Identifying factors of collaboration critical for improving health and safety performance in construction projects: A systematic literature review

Collaboration is key to the success of construction project delivery. Several researchers have realised the importance of collaboration for health and safety (HS identification test method was used to identify collaboration factors. Using Scopus and Google Scholar, a total of 758 papers were identified. 57 papers were found to be relevant for review through content analysis and were analysed in terms of source and year of publication, research method, country of origin, and research focus. The review identified 11 critical success factors of collaboration: trust, culture, commitment, communication, clear roles and responsibilities, resource/information sharing, mutual goals, conflict resolution, early involvement of key participants, competence, and continual improvement. These factors can influence H&S performance in construction projects. Focusing on these factors can facilitate  collaboration, thus improving H&S performance. The limitation of this article is that the literature review covered a period between 2010 to 2019. Searches in other search engines might have provided additional information on collaboration. The findings of this study make way for future research into the impact of collaboration on H&S performance and provide an understanding that H&S performance can be improved by adopting collaboration. The review concludes that CI should adopt collaboration to influence H&S performance. 
Keywords: Construction industry, factors of collaboration, health and safety performance, literature review 
  
Samewerking is die sleutel tot suksesvolle konstruksieprojekte. Verskeie navorsers besef die belangrikheid van samewerking vir  gesondheids- en veiligheidsprestasies (GV die identifikasietoetsmetode is gebruik om samewerkingsfaktore te identifiseer. Met behulp van Scopus en Google Scholar is altesaam 758 artikels geidentifiseer. Daar is bevind dat 57 artikels relevant is vir hersiening deur middel van inhoudsanalise en is geanaliseerin terme van bron en jaar van publikasie, navorsingsmetode, land van herkoms en navorsingsfokus. Die oorsig het 11 kritieke  suksesfaktore van samewerking geidentifiseer: vertroue, kultuur, toewyding, kommunikasie, duidelike rolle en verantwoordelikhede, die deel van hulpbronne/inligting, onderlinge doelwitte, konflikoplossing, vroee betrokkenheid van sleuteldeelnemers, bekwaamheid en voortdurende verbetering. Hierdie faktore kan H&S-prestasie in bouprojekte beinvloed. Deur op hierdie faktore te konsentreer, kan dit samewerking vergemaklik en sodoende die prestasie van G&V verbeter. Die beperking van hierdie artikel is dat die literatuuroorsig ’n tydperk tussen 2010 en 2019 beslaan. Soektogte in ander soekenjins kon moontlik aanvullende inligting oor samewerking verskaf. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie maak plek vir toekomstige navorsing oor die impak van samewerking op G&V-prestasies en bied ’n begrip dat G&V-prestasies verbeter kan word deur samewerking. Die oorsig kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat die konstruksiebedryf samewerking moet aanneem om G&V-prestasies te beinvloed. 
Sleutelwoorde: Konstruksiebedryf, faktore van samewerking, gesondheids- en veiligheidsprestasies, literatuuroorsig

continual improvement. These factors can influence H&S performance in construction projects. Focusing on these factors can facilitate collaboration, thus improving H&S performance. The limitation of this article is that the literature review covered a period between 2010 to 2019. Searches in other search engines might have provided additional information on collaboration. The findings of this study make way for future research into the impact of collaboration on H&S performance and provide an understanding that H&S performance can be improved by adopting collaboration. The review concludes that CI should adopt collaboration to influence H&S performance.

Collaboration
There is no one universally accepted definition for collaboration. The vast majority of researchers agree that collaboration is about jointly working towards achieving common goals (Dietrich, Eskerod, Dalcher & Sandhawalia, 2010: 60;Patel, Pettitt & Wilson, 2012: 1;Ozturk, Arditi, Yitmen & Yalcinkaya, 2016: 798). In this article, collaboration refers to a process in which information, activities, responsibilities, and resources are shared to jointly plan, implement, and evaluate a programme of activities in order to achieve a common goal and a joint generation of value (Camarinha-Matos, Afsarmanesh, Galeano & Molina, 2009: 47-48). The concepts of collaboration in the CI are complex and are influenced by different factors during the execution of projects (Patel et al., 2012: 21).

