Choudhry, R M; Fang, D and Lingard, H (2009) Measuring safety climate of a construction company. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 135(9), pp. 890-899. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Safety climate can benefit contractors, specialty contractors, and owners of industries by providing them with the knowledge of attitudes and perceptions that can help to consistently achieve better safety performance. The objective of this research was to determine safety climate that would enhance safety culture and positively impact perceived safety performance on construction projects. A safety climate questionnaire survey was conducted on the construction sites of a leading construction company and its subcontractors in Hong Kong. Approximately, 1,500 hard copy questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was excellent, resulting in 1,120 valid questionnaires being collected from 22 construction projects. By means of factor analysis, two underlying safety climate factors were extracted, accounting for 43.9% of the total variance. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that these climate factors, "management commitment and employee involvement" and "inappropriate safety procedure and work practices" were significant predictors of workers' perceptions of safety performance. The findings indicated that the relationship between perceived safety performance and "inappropriate safety procedure and work practices" was inversely correlated. The results suggest that safety climate can be used as an effective measure of assessing and improving site safety for projects under construction. The findings of this study and the methodology might be useful for research at other construction sites in other regions and countries. This work provides useful information for project managers and safety practitioners who desire to improve safety climate and safety performance on construction sites.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction companies; construction sites; contractors; regression analysis; safety |
| Index terms: | factor analysis, regression analysis, project manager, variance, Hong Kong, employee involvement, safety culture, specialty contractor, owner, practitioner, questionnaire, methodology, work practice, construction project, safety performance, subcontractor, accounting, multiple regression analysis, safety climate, survey, construction company, commitment, construction site |
| Subjects: | organization, data collection methods, profession, practitioner, work location, psychology, economic analysis, professional practice, research methods, management, production management, health safety and environment, Geography, measurement and scaling, sociology, occupational health and safety management, statistical analysis |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Site Management, Human Resources, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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