Sparer, E H (2015) Improving health and safety in construction: The intersection of programs and policies, work organization, and safety climate. DSc thesis, Harvard University, USA.
Abstract
Statement of Problem: Despite significant advancements in occupational health and safety in recent decades, injury rates in commercial construction remain high. New programs that address the complexity of the construction work environment are needed to keep workers healthy and safe. Methods: The first step of this dissertation was to explore associations between organizational programs and policies, as measured by a Contractor Safety Assessment Program (CSAP) score, and worker safety climate scores. Next, a safety communication and recognition program was developed and piloted. It was evaluated through a mixed methods approach in a randomized controlled trial. Primary outcome measures included safety climate, awareness, communication, and teambuilding. Additionally, the dynamic nature of the construction site was quantified through an analysis of the determinants of length of stay of construction workers on the worksite. Results: Correlations between CSAP scores and safety climate scores were weak at best, thus highlighting a gap in communication between management and workers. The B-SAFE program, a safety communication and recognition program was developed to meet this gap. It used data from safety inspection scores to provide feedback to workers on hazards and controls, and provided a reward when the site met a pre-determined safety inspection threshold (a measure that was fair, consistent, attainable and fair). In the final program design, the whole site was treated as the unit of analysis. B-SAFE led to many positive changes, including a statistically significant increase in safety climate scores of 2. 29 points (p-value=0. 012), when adjusting for time-varying parameters and worker characteristics. Workers at the B-SAFE sites noted increased levels of safety awareness, communication, and teamwork, when compared to control sites. The composition of workers on-site at any given month changed by approximately 50%, and the length of stay on-site was associated with race/ethnicity, union status, title, trade, and musculoskeletal pain (p-values<0. 05). Conclusions: The construction work environment is dynamic, with over half of the population on-site changing each month. This makes applying and evaluating traditional worksite based interventions challenging. Interventions like B-SAFE that are developed to address the complexities can have a positive impact on site safety measures.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Dennerlein, J T |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | safety climate; complexity; hazards; population; construction site; injury; communication; feedback; health and safety; occupational health and safety; safety; teamwork; construction worker |
| Index terms: | complexity, program, population, occupational health and safety, construction site, safety climate, health and safety, injury, determinant, construction worker, dissertation, safety inspection, construction work, commercial construction, pain, teamwork, safety measures, mixed method |
| Subjects: | practitioner, construction type, research dissemination and communication, operations management, health safety and environment, quality assurance, demography, risk assessment, data collection methods, work location, management, software systems, systems engineering, occupational health and safety management, health conditions and diseases |
| Topics: | Site Management, Organizational Design, Urban Studies, Digital Applications, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Quality Management, Risk Management, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
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