Collaboration and health and safety management
H&S on construction projects is managed by project managers, designers, engineers, construction managers, and H&S professionals who have diverse work experiences, resources, and skill sets. These professionals contribute to H&S (Tymvios, Gambatese & Sillars, 2012: 342;Antonio, Isabel, Gabriel & Angel, 2013: 92). Dietrich et al. (2010: 70) argued that collaboration may lead to the creation of new or emergent knowledge or skills not possessed previously by every professional on the project. Collaboration between designers and construction professionals could be effective in reducing construction worker injuries and fatalities (Qi, 2011: 32). Based on this, Tymvios et al. (2012: 353) concluded that increased collaboration between professionals should be encouraged, in order to increase understanding of issues relating to H&S. Since each professional provides resources and a set of skills to the team, collaboration and communication become critical (Sebastian, 2011: 177), because collaboration is important for knowledge integration within projects (Dietrich et al., 2010: 68).
Although, the South African Construction Regulations 2014 and the United Kingdom (UK) Construction Design and Management (CDM) regulations 2015 (HSE, 2015: 17-18;Deacon, 2016: 83) require that all those involved in projects should collaborate and address H&S, the CI continues to experience accidents, injuries, and ill health, because of an apparent lack of collaboration among these professionals (Deacon, 2016: 223).

Search strategy
A systematic literature search was performed to identify critical success factors of collaboration. This search consisted of literature published between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2019. First, the Identification Test from Wu, Greenwood & Steel (2008) and Faris et al. (2019), which reviewed 35 articles/papers on factors of collaboration for influencing project performance in the CI from 2000 to 2018, was used to identify related keywords based on their frequency rate (Wu et al., 2008: 5). The Identification Test resulted in 11 most prevalent factors of collaboration (Table 1). The search was performed between 1 August 2019 and 25 February 2020. Thereafter, a systematic search of the literature was performed on 1 April 2020 on Google Scholar and Scopus (Li, Burnham, Lemley & Britton, 2010: 205-206). Free search phrases with Boolean search operators (AND, OR, NOT), including titles, abstracts and keywords, were used. In the main database search (Scopus and Google Scholar), two sets of entry terms were applied ( Figure 1). The first set of entry terms describes studies on collaboration that influence project performance in the CI. The second set of entry terms describes factors of collaboration in the CI to be considered for H&S performance.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: • Papers published between 2010 to 2019.
• Papers with more than four factors of collaboration.
• Factors of collaboration in the CI, factors of collaboration between H&S professionals and project participants, factors of collaboration in the CI, impact of collaboration on project performance, success factors of collaboration, and impact of collaboration on H&S performance in the CI.
Exclusion criteria: • Papers without the name of the author or the date of publication.
• Papers published prior to 2010 and post-2019.
• Papers investigating H&S performance mentioned nothing about factors of collaboration.

Identification of studies
The reference lists of the included literature were scanned, and relevant literature included. Only full text research papers on collaboration and the CI written in English were considered. Papers published in management science journals on the factors of collaboration were also considered, because some construction-related papers are published in management and social sciences journals. Papers that addressed collaboration, H&S performance and the CI, but did not include any factors of collaboration, were consequently removed. Another criterion was to target the majority of papers published by construction management journals such as supported the idea of using construction-related publications that publish peer-reviewed papers, as these journals also include reference to other publications such as conference papers, masters or doctoral dissertations.

Search findings
A total of 769 results from each individual database search (Google Scholar, 426 results, and Scopus, 343 results) were sent to Endnote X5 and Microsoft Excel and the papers' abstract and content were subsequently analysed (Rokni, Ahmad & Rokni, 2010: 230;Deep et al., 2019: 2;Jessica, 2011: 23-37). After removing duplicates, the number of results was 520. The second search returned 220 paper results ( Figure 1). Papers screened based on titles and abstracts produced 68 construction management papers and the use of references of the identified articles produced 10 nonconstruction management papers, some of which included dissertations. Seventy-eight papers were subjected to content analysis, in order to identify critical success factors of collaboration. Some of these factors of collaboration that influence project performance can be considered for H&S performance, but some of these factors are not limited to communication, trust, commitment, clear roles and responsibilities, culture, continual improvement, competence, early involvement of key participants, and top management. Full text analysis resulted in 58 relevant papers, to be used in the final analysis (see Figure 1). 10 additional papers included after using references of the identified papers.
Full paper text analysis resulted in 58 relevant papers.
Second search: Keywords: Factors of collaboration between H&S professionals and project participants, factors of collaboration in the CI, impact of collaboration on project performance, success factors of collaboration, and impact of collaboration on H&S performance in the CI. This search resulted in 220 papers.

