Safety management module to create social sustainability skills

Abstract

Purpose This study has a scope limited to a specific course and changes integrated to the core of the KTH naval architecture master program. The students in the program have earlier experience from engineering applications in a general sustainability perspective and understand the basic concepts within sustainability. Therefore, to introduce further steps a new course module was introduced in 2018 focusing on safety management and social sustainability. The purpose of this study is to identify and document the pedagogic lessons for a course module where sustainable development (SD) is discipline-specific. Design/methodology/approach This study is a case study that qualitatively investigates the stainability effects of the implementation of the new course module. The course and program activities are compared to the results of a previous study in 2017 on the sustainable development learning elements (SDLEs) in the program and discussed in relation to more general SD initiatives. Findings From the analysis, it is identified that the perspectives presented were new to a substantial part of the students. This study also shows that the effects of the specific module here studied, with a focus on the skill of maritime social sustainability development, differ from more general sustainability literacy. The new perspective affected the thinking about the core of the students’ studies, ship design, in a way that general knowledge on sustainability has not. This was achieved with a combination of suitable tools and perspectives in combination with contextual knowledge and a frame of reference. The contextual knowledge and a frame of reference are here present in education as a result of relating the sustainability case to the core of the program. Originality/value The result relates the pedagogical change described to SDLEs and to the ambition of conceive, design, implement and operate approaches. This paper contributes to the literature by providing a discussion on how social sustainability can be implemented in engineering education and the role of integrated discipline-specific sustainability modules.

The Mediating Role of Job Competence between Safety Participation and Behavioral Compliance

“…The death rate was significantly higher than that of any other industry, and there has been no obvious downward trend in recent years [ 3 ]. Falls, electric shocks, and impacts caused by violations of safety regulations are among the main causes of death [ 4 ]. Therefore, in the context of continuous severe safety issues in the global construction industry, the effective improvement of worker safety behavioral compliance and ensuring worker safety has become major strategic concerns related to the sustainable development of the construction industry [ 5 ].…”

Safety Management in Sustainable Construction Projects: A Conceptual Framework

“…In traditional construction sites, safety has required more hours of staff time than in any other setting (Kim et al, 2020;Kukoyi & Adebowale, 2021;Lee & Son, 2021;Li et al, 2015;Liwång, 2020). The reason is that workers are likely to keep moving from one place to another to complete their work on construction sites, and thus it could be difficult to identify and track the possible hazards as well as the likelihood of their occurrence (Kim et al, 2020;Li et al, 2015;Lee & Son, 2021;Liwång, 2020). It is also essential to recognize that each construction site has its accident rate (Yiu et al, 2018).…”

“…Consequently, a higher level of safety management would be required in such projects (Wu et al, 2017). In support, Okoye and Okolie (2013) mentioned that safe sustainable construction could only be attained through education and training, attitudinal change, beliefs, management commitment, perceptional change, and workers involvement (Liwång, 2020;Okoye, 2010;Tahmasebinia et al, 2020). Safe sustainable construction practices also require adequate consideration of the economic, social environmental, and political imperatives (Gunduz & Almuajebh, 2020;Okoye & Okolie, 2013;Tahmasebinia et al, 2020;Liwång, 2020;Wu et al, 2017).…”

“…In support, Okoye and Okolie (2013) mentioned that safe sustainable construction could only be attained through education and training, attitudinal change, beliefs, management commitment, perceptional change, and workers involvement (Liwång, 2020;Okoye, 2010;Tahmasebinia et al, 2020). Safe sustainable construction practices also require adequate consideration of the economic, social environmental, and political imperatives (Gunduz & Almuajebh, 2020;Okoye & Okolie, 2013;Tahmasebinia et al, 2020;Liwång, 2020;Wu et al, 2017). In other words, safe sustainable construction projects adopt more than just the traditional process of constructing structures and buildings sustainably, yet it should cover means that both the process and products become seen with sustainable backward and forward linkages (Gunduz & Almuajebh, 2020;Liwång, 2020;Okoye & Okolie, 2013;Tahmasebinia et al, 2020).…”

“…Considering the arguments about the effectiveness of safety management in sustainable construction projects (Grote, 2012;Kukoyi & Adebowale, 2021;Loushine et al, 2006;Marhavilas et al, 2018;Okoye & Okolie, 2013;Zacchei & Molina, 2020), the question on how to apply safety management components of tradition construction projects in sustainable construction project gains increased importance. The reason is that the relevant research in the last two decades has substantially discussed successful safety management in traditional construction projects (Kim et al, 2020;Kukoyi & Adebowale, 2021;Lee & Son, 2021;Li et al, 2015;Liwång, 2020), but did not address, efficiently, the issue of safety management in sustainable construction projects (Li et al, 2021;Loushine et al, 2006;Marhavilas et al, 2018;Okoye & Okolie, 2013;Robichaud & Anantatmula, 2011;Zacchei & Molina, 2020) Therefore, this research will fill this gap by constructing a conceptual framework that aims to integrate safety management in sustainable construction projects, to produce safe sustainable construction projects. In particular, this systematic review will investigate the essential safety management components that are needed to produce safe sustainable construction projects, and illustrate the research outcome in an effective conceptual framework.…”