An investigation in the factors affecting the implementation of health and safety management practices by contractors in Nigeria

Despite the changes in legislation and advances towards an integrated project-wide approach, health and safety (H&S) management practices in the construction industry is still a major problem especially in developing countries like Nigeria. H&S management practices not only improve working conditions but also influence employee’s attitude, morale and performance positively therefore, reducing accident and fatality in the work place. It has become imperative to investigate the factors responsible for the non-implementation of H&S management practices by contractors in the Nigeria construction industry. Through a critique of the literature on H&S management from a global perspective, covering developed and developing countries, it is shown that the implementation of H&S management practices in developing countries like Nigeria is low. In addition, the reviews provide preliminary indication of potential factors responsible for the low implementation of H&S management practices and these include lack of top management awareness, involvement and commitment to H&S management practices; non-enforcement of H&S legislation; and lack of availability of dedicated budget to H&S management practices. The findings provide a premise for further empirical investigation to ascertain the contributing factors to the low implementation of H&S management practices by contractors in Nigeria. Understanding these factors could help ameliorate the perennial problems militating against H&S improvement in the Nigerian construction industry. This study has seven main objectives: (1) To review the status of H&S in the Nigerian Construction Industry. (2) To review H&S management models in order to identify the key elements and practices of H&S management. (3) To review H&S management implementation in construction in order to identify factors that could affect health and safety implementations by Contractors. (4) To develop a conceptual framework for diagnosing factors affecting implementation of H&S management by contractors in Nigeria towards ensuring an enhanced occupational health and safety in the Nigeria construction industry. (5) To refine the conceptual framework and to develop an instrument to collect and analyse data to determine the factors affecting implementation of H&S management by contractors in Nigeria. (6) To discuss and compare the extant literature with the empirical research findings of the present study. (7) Draw conclusion from the findings of the study and propose implications for H&S management in Nigeria. The methodological design for this study was quantitative in nature and based on a survey instrument develop and used to collect data. The target population included Director or manager of companies and other related professionals at construction industries. The literature review on the investigation of the factors affecting the implementation if H&S management practice by contractors in Nigeria was done. A self-administered questionnaire survey of about 350 for the top management and relevant professionals in construction industries were used. The survey returned a satisfactorily distribution of responses across all the major professionals selected under this research. Company Managers and Project Managers who are responsible for the overall planning and execution of the construction work on site, including its health and safety component recorded 16.6% and 15.4% respectively. Supervisors such as construction managers and site engineers with assigned responsibilities of day-to-day execution of specific aspects of the project showed participation rate of 12.9% and 12.6% respectively. Other professionals such as Architects returned a low participation of 3.7%. The Architect is a very important in construction site works in the consultancy and supervision areas, architects are the prime consultants on projects and are the top management after the client or client’s representative in site rankings. The findings of this study revealed that H&S management practices is an important issues in Nigeria construction industry however, the rate of accidents is very high. Several factors relating to policy, measuring and review performance, implementation, planning, risk assessment, and organisation practices were observed to have significant effect on H&S management practices. Others include the advocacy among workers, attitude and behavior of workers ensuring H&S management Practices and govt. intervention. In addition, sizes and age of construction companies are important variable that influence the H&S management practices among construction firms in Nigeria. It was also recommended that a national policy towards addressing H&S management practices should be provided by the government and policy makers to curtail the high rate and unknown quantity of accidents in the Nigeria construction industry.