Analysis of identified literature
One author scanned the titles and abstracts of the identified literature. Literature that did not comply with the inclusion criteria was excluded. The full text was obtained for articles, and inclusion was subject to consensus among all three of the authors. First, data analysis was performed on the 58 relevant studies to identify articles on collaboration that influence project performance in the CI. They were classified according to the author(s), year of publication, type of study/research methods used, country where the study was conducted, journal/source of publication, and the research purpose/focus of the study. The results were reported by arranging the year of publication in ascending order (see Table 2). Thereafter, results from the Identification Test (Table 1) were used as criteria to do data extraction by classifying the factors of collaboration in the CI. Based on Table 1, collaboration is demonstrated by 11 common factors. For this analysis, two factors were added, thus the criteria classified the data into      Table 3). One author performed data extraction, and a second author checked the results

Collaboration in the CI
The classification of articles on collaboration that influence project performance in the CI can be considered for H&S performance. Table 2 ranks the articles based on the year in which they were published.

Publication year and sources of publication
The construction journals delivered 46 of the 58 articles, the largest contribution came from the IJPM (11), the IJCM (6), the IJEC (4), other construction-related journals, and some papers from university masters and doctorate studies. Social and management sciences studies delivered 11 of the 58 articles. The inclusion of other articles besides construction management-related journals was an attempt to bring a balanced view on factors of collaboration. Publication sources included 51 journal articles and 7 papers from university masters and doctorate studies. The IJPM (11) has been the most used journal for publishing papers on collaboration factors in the CI. From the non-construction journals, Journal of Social and Behavioral Sciences provided 3 articles, which is the highest contribution. From 2010 to 2013, there was less focus on collaboration in the number of articles per year, but more articles focus on collaboration since 2014. This finding is consistent with a recent finding by Deep et al. (2019: 4), indicating that construction organisations and professionals are realising the benefits of collaboration in the CI.

Research methods used
Analysis based on the research methods used shows that most of the authors used surveys 18 (31%), literature reviews/conceptual 17 (31%), and case studies 16 (29%), while only a few 7 (13%) employed mixed method design in researching collaboration. Existing empirical studies investigating collaboration, for example by Suprapto, Bakker and Mooi (2015) and Ey et al. (2014), used case study method. The lack of studies on collaboration using the mixed method strategy points to a gap in knowledge.

Country of origin
Studies on collaboration were undertaken in over 25 countries. Researchers from Europe published 27 (49%) articles; UK 9 (16%); Asia 8 (14%); Sweden 6 (11%); Africa 6 (11%) (5 from South Africa); Middle East 6 (11%) (3 from Iran); Australia 5 (9%); North America 2 (4%), and India 2 (4%). Based on the analysis, Europe published almost half (49%) of the articles and Africa only 12%. This suggests that collaboration in the CI is more researched in Europe, with 9 articles in the UK and 6 in Sweden, while Africa only published 6 articles with 5 from South Africa. This could mean that, in Africa, there is less focus on collaboration in the CI and that research on collaboration is still at an early stage in Africa and South Africa. Only one paper from Africa (Tanzania) investigated the factors of collaboration. The study used a literature review to identify factors of collaboration in construction risk management.

Research purpose/focus of the study
Analysis on the research purpose/focus of the studies shows that researchers have investigated collaboration from many perspectives such as collaborative procurement 2 (13.7%); factors of collaboration in construction management 10 (17.2%); supply chain in construction and factors affecting collaboration 11 (18.9%); collaboration in the design building environment 8 (13.7%); contractor and subcontractor collaboration 4 (6.8%); client and contractor 4 (6.8%); collaboration models 5 (8.6%); barriers and benefits of collaboration 4 (6.8%), and other 10 (17.2%).
Only 4 (6.8%) studies investigated barriers to collaboration that are consistent with a study by Bemelmans et al. (2012: 355); only one study discussed the barriers or obstacles to partnering. Only 8 (13.6%) articles investigated interpersonal collaboration (client, contractor, subcontractor). This suggests that most of the studies are focused on interorganisational collaboration and a few studies focused on interpersonal collaboration.

