Dr Hazel Ponton

Assistant Professor

School: Architecture and Built Environment

Hazel Ponton joined Northumbria University as a Senior Lecturer in Construction Project Management in 2011, after a 10-year career as a Construction Manager in the north of England. Her industry experience includes working for Balfour Beatty and Laing O’Rourke on various construction projects, including two large hospitals, a university building and a Hilton hotel.

Hazel delivers a wide variety of undergraduate and postgraduate modules and supervision, including Management of People, Health, Safety and Wellbeing, and Construction Project Planning and Delivery. Hazel is also the UG Final Year Tutor. Hazel is passionate about the student experience. She uses her considerable contacts in industry to organise regular industry-engagement events. Hazel is also a member of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC). She has been involved with organising a number of webinars and a mentoring scheme to support female construction students during their early career. Alongside her teaching and learning responsibilities, Hazel is also currently in the final stages of a part-time PhD, which she commenced in 2016. Her research examines the social interactions that take place during project design team meetings.

Campus Address

CCW Wynne Jones Building WJ207

Email Hazel

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Having joined Northumbria University in 2011 as a Senior Lecturer in Construction Project Management, after a 10-year career as a Construction Manager, Hazel has a number of research interests that reflect her industry experience, these include; team dynamics (face to face and in a virtual setting), women in construction, and mental health issues in construction and academia.

Hazel commenced a part-time PhD in 2016. The research examines the social interactions that take place during project team design meetings. Hazel is particularly focused on social cohesion and intragroup conflict and how these social phenomena impact a team’s ability to solve problems and make decisions. Hazel plans to complete her PhD by Easter 2022. During the PhD process, Hazel has presented and published several conference papers at the Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM) international conference. A specific paper that examined the use of humour during construction design meetings was invited and subsequently was published in the Construction Management and Economics journal in 2019.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Digital leadership framework to support firm-level digital transformations for Construction 4.0, Gledson, B., Zulu, S., Saad, A., Ponton, H. 9 Jan 2024, In: Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management
Reporting on the Development of a Web-Based Prototype Dashboard for Construction Design Managers, Achieved through Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM), Gledson, B., Rogage, K., Thompson, A., Ponton, H. 25 Jan 2024, In: Buildings
A “central” perspective: The Video-enhanced Meeting Management and Behaviour (VMMB) method, Ponton, H., Thompson, N., Greenwood, D. 4 Sep 2023, Proceedings of the 39th Annual ARCOM Conference, London, Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM)
The importance of understanding Work-as-done: Implications for research and practice in organizational psychology, Thompson, N., Shapiro, E., Ponton, H. 27 Oct 2023, In: InPractice: The EAWOP Practitioners E-Journal
Challenges of Organisational Learning in a Netherlands Project-Based Organisation, Boerkoel, S., Gledson, B., Littlemore, M., Ponton, H. 5 Sep 2022, Proceedings of the 38th Annual ARCOM Conference, Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM)
‘The power of humour to unite and divide: a case study of design coordination meetings in construction’, Ponton, H., Thompson, N., Greenwood, D. 4 Sep 2020, ARCOM
Exploring the Designer-Constructor Teamwork Interface to improve Collaboration: A review of current literature, Ponton, H., Osborne, A., Greenwood, D., Thompson, N. 2 Sep 2019, ARCOM 2019: 35th Annual Conference – Leeds, UK
The power of humour to unite and divide: a case study of design coordination meetings in construction, Ponton, H., Osborne, A., Thompson, N., Greenwood, D. 4 Nov 2019, In: Construction Management and Economics
Understanding the dynamics of construction design team meetings through joint laughter, Ponton, H., Osbourne, A., Greenwood, D., Thompson, N. 3 Sep 2018, 34th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference, ARCOM 2018
Mould release technologies with regard to concrete surface finish, Shyha, I., Richardson, A., Coventry, K., Ponton, H. 1 Jan 2016, In: Magazine of Concrete Research