Schwatka, N V (2014) Managing through measurement: Occupational health and safety in the construction industry. PhD thesis, Colorado State University, USA.
Abstract
The purpose of my dissertation was to describe five original research activities designed to characterize and enhance the health and safety of U. S. construction workers. The sequence of research activities illustrates my focus on occupational health and safety (OHS) measurement methods (i. e. , lagging and leading measures), as well as an interest in translating this research into practical methods for industry stakeholders. First, I investigated a vulnerable sub-population of construction workers, the aging workforce, via a literature review and analysis of workers' compensation (WC) data. Through the results of these studies, I found that aging workers may have a different OHS experience than younger workers (e. g. , greater lost work time costs), but the frequency and cost of injuries and illnesses was high regardless of worker age. Furthermore, in the cost regression models, the age of the claimant only accounted for a small amount of variance, which suggests that other factors influence the cost of a WC claim (e. g. , organizational factors such as safety climate). Second, I investigated safety climate measurement methods, and translated prior safety climate research into an intervention for construction site supervisors. I demonstrated that safety climate could be measured via worker perceptions of top management, supervisor, and co-workers' response to safety on the job. Furthermore, a supervisor workshop focused on safety climate concepts could improve the safety participation behaviors of supervisors, and their crew members. Together, my findings demonstrate that both lagging and leading measures are valuable indicators of safety performance. Lagging measures such as WC data may serve as motivators for contractors to make decisions regarding safety. Leading measures such as safety climate and safety behaviors may also be useful, because we can use them to identify hazards and their associated risks before they result in serious negative outcomes. Since it was beyond the scope of my dissertation to measure both lagging and leading measures simultaneously, it is important for future research to evaluate the predictive validity of these measures of OHS.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Rosecrance, J |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction site; hazards; health and safety; measurement; occupational health and safety; organizational factors; participation; population; safety; safety climate; workforce |
| Index terms: | workshop, organizational factor, variance, regression model, validity, illness, safety behaviour, motivator, construction site supervisor, construction industry, dissertation, compensation, construction worker, supervisor, health and safety, safety climate, injury, occupational health and safety, construction site, literature review, top management, population, measurement method, safety performance |
| Subjects: | health safety and environment, demography, construction type, evaluation and assessment methods, research dissemination and communication, practitioner, psychology, management, professional development, measurement and scaling, health conditions and diseases, occupational health and safety management, statistical analysis, industry analysis, business, dispute resolution, work location, financial and cost management, data analysis and analytics |
| Topics: | Site Management, Organizational Design, Human Resources, Urban Studies, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Information Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Legal Issues, Health and Safety |
| 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