Sunindijo, Riza (2012) Skills for developing safety climate in construction projects. PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Abstract
Despite its contribution to the global and national economies, the construction industry is notorious for being unsafe. In such an environment, project management personnel play an important role in leading safety task implementation and creating positive safety climate in construction projects. This, subsequently, leads to accident prevention through the efforts of eliminating unsafe acts and conditions. In order to do so, project management personnel need to possess sufficient skills. Therefore, this present research has investigated the role of project management personnel's skills (comprising conceptual, human, political, and technical skills) in implementing safety management tasks and developing safety climate. This research applied mixed methods research design. Two hundred seventy-three quantitative data were collected using online surveys and were analysed using structural equation modelling method to develop a model that shows relationships between the research variables. Thereafter, qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews with eight experienced construction practitioners. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis to find recurring themes.The results of the quantitative analysis show that self-awareness, visioning, and apparent sincerity are the foundation skills scoping and integration, and self-management are the first-tier mediator skills and social awareness, social astuteness, and relationship management are the second-tier mediator skills. These skills contribute to the implementation of safety management tasks, which leads to safety climate development. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts identified two main recurring themes. The first theme is the verification of the final model derived from the quantitative analysis. The second theme focuses on methods to develop the important skill components for improving construction safety performance. This also involves training and learning processes that should be provided.The research findings have provided empirical evidence on the relationships between project management personnel's skills, safety management tasks, and safety climate. Another unique theoretical contribution is confirming the role of political skill in construction management, particularly to manage safety. Practically, the important skill components have also been determined, thus helping project management personnel and construction organisations prioritise and strategise in their skill development process. Furthermore, construction organisations should incorporate safety management tasks in their existing safety management systems because of their positive influence in developing safety climate.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | human skill; conceptual skill; mixed methods; political skill; safety climate; safety management tasks; skill development; technical skill |
| Index terms: | construction project, human skill, integration, evidence, thematic analysis, quantitative analysis, conceptual skill, construction safety, accident prevention, personnel, interview, safety climate, technical skill, structural equation modelling, skills development, construction practitioner, survey, political skill, relationship management, national economy, implementation, construction industry, project management, safety management system, construction organization, mediator, mixed method, safety management task, research design |
| Subjects: | economic analysis, contractual arrangements, organization, evaluation and assessment methods, capability, cognitive psychology, health safety and environment, production management, data analysis and analytics, research design and methodology, data collection methods, dispute resolution, organizational analysis, statistical analysis, environmental health, industry analysis, management, personnel development, project management theory and practice, professional development, methods and analysis, employment law |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Sustainability, Procurement, Project Management, Health and Safety, Organizational Design, Human Resources, Information Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy |
| 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