Kum, Y T; Yap, J B H; Lew, Y L and Lee, W P (2024) COVID-19 health and safety challenges on construction sites: Unfolding novel dimensions for construction industries in developing countries. International Journal of Construction Management, 24(2), pp. 187-198. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
A sudden COVID-19 outbreak has significantly impacted construction site health and safety (H&S). Against this backdrop, this paper aimed to explore the major challenges for pandemic management in implementing COVID-19 H&S measures on construction sites, particularly in developing countries. Following a comprehensive literature review, a total of 20 relevant challenges were identified. A self-completion questionnaire survey involving Malaysian construction practitioners was further employed to prioritize these challenges using descriptive statistics. Finally, a factor analysis unfolded five major underlying dimensions of these challenges, relating to lack of resources and inherent nature of construction, negligence and ignorance, low-wage blue-collar workforce, ineffective H&S management and poor sanitizing and disinfecting strategies. This work is a valuable reference in assisting industry practitioners to further enhance H&S performance during a communicable disease outbreak such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the findings highlighted the current deficiencies of the H&S system in the context of a developing country and the necessity to devise responsive strategies in curbing the transmission of future diseases.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | challenges; COVID-19; developing countries; health and safety measures; safety management |
| Index terms: | health and safety, COVID-19, developing country, negligence, survey, construction practitioner, literature review, strategy, construction site, practitioner, questionnaire, safety management, outbreak, pandemic, factor analysis, construction industry, dimension, statistics |
| Subjects: | mathematical modelling, data collection methods, practitioner, work location, health monitoring assessment and metrics, data analysis and analytics, health risk and incident analysis, management, development economics, professional development, health safety and environment, occupational health and safety management, statistical analysis, liability law, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, International Construction, Site Management, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Information Management, Roles and Professions |
| 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