Diverse Impact of Sensitive Sub-Categories of Demographic Variables on Safety Climate of High-Rise Building Projects (original) (raw)
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Construction industry is contributing 2.39% to the GDP of Pakistan and is employing over four million people; however it is the second most injury prone industry, where employees often have to work under extreme weather conditions without taking precautionary measures. Construction of multi-storey buildings is at increase in the major cities where large and medium sized companies are working as main and sub-contractors; however these projects are suffering from fatal accidents, as safety measures are not rigorously enforced. This paper therefore presents a research framework to identify the safety climate factors which can significantly enhance the safety performance in the construction of multi-storey buildings. The quantitative data, split into calibration and validation sample, are being analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis by examining the causal relationship between the safety climate and safety performance. Structured interviews and Delphi survey are being conducted to identify and prioritize; the causes of accidents, the impediments in the safety implementation, and the strategies to enhance the safety performance. The qualitative findings about neglected safety aspects are also discussed. Proposed safety climate measurement model would be useful to measure, monitor and improve the safety performance of construction companies in the developing countries.
Empirical Analysis of Construction Safety Climate – A Study
Safety in the construction industry has always been a major issue. Though much improvement in construction safety has been achieved, the industry still continues to lag behind most other industries with regard to safety. The safety climate of any organization consists of employee's attitudes towards and perceptions of, health and safety behavior. Construction workers attitudes towards safety are influenced by their perceptions of risk, management, safety rules and procedures. A measure of safety climate could be used to identify those areas of safety that need more attention and improvement. The dynamic nature of safety climate, which has the ability to change on daily basis, means there is a great need for reliable tools that can measure safety climate. Safety climate is a leading performance indicator that can provide insight into safety performance before accidents have occurred. In the present study a questionnaire was framed to ascertain safety climate in major construction organizations across India involved in construction of Thermal power plants, Hydro power plants, Highway projects, Bridge works, Refinery works, High rise works, Pipe line works and Dam woks and its content validity was verified. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was tested by using Cronbachs alpha coefficient. Data was collected based on questionnaire from employees working in various construction firms in India. The results of questionnaires survey was tested statistically by using the Kruskal – Wallis test to ascertain the attitudes of different categories of employees towards safety climate.
This study attempts to validate a safety performance (SP) measurement model in the cross-cultural setting of a developing country. In addition, it highlights the variations in investigating the relationship between safety climate (SC) factors and SP indicators. The data were collected from forty under-construction multi-storey building projects in Pakistan. Based on the results of exploratory factor analysis, a SP measurement model was hypothesized. It was tested and validated by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on calibration and validation sub-samples respectively. The study confirmed the significant positive impact of SC on safety compliance and safety participation, and negative impact on number of self-reported accidents/injuries. However, number of near-misses could not be retained in the final SP model because it attained a lower standardized path coefficient value. Moreover, instead of safety participation, safety compliance established a stronger impact on SP. The study uncovered safety enforcement and promotion as a novel SC factor, whereas safety rules and work practices was identified as the most neglected factor. The study contributed to the body of knowledge by unveiling the deviations in existing dimensions of SC and SP. The refined model is expected to concisely measure the SP in the Pakistani construction industry, however, caution must be exercised while generalizing the study results to other developing countries.
Investigation of demographic factors relationship with safety climate
2012
Demographic factors as age, education, experience, marital status, dependents, employment and habits have influenced workers‟ safety perceptions. Perceptions portray the psychological construct of safety culture i.e. safety climate, which needs to be clear and positive. Safety climate as pivotal construct (perceptual) of safety culture shared common grounds as beliefs, values and attitudes for safety. This study is an attempt to investigate the relationship between demographic factors and safety climate, benchmark the perceptual trends in Pakistan. A safety climate questionnaire (40 statements with likert scale) survey was conducted on 36 construction projects with excellent response rate (83.33%). Mean safety climate score approach was adopted for current study to compare the categories of demographic factors. Results showed age group (41 to 50 years), married respondents, respondents with more than 7 dependents, all respondents with basic education, respondents employed in joint v...
Buildings
The Indonesian construction industry is a significant contributor to economic growth in Indonesia. However, poor safety performance limits its contributions due to the negative impacts of poor safety on project performance. This research aims to assess the level of the safety climate in the Indonesian construction industry, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and understand the influence of individual demographic characteristics on the safety climate. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey from 1757 respondents working in six large state-owned construction companies in Indonesia. Results indicate that the overall safety climate level is fairly good. However, the safety climate scores of individual safety climate items are observed to vary widely. The scores reveal that construction employees understand the importance of safety and management demonstrates a degree of safety commitment, particularly by having regular safety communications. In contrast, the implementation ...