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5.0 4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5
0
4.35
4.25
4.01
4.13
Small company Large company
2.68
4.36 4.30
Health and safety
4.09
3.91
4.00 3.92
2.55
Management commitment to safety
Social support
Work conditions
Production pressure
Safety motivation
Safety knowledge
Figure 2: Levels of safety climate factors in large and small construction companies. 0=lowest level and 5=highest level.
Supportive environment key
The survey identi ed several ndings:
● Management safety commitment was very important. A higher level of management
commitment to safety:
• leads to more social support on site,
i.e. support from supervisors and
co-workers
• reduces workers’ perception of produc-
tion pressure.
● Social support and production pres-
sure can directly a ect workers’ safety behaviour, safety motivation and safety knowledge.
● Workers’ on-site safety behaviour is related to their safety motivation and safety knowledge.
● Workers are more motivated and compe- tent in a supportive environment. When production pressure increases, both safety motivation and knowledge decrease.
● Large construction companies with over 20 employees tend to have a higher level of safety climate (and a more favourable perception of safety) than those with fewer than 20 employees (see Figure 2).
Three accident prevention strategies
The ndings have signi cant implications for construction safety management,
particularly for reducing unsafe behaviour on site.
It is clear that the causes of human error can be traced to management, group and individual levels.
Accordingly, a combination of three acci- dent prevention strategies are suggested – safe organisations, safe groups and safe workers.
Safe organisations
Senior managers need to set the tone and tempo for safety management by consist- ently demonstrating leadership.
Ongoing e orts should be made to ensure that safety is a priority over production, as this is critical for developing an on-site safety climate. At present, it is not uncommon to see inconsistencies between what managers say and what they do when managing on-site safety.
Safe groups
Senior managers play a significant role in enabling adequate supervision and teamwork on site, so it is important that they are aligned with site supervisors on safety issues.
Social support from supervisors and workmates is critical in promoting safety behaviour.
Supervisors and co-workers should provide guidance, oversight and training
and track workers’ quali cations and safety performance.
The safe groups strategy is necessary as construction is highly decentralised and the impact of senior managers is hard to maintain on site. As a result, workers are mainly in uenced by daily interactions with their supervisors and co-workers.
Safe workers
Equipping workers with adequate knowledge and skills and improving their safety aware- ness and attitude are essential. Threats from various sources can undermine workers’ safety knowledge and motivation.
From a human resources perspective, frontline workers are typically less educated than in other industries, highlighting a need for ongoing safety education.
Construction work is also dynamic, and workers have some freedom when performing their jobs. With the most di - cult jobs, site safety is heavily dependent on adaptive behaviour.
Adequate safety knowledge and skills and improving safety motivation with training, hazard information and toolbox meetings are often the prerequisites for workers to make the right decisions.
Note Brian Guo received a BRANZ post­ graduate scholarship to undertake this study.
76 — December 2015/January 2016 — Build 151
FEATURE SECTION
Safety climate (likert scale)