Borthwick, F and McAndrew, P (2012) Cultural interpretation of health and safety and its appropriateness in the United Arab Emirates. In: Smith, S D (ed.) Proceedings of 28th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2012, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
In the UK we have a highly regulated construction industry to ensure health, safety and welfare of individuals in the workplace. Yet we still have an unacceptable number of fatalities and accidents. The expectation of professionals when they work abroad is that if the industry is not as regulated then it is not adequate. The research aim was to assess the health, safety and welfare in the construction industry within the United Arab Emirates and explore whether the current provision was adequate following on from the recent construction boom experienced in the region. An online questionnaire survey was carried out with construction professionals with experience of working in the UAE. The sample set produced 101 respondents, from 18 different countries, which provided a wide range of perceptions within the resulting data. The findings from the research provided evidence of a clear division emerging between European participants and respondents from other nations on how they perceived the observed standards within the UAE. The main conclusion drawn from the study is that cultural differences do affect how people perceive health, safety and welfare standards, as they judge what they see from what they are used to in their respective home countries.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | cultural perceptions; health and safety; United Arab Emirates |
| Index terms: | cultural difference, survey, health and safety, United Arab Emirates, construction industry, fatalities, construction professional, evidence, questionnaire |
| Subjects: | evaluation and assessment methods, data collection methods, cross-cultural studies, industry analysis, health risk and incident analysis, professional development, Geography, health safety and environment |
| Topics: | International Construction, Health and Safety, Information Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice |
| 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