Hartley, R and Cheyne, A (2009) Safety culture in the construction industry. In: Dainty, A R J (ed.) Proceedings of 25th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2009, Nottingham, UK.
Abstract
The concepts of organisational culture and safety culture are now established as potential explanations of unsafe acts and organisational failures. However, in the construction industry groups may form in different ways, for example, site or trade cultures. The aim of this research is to understand how cultures form when the essential characteristic of organisational stability is not necessarily present. This research seeks to establish at what level meaningful cultures form, specifically investigating if there is an overarching industry safety culture and subcultures within it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 industry experts. Interviewees were from different organisations, with several years experience of numerous sites in senior management roles and knowledge of what constitutes safe work behaviour. The interviews were analysed to establish key, culture related, themes. There was general agreement that cultures formed at the site level and that this was determined by site management. Perceptions of the site could influence workers safety behaviour; with individuals changing their behaviour depending on what they think is appropriate in different work settings. There were differences of opinion on whether certain professions or trades were more or less safe. However, there was agreement that larger firms had more resources to manage health and safety effectively. It was also noted that sometimes there were differences between what sub-contractors and contractors deemed to be safe. Due to the dynamic, changeable nature of the industry, it appears that organisational cultures do not form in the traditional sense. Rather, cultures may form quickly around a specific site, indicating the important role played by site management in transmitting the organisation s safety ethos.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | health and safety; organisational culture; multilevel perspective |
| Index terms: | sub-contractor, site management, profession, multilevel perspective, organizational culture, construction industry, health and safety, interview, safety culture, safety behaviour, stability |
| Subjects: | occupational health and safety management, sociology, industry analysis, structural engineering, health safety and environment, construction operations, data collection methods, research design and methodology, institututions, practitioner |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Organizational Design, Site Management |
| 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