding both the injured and fatal accidents in the construction industry, especially in those developing countries where safety conditions are poor and unpredictable, and safety measures are inadequate in most cases. To answer this research question, the collective perceptions of 118 construction workers and 123 managers/supervisors on the SC in construction projects in Iran were gleaned and investigated. In particular, these perceptions were initially collected by two different empirical surveys validated by a sample of university professors and construction managers and then analyzed through the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test and Bartlett’s test of sphericity under factor analysis, together with a one-sample t-test. Results indicated that “workers’ attitudes and perceptions”, “safety knowledge and training”, “working relationships and roles of colleagues”, and “workers’ risk perceptions” are important categories of SC factors perceived by construction workers, whereas “safety rules and management practices” is the essential category of SC factors discerned by managers/supervisors. The difference in perceptions between workers and managers/supervisors is considered to be beneficial for an overall understanding of SC in general and for developing countries in particular. Moreover, a series of effective suggestions for improving SC in the construction industry of developing countries are provided with reference to each category. The views of SC factors are reinforced as a social process combining the synergies of workers and managers/supervisors, as well as proper safety training to be pushed forward as an essential activity that should be incorporated in human resources development of construction organizations so as to improve the existing level of SC, leading to fewer accidents at the industry level.

The construction industry contributes to a large proportion of industrial injury and mortality. It is of high importance to evaluate the effectiveness of the Safety Management System (SMS). In particular, it is necessary to compare the quality and level of achievement of SMS and safety performance of a construction project. However, a sizeable sample of construction accidents is often not available. Therefore, possible proxies to indicate the safety performance were established. Moreover, the motivation factors which characterize the quality and level of achievement should be identified. In this study, a structural model has been established to examine the relationship between the SMS implementation and operational & safety performance of the construction projects. Results of the structural model illustrated the relationship between (i) SMS implementation and project safety outcome, (ii) SMS implementation and five motivation factors, and (iii) project safety outcome and six proxies. Results of this study have unfolded the motivation factors in SMS implementation and their subsequent effects on project performance, throwing light on the need to enhance the safety management practice in order to reduce accidents and injuries in the construction industry in the long run.

In Hong Kong, transfer students encounter different challenges unfolding in their transition from community college to university study. However, limited research has been conducted to explore their discipline-specific challenges. To address this gap, in this study three engineering and science faculties were selected from which to collect data through 35 in-depth interviews with transfer students, followed by a thorough thematic analysis. With the concept of in-betweenness, three main themes were identified: (1) “shifted the focus of study” (three sub-themes: (i) academic excellence in community college; (ii) future career in the university; and (iii) university life); (2) “encountered challenges in the transition” (four sub-themes: (i) non-matching program articulation; (ii) heavy study workload and its associated consequences; and (iii) non-specific administration arrangement and support from university); and (3) “students’ voices to enhance learning experiences” (four sub-themes: (i) modify the study duration; (ii) improve program articulation; (iii) improve social adjustment; and (iv) overseas exchange). The results of this study indicate the challenges faced by transfer students in their transition from community college to university and have implications for universities to design and implement appropriate strategies to prepare for the future.