Factors of collaboration in the CI to be considered for H&S performance
As the top-rated factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, trust is an important collaboration factor in project success (Phong-arjarn & Jeenanunat, 2011: 10;Meng, 2013: 423;Bond-Barnard, Fletcher & Steyn, 2018: 434). For project success, knowledge exchange on time, cost, quality and H&S objectives creates expectations between project participants and is more likely to determine the level of trust between project members (Hosseini et al., 2016: 244). A situation where project participants trust each other plays a critical role in ensuring collaboration (Msomba, Matiko & Mlinga, 2018: 152). A more recent study by Bond-Barnard et al. (2018: 466) confirmed that the degree of collaboration did indeed increase as the level of trust in the project increased. The level of trust between H&S professionals and line managers (Provan, Dekker & Rae, 2017: 27) is a key factor in influencing decision-making processes, as trust between team members influences the level at which the team performs (Patel et al., 2012: 5).
Rated as the top-two factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, communication is a key for minimising project conflicts where diverse professionals with varying levels of knowledge and skills are involved (Aghania, Ramzani & Raju, 2019: 125). Previous studies identified lack of communication as the reason for project participants failing to collaborate, due to distrust and poor relationships (Meng, 2012: 190;Pal et al., 2017Pal et al., : 1227. Information exchange among participants on achieving H&S goals (Lingard et al., 2014: 920) to improve project performance in the CI include formal and informal or verbal and written means of communication (HSE, 2008: 29;Jitwasinkul & Hadikusumo, 2011: 524). The importance of effectively communicating safety hazards and control measures among participants limits the probability of accidents (Pandit, Albert, Patil & Al-Bayati, 2018: 2 Resource/information sharing was rated one of the top-three factors of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects. Free information exchange between clients, designers and contractors (Jefferies, Brewer & Gajendran, 2014;Akintan & Morledge 2013;Ey et al., 2014) is critical for improving collaboration, overall project performance (Pal et al., 2017(Pal et al., : 1227, and successful project completion (Rahman et al., 2014a: 419). Sharing of information and resources is important not only for ensuring successful contractual relationships (Bemelmans & Voordijik, 2012: 355;Banerjee & Kumar, 2014: 188;Rahman et al., 2014a: 414), but also for effective supply chain collaboration, because sharing of information ensures that activities are executed efficiently and effectively (Banerjee & Kumar, 2014: 189).
As one of the top-three factors of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, mutual goals and commitment is key to improve collaboration between project participants (Pal et al., 2017(Pal et al., : 1227 and establishing mutual objectives among project stakeholders (Faris et al., 2019: 5). In general, project managers, designers, construction managers, and H&S professionals have conflicting objectives (Meng, 2013: 427), but mutual goals between project participants promote collaboration and better project performance (Hosseini et al., 2016: 250). H&S performance improvement through mutual goals and commitment is key when setting H&S objectives in the CI (ISO, 2018: 14).
Commitment was rated the top-four factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects and is important for interpersonal and interorganisational collaboration in the CI (Bond- Barnard et al., 2018: 439). Commitment from top management (Deep et al., 2019: 8) and individual project participants plays a vital role in achieving project H&S goals (Msomba et al., 2018: 155 Rated as the top-five factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, defining clear roles and responsibilities is important for successful collaborative relationships in the CI (Meng, 2013: 426;Kapogiannis & Sherratt, 2017). Clearly defined roles and responsibilities limit uncertainty and provide a fair distribution of the roles and responsibilities of project participants in H&S management (Aghania et al., 2019: 125). Unclear roles and responsibilities may lead to conflict that affects project team members psychologically and leads to poor performance (Patel et al., 2012: 10).
Conflict/problem resolution, as a factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, refers to resolving or dealing with issues such as technical problems and disagreements between partners (Banerjee & Kumar, 2014: 189) that may affect procurement, design, construction, and H&S processes. In the CI, setting proactive strategies for resolving conflict or problems is vital within a collaboration process, in order to save time, cost and improve H&S processes (Msomba et al., 2018: 156).
According to Patel et al. (2012: 4), culture exists at national, organisational and professional levels, showing that each organisation, nation and professional has its own way of doing things. A culture of blaming each other is prevalent in construction projects (Akintan & Morledge, 2013: 3) and influences performance, people/employee behaviour and their level of optimism (Meng, 2013: 190). A "no blame'' culture enabling collaboration in risk management (Msomba et al., 2018: 156). Managing risks in high-risk industries such as the CI includes setting H&S objectives and establishing a good H&S culture in the CI. This becomes necessary for the safe improvement of H&S performance (Lingard et al., 2009: 134;Nielsen, 2014: 7).
Competence/experience, as a factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, refers to knowledge, skills and experience among project team members that contribute to the success of the project (Msomba et al., 2018). Working in collaboration integrates relevant knowledge and skills from past work experience of project participants (Torneman, 2015: 23), increasing the project teams' competence and knowledge of construction H&S processes and enhancing their capability for delivering a successful project (Liu et al., 2017: 692). Developing competence in H&S management through training and adequate supervision (HSE, 2008: 31-32) gives project participants experience. Applying skills and knowledge helps them identify hazards on construction sites.
The support of top management, as a factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, is important for implementing a safety culture and safety standards (Charehzehi & Ahankoob, 2012: 306) and for establishing H&S policies and objectives in the CI (ISO, 2018: 9). This support is necessary to create a culture for collaborating between project participants (Faris et al., 2019: 5), in order to ensure that workers are safe (Charehzehi & Ahankoob, 2012: 304).
Top management also provides resources or funds for creating a safe workplace (Mohammandi, Tavakolan & Khosravi, 2018).
As a factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, early involvement of key participants such as project managers, designers, contractors, subcontractors and other consultants had the greatest impact on project innovation and improvement of project efficiency (Hosseini et al., 2016: 248). Early involvement of key project team members in H&S management who have specialised knowledge in project decision-making is linked to the adoption of higher work H&S risk controls (Emuze & Smallwood, 2014: 302).
Gain and pain sharing, as a factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, refers to shared profits or cost savings and shared losses, due to errors (for example, H&S) or cost increases between the parties in a construction project (Meng, 2012: 190). According to Faris et al. (2019: 2), in collaboration, risks and rewards are shared between all parties, but parties must find an effective way as to how to share risks and rewards between those involved, with a view to improving collaboration. One of the recommendations was to allocate risks and rewards fairly prior to tender. This will help improve project and H&S performance (Hasanzadeh et al., 2014: 816).
Although continuous improvement was rated the lowest factor of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects, it is a key element in H&S management practice (Andreas & Ida, 2018), because it is characterised by non-ending improvements in products, services and processes (Pal et al., 2017(Pal et al., : 1227. In H&S management, leading indicators such as audits, training, incident recalls (Hinze, Thurman & Wehle, 2013: 25;ISO, 2018: 23), percentage of accidents, frequency of H&S meetings, and the number of trained workers on H&S are used to ascertain if H&S performance is improving. Organisations with a "zero harm" policy will adopt the most effective leading indicators; that is, those that drive H&S management systems to continual improvement (Sinelnikov, Inouye & Kerper, 2015: 241).

