Fung, I W H; Tam, V W Y; Sing, C P; Tang, K K W and Ogunlana, S O (2016) Psychological climate in occupational safety and health: The safety awareness of construction workers in South China. International Journal of Construction Management, 16(4), pp. 315-325. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
The number of accidents on construction sites has been depressingly high in the last 10 years. A broad variety of safety measures have been implemented on sites, such as encouraging workers to put on personal protective equipment and launching regular safety toolboxes. This has tended to strengthen safety awareness and improved compliance with safety regulations. The study of discrepancies in psychological climate among workers and how psychological climate interacts with external factors thus plays a prime role in understanding safety. This paper examines external factors with psychological climate that the workers possess on their safety awareness. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the construction industry in South China (Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau). A research hypothesis model is thus developed for understanding the interrelationship among parameters with respect to workers' psychological conditions. It emerged that two external factors ‒ physical working environment and social influence ‒ affect psychological conditions, whereas negative affectivity, risk-taking tendency and perceived utility of safety measures affect the safety awareness of the workers. Of these, the physical working environment has the strongest influence on negative affectivity and the perceived usefulness of safety measures has the strongest influence on safety awareness.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction workers; physical working environment; psychological condition; safety awareness; social influence |
| Index terms: | occupational safety and health, personal protective equipment, construction worker, construction industry, safety measures, Hong Kong, questionnaire, regulation, risk taking, compliance, Macau, survey, South China, perceived usefulness, construction site |
| Subjects: | occupational health and safety management, political science, behavioral psychology, industry analysis, decision-making and reasoning, physical geography and landforms, Geography, health safety and environment, work location, data collection methods, practitioner |
| Topics: | Site Management, Health and Safety, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Governance |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here