Sherratt, F; Farrell, P and Noble, R (2011) A constructionist examination of construction site culture: Review of a pilot study. In: Egbu, C and Lou, E C W (eds.) Proceedings of 27th Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2011, Bristol, UK.
Abstract
Recent developments in the UK construction industry have led to behavioural and cultural safety programmes becoming a key tool in the prevention of health and safety incidents on construction sites for major contractors. However, the synchronicity of these programmes with the established UK construction site culture can be challenged, and indeed the success of these change programmes has yet to be proven. An on-going PhD study to investigate how safety is placed and embedded within the culture of UK construction sites, including a review of the impact of these cultural change programmes, has recently completed a pilot study. The pilot used photography and unstructured interviews to produce a rich variety of data, which could be examined from a social constructionist epistemological stance using discourse analysis. This analysis suggested that there were areas of potential conflict with the dominant construction site culture and the behavioural and cultural change programmes, as well as friction between the form and direction of the discourses used within the programmes and those found to be more prevalent on sites. Evaluation of the pilot study suggested the methods employed had the potential to productively address the issues surrounding site safety culture.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | culture; discourses; pilot study; safety; social constructionism |
| Index terms: | construction industry, cultural change, prevention, construction site, programme, interview, safety culture, health and safety, becoming |
| Subjects: | financial risk, health safety and environment, sociology, project controls, industry analysis, philosophical process, data collection methods, work location |
| Topics: | Cost Management, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Organizational Design, Site Management, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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