Organizational success heavily relies on the competitiveness of products and services under rapidly changing market conditions. This enterprise competitiveness becomes more critical for project-based enterprises as modernization of the Chinese construction industry creates greater challenges and uncertainty in construction operations, which determines the sustainable advantages of enterprises to a certain degree. Traditional wisdom focuses on cost efficiency, asset differentiation, and service performance to gain competitive advantages. This paper explores the influence of organizational flexibility and organizational innovation on enterprise competitiveness for Chinese construction organizations. A designed structured questionnaire was developed and conducted targeting the project-based enterprises in China’s construction industry and is accompanied by a structural equation modeling analysis. Results indicate a positive impact of organizational flexibility on enterprise competitiveness along with a mediation role of organizational innovation. The study concludes that new organizational strategies are required for Chinese project-based enterprises to maintain enterprise competitiveness in order to realize the sustainable development of enterprises.

China’s construction industry developed rapidly and safety production has become a vital issue. Improving the safety behavior of construction workers is an important measure to effectively decrease construction safety accidents. At present, a New Generation of Construction Workers (NGCWs) born after 1980 has gradually become the main force of construction companies in China and the special group characteristics coming from the intergenerational difference may make them behave differently in safety-related activities, therefore, it is very important to study how to promote their safety behavior. This paper aimed to explore the influencing mechanism of job satisfaction on the safety behavior of NGCWs and examine the mediating role of safety knowledge sharing and work engagement. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis were applied to test the theoretical model. Empirical research results indicated that job satisfaction can effectively promote safety behavior through safety knowledge sharing and work engagement. Safety knowledge sharing plays a complete mediating role between job satisfaction and safety compliance behavior, as well as between job satisfaction and safety participation behavior. Moreover, work engagement plays a complete mediating role between job satisfaction and safety participation behavior, which can provide valuable management references for China’s construction companies to strengthen their safety behavior.

China’s construction industry is facing serious problems of aging construction workers and labor shortages. Improving the job satisfaction of construction workers is a key point for retaining existing construction workers and for attracting younger generations into the construction field in China. At present, the new generation of construction workers (NGCW) born after 1980 has been the main force on construction sites in China. Therefore, it is very important to study and explore the influencing factors of the job satisfaction of the NGCW. This paper aims to determine the influencing factors of job satisfaction of the NGCW through literature research and to clarify the interaction mechanisms and hierarchical structures of influencing factors using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) to design appropriate human resource practices to promote their job satisfaction. Research findings show that there are 12 main influencing factors of job satisfaction of the NGCW, which are at three levels: personal traits, job characteristics and social environment, and the influencing factors can be divided into a cause group and an effect group, including four layers: the root layer, controllable layer, key layer and direct layer in the multi-level hierarchical structure model. Furthermore, the critical influencing factors of the job satisfaction of the NGCW consist of education level, competency, career development, salaries and rewards, rights protection and work–family balance. This research enriches the job satisfaction literature of construction workers and provides an important reference for decision makers in construction enterprises and the construction industry to understand what influences the job satisfaction of the NGCW and how it is influenced to then improve it in China.

Burnout is at all-time highs across modern professions. As a typical labor-intensive industry, the high-pressure and task-driven nature of the construction industry makes construction workers more prone to burnout. It is still unclear whether increasing the professionalization level can lessen the many harmful consequences of job burnout on construction workers’ employment. Therefore, this study examined the influencing mechanism of professionalization on job burnout in the construction industry. First, a theoretical model based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory was developed with workload, job insecurity, and work–family conflict as moderating variables. A reliable sample of 441 Chinese construction workers were then recruited in the investigation. The data analysis was supported by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that: (i) an increase in the professionalization level could be directly effective in alleviating job burnout among construction workers; (ii) workload and work–family conflict could play an independent and continuous mediating role between professionalization and job burnout; and (iii) while job insecurity caused by a low professionalization did not have a direct impact on job burnout, it could have an indirect impact on job burnout through workload and work–family conflict, respectively. This study enriches the literature on job burnout among construction workers, as well as provides a theoretical basis and practical management guidance for Chinese construction companies to alleviate job burnout in workers from a professionalization standpoint.