Wu, C; Song, X; Wang, T and Fang, D (2015) Core dimensions of the construction safety climate for a standardized safety-climate measurement. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 141(8): 04015018, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
The prevalent disparity and divergence in the identification of safety-climate dimensions in the academia cause general confusion and inconvenience to both construction researchers and practitioners in terms of safety-climate measurement. Existing review studies identified several key dimensions or common features of safety climate, but only in a qualitative way. Whether these common features fit the reality and reflect the essence of construction safety climate is still to be verified by empirical studies. This research defined the core dimension and specific dimension of safety climate, identified the four most commonly used dimensions, and built a core dimension structure of safety climate accordingly. Empirical data collected from 21 Chinese construction enterprises were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. The proposed core dimension structure and the corresponding measurement scale were validated rigorously by structural equation modeling approaches. Furthermore, two specific subgroups of the enterprises were analyzed to prove that the core dimension structure also applies to specific construction enterprise types, such as building contractors and specialty trade contractors. It is concluded that the proposed core dimension structure of safety climate is applicable in construction practices, especially to building enterprises. Practical implications of the safety-climate core dimension research are discussed in detail. This study contributes to the construction safety-climate study primarily by depicting relationships among the common dimensions as well as relationships between common dimensions and specific dimensions, which have rarely been involved or interpreted deeply in the past research. This can in turn facilitate the standardization of construction safety-climate measurement by providing a unified criterion (core dimension structure of safety climate) for both researchers and practitioners. It is a valid starting point to design specific measurement scales in different settings.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction safety; core dimensions; labor and personnel issues; safety climate; structural equation modeling |
| Index terms: | academia, standardization, empirical study, dimension, disparity, building contractor, subgroup, practitioner, trade contractor, construction safety, safety climate, personnel, structural equation modelling |
| Subjects: | practitioner, health monitoring assessment and metrics, research methods, management, performance measurement, health safety and environment, educational institutions, research management, social justice, environmental health, statistical analysis |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Sustainability, Quality Management, Human Resources, Ethics, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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