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The review contributes to literature about collaboration in construction H&S and the factors that can be used to influence H&S performance. Findings show that there are 11 critical success factors of collaboration that can influence construction H&S performance: trust, communication, commitment, resource/information sharing, mutual goals, clear roles and responsibilities, culture, early involvement of key participants, competence, conflict resolution, and continual improvement. Based on reporting the number of included articles that mentioned or discussed the factor, the top three factors of collaboration critical for improving H&S performance in construction projects are trust (48); communication (47); resource/ information sharing, (43) and mutual goals and commitment (43).
During 2014-2019, studies investigating collaboration have increased, but studies on collaboration in the CI were limited in developing countries such as Africa. Limited studies used a mixed method research design and most of the studies were based on surveys, literature reviews, and case studies. The literature review revealed that few studies investigated factors of collaboration and barriers inhibiting collaboration in CI.
The limitation of this study is that the literature review and findings are based on studies done between 2010 and 2019 and that the unit of analysis was limited to studies obtained on Google scholar and Scopus databases. Searches in other search engines might have provided additional information on collaboration. The findings make way for future research into the impact of collaboration on H&S performance and provide an understanding that H&S performance can be improved by adopting collaboration.
The study presented in this article is based on work in progress and intermittent findings of an ongoing PhD research on a framework to improve H&S professionals' collaboration and value addition to H&S performance.