Smallwood, J (2005) The role of optimum health and safety (H&S) in construction marketing. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 21st Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2005, London, UK.
Abstract
Anecdotal evidence and literature indicate that clients in developing countries are placing increasing emphasis on H&S, which manifests itself in the inclusion of H&S as a pre-qualification criterion. Optimum H&S performance also enhances overall performance and efficiency, which results in reduced cost of production. Reduced cost of production in turn, results in increased competitiveness in the market place. Given the findings of literature and anecdotal evidence a study was conducted among general contractors (GCs), which had achieved a place in the Building Industries Federation South Africa (BIFSA) National H&S Competition to determine the role of H&S in construction marketing. The salient findings include: clients primarily pre-qualify GCs relative to legislated related H&S issues, such as registration for compensation insurance, programme, and policy; clients also do so relative to accountability, H&S star grading status, and H&S statistics and require project H&S reporting, and TQM related H&S phenomena contributed to the acquisition of work, or additional work. The findings clearly indicate the role and benefits of investing in H&S and reinforce the contention that optimum H&S does provide 'better practice' H&S GCs with a competitive edge. Recommendations include that 'better practice' H&S GCs should continue to enhance their H&S related practices to maintain and enhance their competitive advantage.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction; marketing; health and safety; competitiveness |
| Index terms: | programme, accountability, acquisition, construction marketing, general contractor, health and safety, developing country, competitive advantage, efficiency, compensation, statistics, South Africa, competition, evidence, competitiveness, marketing, placing, insurance, building industry, pre-qualification |
| Subjects: | market analysis, project controls, industry analysis, liability law, concrete and cementitious materials, performance management, tendering, health safety and environment, Geography, development economics, economic analysis, evaluation and assessment methods, business, mathematical modelling, dispute resolution, practitioner |
| Topics: | Construction Materials, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Procurement, Roles and Professions, International Construction, Quality Management, Legal Issues, Time Control |
| 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