Chen, Q; Jin, R and Soboyejo, A (2013) Understanding a contractor's regional variations in safety performance. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 139(6), pp. 641-653. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Contractors' safety performance can vary widely in the construction industry. However, it has not been well recognized that variations in safety performance could exist in the same contractor's regional offices. There is also a lack of understanding of the differences between regions and what causes these variations. This paper analyzes the safety performance of a general contractor's six major regional branches across four states after implementation of a new safety management program. The research finds apparent differences in regional incident rates (IRs) and safety violation rates (SVRs), although the shared perceptions from workers and site management personnel about how the safety program is implemented (i.e., safety climate and culture) are generally consistent companywide. This research also discloses that regional IRs, SVRs, safety climate, and culture are uncorrelated in the long term (during the 17-month study period), but have some linear relationships over a short duration (during the 4-month survey period). The correlation analysis in this study does not find a significant influence of workers' demographic characteristics and a few other potential influencing factors on regional safety performance. These findings will provide useful insights to industry practitioners who aim to achieve good, consistent safety management and performance across regions.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | behavioral violation; incident rate; regional difference; safety climate; safety culture; safety performance |
| Index terms: | site management, duration, construction industry, implementation, influencing factor, safety culture, correlation analysis, practitioner, variation, program, safety performance, violation, safety management, safety climate, personnel, survey, general contractor |
| Subjects: | contractual arrangements, construction operations, practitioner, data collection methods, risk assessment, statistical analysis, industry analysis, regulatory law, occupational health and safety management, project controls, contractual condition, health safety and environment, software systems, management |
| Topics: | Contract Administration, Time Control, Site Management, Digital Applications, Legal Issues, Human Resources, Risk Management, Roles and Professions, Procurement, Health and Safety, Research Practice |
| 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