Asah-Kissiedu, M; Manu, P; Booth, C A; Mahamadu, A M and Agyekum, K (2023) Integrated safety, health and environmental management in the construction industry: Key organisational capability attributes. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 21(6), pp. 1975-2007. ISSN 1726-0531
Abstract
Purpose: For construction organisations to be effective at implementing an integrated safety, health and environmental (SHE) management system, they require the right level of organisational capability. This capability includes the policies, systems and resources of the organisation. However, within the academic literature, it is unclear which organisational attributes of construction companies are important for implementing integrated SHE management. This study aims to explore the organisational attributes that determine integrated SHE management capability and their relative priorities. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a literature review supported by expert verification and a subsequent three-round expert Delphi technique accompanied by applying the voting analytical hierarchy process. Findings: The study identified 20 attributes grouped under five main thematic categories. These are strategy (the organisation’s vision and top management commitment); process (the organisation’s procedures and processes for SHE management); people (organisation’s human resources, their competence, roles, responsibilities and involvement in SHE management); resources (organisation’s physical and financial resources for SHE management) and information (SHE related documents, data, records and their communication across an organisation). While these thematic categories and the attributes within carry different weights of importance, the strategy-related attributes are the most important, followed by the people-related attributes. Originality/value: The results of this study should enable construction companies and key industry stakeholders to understand construction companies' capability to successfully implement an integrated SHE management system. Furthermore, construction companies should be able to prioritise efforts or investments to enhance their SHE management capability.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction industry; construction safety; Delphi method; environmental management; health and safety; health and safety issues; organisational capability; voting analytical hierarchy process |
| Index terms: | construction organization, Delphi method, construction industry, analytical hierarchy process, environmental management, commitment, strategy, literature review, construction company, health and safety, management system, construction safety, organizational capability, methodology, top management, competence, human resource, documents, Delphi technique, health and safety issues |
| Subjects: | organization, data collection methods, data analysis and analytics, psychology, professional development, personnel development, health safety and environment, research methods, sustainability assessment, management, environmental health, decision-making and optimization, industry analysis, sociology, occupational health and safety management |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Human Resources, Sustainability, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Information Management |
| 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