A goal setting approach to the practice of safety management in the construction industry: Three case studies

The construction industry's safety performance record confirms that the industry is a dangerous one to work in. Traditionally, measures aimed at improving the industry's safety performance have focused mainly on legislation. The HSE confirm that there are 110 inspectors to enforce the law on approximately 250, 000 projects per year. This demonstrates that HSE does not have the resources to supervise all sites and the reality is that the majority of sites are unlikely to receive even a single visit from an inspector. This has led to the rise of human factor approaches which attempt to change safety behaviours. In 1993 UMIST identified operative factors that influence construction accidents (e.g. poor housekeeping) and went on to sample the incidence of unsafe acts/conditions observed at a site. The management theory of Goal Setting was then used to motivate employees to improve their safety k performance. Findings demonstrated that behavioural techniques reduced the incidence unsafe operative behaviours by up to 60%. However, results were mixed on some sites due to low levels of management commitment. This suggests that behavioural techniques, applied to management safety, may also be required if safety is to fully improve.To investigate this, a behavioural safety measure aimed specifically at management was designed. This measure integrates the philosophy of safety audits (root cause analysis) and the philosophy of behavioural inspections (motivation) to form a 'Safety Management Behavioural Audit'. This gave rise to a measurement hypothesis which contends that the safety management behavioural audit can be I implemented as a valid indicator of management safety. Further, it was reasoned that the safety management behavioural audit could be used in conjunction with goal setting to improve measured safety performance. This led to the development of a motivational hypothesis that safety management performance will improve due to the addition of safety management goals. To test this hypothesis the following method was used. The dependent variable was management safety performance and the motivational independent variables were goals and feedback. A 'before and after' design was used to monitor change and this comprised a three month baseline of no goals and no feedback, compared with, a six month intervention of specific and difficult goals coupled with public feedback.These research propositions were investigated by collecting data for a period of nine months on three case study sites located at Stirling, Manchester, and Glasgow. Results revealed that goals and feedback were very effective in bringing about improved safety management at the Stirling site. Goals and feedback were effective in bringing about improved safety at the Manchester site, despite the presence of poor executive management commitment. Goals and feedback motivated slight improvements in safety management at the Glasgow case, despite higher than anticipated baseline scores. These results reveal that safety management can be reliably measured without an excessive use of resources and because of this the a priori measurement hypothesis was accepted. Furthermore, results support the goal setting proposition that a behavioural intervention, utilising goals and feedback, can be used to improve management safety performance and because of this the a priori motivational hypothesis was also accepted.