Informal Safety Communication of Construction Workers: Conceptualization and Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Existing studies have highlighted the importance of informal safety communication among workers at construction sites. However, there is still a lack of empirically tested theoretical models with valid and reliable scales for describing and measuring construction workers’ informal safety communication (CWISC). Accordingly, this study aimed to fill this need by developing an instrument to assess the communication performance of construction workers. Four stages of scale development were described: construct formation, item generation, factor extraction through the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (n = 219), and scale assessment through the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n = 156). Using questionnaire data drawn from construction workers in China, the CWISC was verified to be a three-dimensional construct including citizenship safety communication (CSC), self-needed safety communication (SSC), and participatory safety communication (PSC). The corresponding CWISC scale with 12 items was shown to have acceptable internal consistency reliability, as well as content, convergent, and discriminant validity. The CWISC scale could serve as an instrument to assess and identify the weaknesses in informal safety communication performance of construction workers. In turn, this information could help supervisors implement appropriate management practices to those workers to enhance workplace informal safety communication. Related studies taking a multidimensional CWISC into account were expected to be carried out.

Impact of challenge and hindrance job stressors on informal safety communication of construction workers in China: the moderating role of co-worker relationship

“…The measurement for challenge stressors consists of six items, and the other five items are assigned to hindrance stressors. Informal safety communication was measured by twelve items developed by Cong et al . (2022).…”

“…The stress of meeting schedules can push workers to bypass time-consuming and unclear safety procedures, resulting in avoidance of informal safety communication (Laurent et al, 2018). For instance, the time expenditure on informal safety communication was reported by construction workers (Cong et al (2022) as a reason for keeping silent about safety threats. Therefore, this research examines the relationship between two types of job stressors and informal safety communication of construction workers.…”

“…The measurement for challenge stressors consists of six items, and the other five items are assigned to hindrance stressors. Informal safety communication was measured by twelve items developed by Cong et al (2022). Among them, five items were designed for SSC, and CSC contained four measuring items, the remaining three items were attached to PSC.…”

“…Informal safety communication refers to temporary, private safety-related exchanges that occur outside of formal organizational activities (Cong et al ., 2022). This construct is an extension of organizational communication in the construction industry.…”

“…For example, Meng and Chan (2020) used the item “When my colleagues are in a dangerous situation, I will remind and help them in time” to measure safety citizenship behaviors in construction workgroups. However, a recent study systematically proposed and tested a three-dimensional model, where informal safety communication was further classified into three types based on intrinsic behavioral motivation (Cong et al ., 2022). The first type, called self-needed safety communication, refers to the informal safety exchange that focuses on maintaining self-safety.…”