Despite efforts to promote gender diversity, the construction industry in Australia remains one of the most male-dominated industries. Women, compared to their male counterparts, progress m...

Organizations play an essential role in fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. Despite attempts to encourage gender diversity in the workplace, the construction industry in Australia remains one of the most male-dominated industries. Existing research tends to focus on identifying barriers to gender equality and women’s career development, with limited exploration of organizations’ current initiative implementation. To fill this research gap, this study aims to examine how organizations implement initiatives affecting gender equality and women’s career development in the Australian construction industry. This study applied the women’s empowerment framework and conducted a thematic analysis of diversity, inclusion, and equality policies, strategies, action plans, corporate reports, annual reports, and websites within the context of gender equality and women’s career development in construction companies. Through a comprehensive analysis, the study identifies prevalent practices and initiatives related to gender equality initiatives in the construction industry, synthesizing them into six themes: flexible working arrangements, inclusive and anti-discriminatory culture, promoting career development, recruitment, and promotion, shared caring responsibility, and strategic commitments. The findings also revealed areas for improvement, giving recommendations on how to further empower women in the construction industry through enhanced gender diversity initiatives. This study sheds light on the current state of gender diversity and inclusion efforts within construction companies and provides practical recommendations for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and organizational leaders who seek to foster more inclusive and equitable work environments.

Purpose: Construction workers’ safety compliance is attracting considerable critical attention as it plays a decisive role in improving safety on construction sites. This study applied the concept of differentiating safety compliance into deep compliance (DC) and surface compliance (SC) and relied on trait activation theory to investigate the effects of situational awareness (SA) and emotional intelligence (EI) on safety compliance.Design/methodology/approach: Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 239 construction workers in Australia, and these responses were statistically analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to validate the proposed model.Findings: Results revealed that both EI and SA positively impacted DC and negatively impacted SC. Moreover, SA partially mediated the link between EI and two types of safety compliance (DC and SC). The outcomes showed that construction workers’ ability in regulating their emotions could influence their perception of environmental cues and the effectiveness of safety compliance behavior.Originality/value: This study sheds light on investigating the antecedents of DC and SC from the perspective of trait activation theory. The findings also have practical implications, stating that construction site managers or safety professionals should consider providing training on construction workers’ EI and SA to enhance their willingness to expend conscious efforts in complying with safety rules and procedures, which can lead to improved safety outcomes.

Digital technologies have been widely adopted to improve efficiency, transparency, and decision making in the construction industry. However, regulatory processes such as building license and registration applications remain complex, fragmented, and difficult for applicants to navigate, particularly for early career practitioners and small businesses. This study presents the design and development of a graph-based retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) artificial intelligence (AI) system that assists users in applying for building licenses and registrations in Australia. By integrating eight regulatory burden frameworks, this study identified ten categories of licensing-related burden. A three-layer system architecture was subsequently proposed for the Australian construction licensing context, and a prototype is implemented using the New South Wales (NSW) regulatory framework. The system provides context-aware responses, step-by-step guidance, and tailored information based on user queries, thereby reducing regulatory burden for individuals, companies, and industry bodies. Prototype evaluation against general-purpose AI tools indicates improved information accessibility and reduced application-related friction in representative licensing scenarios. This study sheds light on AI-enabled regulatory support systems and demonstrates how graph-based RAG could improve accessibility and usability of construction related licensing processes. The findings have implications for policymakers, regulators, and researchers seeking to leverage AI to support digital transformation in the construction industry.