What have we learnt from the COVID-19 global pandemic: improving the construction industry’s abilities to foresee, respond to and recover from future endemic catastrophes (Special issue)

Journal article, 2021

Public health experts have strongly supported the need for companies to play their part in the global management of the COVID-19 pandemic, by providing training, screening, health surveillance and care. Occupational health and safety issues have become critical strategic concerns for organizations and industry sectors when making decisions about the management of business operations during the pandemic.

There is emerging research documenting successful adaptations made by construction organisations to minimise the health and safety impacts of COVID-19, including modified work practices, flexible work arrangements, improved hygiene practices and welfare facilities. While the COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for the construction industry, it has also prompted researchers and practitioners to reflect on the lessons that have been and continue to be learned and the role that the effective management of health, safety and well-being has played (and can continue to play) in ensuring organizational resilience and business continuity.

The aim of this special issue is to analyse, understand and document the way in which construction industries across the globe have responded to and experienced (and continue to experience) the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as what they have learnt during this extraordinary period. The special issue seeks to collate evidence as to what worked well and what did not, and why, and to identify and share lessons learned in relation to strengthening the global construction industry’s risk governance mechanisms, bolstering organizational resilience and reducing vulnerability to transboundary crises that might arise in the future.

This special issue focuses on the variety and effectiveness of health and safety management responses at: macro (industry/policy), meso (organizational/project) and micro (workgroup/individual) levels implemented by the global construction industry in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.