Alasmari, H; Chrisp, M T and Bowles, G (2012) A framework for enhancing and improving the safety culture on Saudi construction sites. In: Smith, S D (ed.) Proceedings of 28th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2012, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
Improving safety culture is necessary to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities on construction sites internationally. A comparative study of eight developed and Arab countries shows that Saudi Arabia is performing poorest in terms of the rates of major injuries and fatalities, and embedding a safety culture in practice remains a challenge. Three key elements of a safety culture model are identified from the literature: person (safety climate), environment/ situation (safety management system) and behaviour (safety behaviour). These have been constituted into safety culture models. There is also a fourth element relating to organization. However, there is a lack of research which considers how these components can be integrated into a holistic safety culture model. A conceptual framework is proposed that adopts and integrates these elements for application to the Saudi construction industry. The framework is composed of the three elements derived from the existing frameworks in the literature, and the fourth element of organizational context. The framework will be developed and tested using Saudi construction projects and it is expected that the results of the study will be of benefit to contractors for measuring their own safety culture performance.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | safety culture; injuries and fatalities; comparative analysis; models; Saudi Arabia |
| Index terms: | construction project, comparative study, safety management system, fatalities, conceptual framework, construction industry, injury, Saudi Arabia, safety climate, safety culture, safety behaviour, comparative analysis, construction site |
| Subjects: | work location, data analysis and analytics, research design and methodology, health conditions and diseases, occupational health and safety management, industry analysis, theoretical framing, health risk and incident analysis, Geography, health safety and environment, production management |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context, Site Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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