Communication on construction sites is crucial for improving overall construction performance. Cultural barriers influence the clarity of communication between construction supervisors and Hispanic workers on U.S. construction sites, which affects safety performance. In this study, Hispanic workers’ perspectives regarding active cultural differences (ACD) were collected, analyzed, and compared to supervisors’ perspectives and responses that were reported earlier. The results confirmed the existence of three active cultural differences: high power distance, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance. Although the goal of the study was primarily to investigate active cultural differences, the results revealed additional important factors that affect Hispanic construction workers, such as daily work conditions, the effectiveness of government agencies’ regulations, workers’ legal status, and reporting nonsevere injuries. Very few, if any, empirical studies have focused on cultural diversity on U.S. construction sites. Therefore this study provides a meaningful understanding of the nature and influence of cultural differences, which in turn helps construction supervisors manage their diverse workforce as well as aids future research studies that are focused on cultural diversity.

Recent government statistics have revealed a high rate of fatalities among Hispanic workers in the U.S. construction industry. This study investigates the root causes of this issue as well as the existing attempts to manage these causes effectively. Cultural barriers are one of the root causes that have not been fully explored. This detailed investigation expands into an exploration of cultural barriers and differences, variables that are directly attributable to construction site safety. A survey instrument was designed to evaluate the existence and influence of these differences at U.S. construction sites, and data were collected from construction supervisors across the United States. The results of the survey strongly suggest the existence of two differences: high power distance and collectivism cultural dimensions. Based on the survey results and feedback from construction supervisors, recommendations for best practices in workforce development that guides construction professionals and resear...

In this research, the application of two scalarization methods, namely the conic scalarization method and the $\varepsilon$-constraint method, is investigated within the context of a multi-objective optimization problem. These methods are used to address the challenge of assigning nurses to patients on a hospital unit during a shift. The two objective functions of this assignment problem are based on patient workload metrics and unit-related travel distance measures. The proposed solution approach demonstrates the ability to generate solutions that eluded the previous mathematical programming techniques that relied on simplistic weightings of conflicting objective functions. In addition, it is found that the $\varepsilon$-constraint method outperforms the conic scalarization method in terms of solution time. This work contributes to enhancing our understanding of effective strategies for addressing complex workload distribution challenges within healthcare settings.