Talking Safety: Health and Safety Communication and Safety Climate in Subcontracted Construction Workgroups

Lingard, Helen; Pirzadeh, Payam; Oswald, David

doi:10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001651

Cited by 38 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Interestingly, subcontractor/supplier perceptions are different to other groups apart from the client. This is important and interesting since it reflects recent research by Loosemore (2014) and in particular Lingard et al (2019) who noted subcontractor's disempowerment in construction projects, the practice of subcontracting as a contributing factor in poor safety performance, the tendency for different sub climates to develop in project supply chains and the need for better safety-related communication between group members, to reduce the potentially damaging variance in perceptions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Identifying critical factors influencing the safety of Chinese subway construction projects

Zhang

Sunindijo

Loosemore

et al. 2020

ECAM

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PurposeThe image of the construction industry in China, as in many other countries, is tarnished by its poor safety record. With the rapid development of subway systems in Chinese urban areas, construction workers are being exposed to new risks which are poorly understood and managed. Subway construction projects are large scale and scattered over many construction sites, and involve numerous stakeholders and sophisticated technologies in challenging underground environments. Accident rates are high and have significant economic and social consequences for the firms and people involved. Addressing the gap in research about the safety risk in these projects, the purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of the factors influencing the safety of Chinese subway construction projects with the overall objective of reducing accident rates.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted with 399 subway construction professionals across five stakeholder groups. Follow-up interviews were also conducted with five experienced experts in safety management on subway projects to validate the results.FindingsIt was found that the eight most critical factors perceived by stakeholders to influence safety risks on Chinese subway projects are: project management team; contractor-related factors; site underground environment; safety protection during the use of machines; safety management investment; site construction monitoring and measurement; hazard identification and communication; and use of machines in all stages. This indicates that in allocating limited project resources to improve the safety of subway projects, managers should focus on: developing safety knowledge and positive attitudes in leadership teams; formulating effective risk management systems to identify, assess, mitigate, measure and monitor safety risks on site; improving communications with stakeholders about these risks and effectively managing plant, equipment and machinery.Originality/valueThis research contributes a new multi-stakeholder perspective to the lack of safety research in Chinese subway construction projects. The research findings provide important new insights for policymakers and managers in improving safety outcomes on these major projects, producing potentially significant social and economic benefits for society and the construction industry.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Identifying critical factors influencing the safety of Chinese subway construction projects

Zhang

Sunindijo

Loosemore

et al. 2020

ECAM

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“…Moreover, it has a significant influence on workers' awareness and behavior about safety [30][31][32][33]36,37]. In particular, in the case of construction sites where workers' unsafe behavior is considered the biggest cause of accidents [38], it is important to improve workers' safety behavior and attitudes by creating a safety climate within the organization [39][40][41] to reduce accidents. Fang, Chen, and Wong [42] analyzed the correlation between safety climate and safety behavior in construction sites in Hong Kong.…”

Section: Preliminary Study 21 Concept Of Safety Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, the safety climate is affected by safety behavior. Lingard, Pirzadeh, and Oswald [41] analyzed the correlation between the social network metrics of subcontracted construction workgroups and the safety climate. As a result, communication skills play a pivotal role to improve the safety climate.…”

Section: Preliminary Study 21 Concept Of Safety Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Relative Importance Analysis of Safety Climate Evaluation Factors Using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP)

Lim

Kim

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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Various studies have confirmed that the increasing quality of safety climate has a positive influence on reducing the occurrence of accidents. The quality of safety climate is comprehensively affected in three domains: management, site, and enterprise. At the company level, it is challenging to manage all areas at a high level due to limited managerial resources. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a strategy that improves the safety climate step by step. For the efficient execution of the strategy, it is necessary to analyze the relative importance of each evaluation factor of the safety climate and allocate managerial resources accordingly. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the relative importance of safety climate evaluation factors using the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) technique. For this study, AHP questionnaire and analysis are conducted, and the relative priorities of safety climate evaluation factors are derived. As a result, (E) workers’ safety priority and risk non-acceptance is the most important dimension among seven dimensions as the weight is 0.1900. In addition, (E1) compliance with safety regulations, even if the process is tight, is the most important one between items as the weight 0.6663. The results of this study will be used as basic data for institutional improvement and policy making for a high-quality safety climate at construction sites.

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“…Descriptive analysis was adopted to summarize the basic network characteristics. Correlation and linear regression analysis were used to uncover the relationships between network constructs and safety climate [78,104,105], project performance [7,60,115], management efficiency [69], individual performance [111,129], company's profit [66], organizational competitiveness [51], and individual coordination [74,75,86]. However, considering that social actors are embedded within the social environment [150], the observed correlation in linear regression analyses may result from the inherently interdependent nature of social relations [151].…”

Section: Research Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Complexity and Dynamics: A Bibliometric-Qualitative Review of Network Research in Construction

Cao

Shao

2020

Complexity

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Social network analysis (SNA) has gained increasing academic attention in the construction domain over the past two decades due to its capability to characterize the complexity and dynamics of interindividual and interorganizational interactions. To date, however, scant attempt has been made to develop an integrated framework to systematically review the diversified network research at different levels in this domain and to quantitatively characterize the evolution of related research interests and research instruments. This study aims to fill this gap by conducting a bibliometric-qualitative review based on 106 papers published from 1997 to 2020. Keyword cooccurrence analysis is employed to reveal the research foci, identify the research trends, and develop a comprehensive categorization framework, which classifies related research based on two interrelated dimensions: the type of network node (individual and organization) and the levelof network analysis (project level, corporate level, and industry level). The framework then facilitates further content analysis in terms of research topics, research designs, and research instruments. The results provide evidence that the research foci in this domain are generally moving towards addressing the complexity and dynamics of project-related relations at more diversified levels, in terms of not only research topics but also research instruments. Future research can be enriched by investigating the multiple types of dynamic interproject relationships, adopting state-of-the-art methodologies for network data collection and triangulation, and employing multiple SNA constructs and inferential statistical methods to reveal how complex networks coevolve and interact with actors’ behaviors as well as project and organizational outcomes.

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Talking Safety: Health and Safety Communication and Safety Climate in Subcontracted Construction Workgroups

Cited by 38 publications

References 66 publications

Identifying critical factors influencing the safety of Chinese subway construction projects

Identifying critical factors influencing the safety of Chinese subway construction projects

Relative Importance Analysis of Safety Climate Evaluation Factors Using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP)

Towards Complexity and Dynamics: A Bibliometric-Qualitative Review of Network Research in Construction

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