Pham, Thanh Tung (2021) The transfer of training among Australian construction workers participating in occupational health and safety training. PhD thesis, RMIT University, Australia.
Abstract
The construction industry has been regarded as one of the most hazardous industries in Australia. Occupational health and safety (OHS) training has been recognized as a formal strategy to prevent illnesses, accidents, and fatalities in construction. However, occupational health and safety training may not lead to improved work or health and safety performance if construction employees do not implement their learned skills and knowledge in practice. Unfortunately, the lack of training transfer has long been considered as a critical problem in the construction industry, as well as other industries. As an attempt to gain a better understanding on the training transfer problem, this research was conducted to investigate the transfer of training among Australian construction workers participating in OHS training courses. An explanatory sequential mixed method was applied to examine two stages of the training transfer process, which are the intention to transfer formed after training and the transfer of training performed at the workplace. In the first stage, this research tested a model of intention to transfer, which was developed based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, by using structural equation modelling. The PhD research identified factors associated with the intention to transfer and salient beliefs associated with those factors. By conducting multigroup analysis, the research also found that the intentions to transfer among managerial and non-managerial construction workers are affected by different factors. In the second stage, this research applied framework analysis to identify themes related to social support and workplace factors that influence the implementation of learned OHS training content. The research also found characteristics of favourable OHS training that Australian construction workers would like to experience. Based on the findings, this research proposed implications to increase the transfer of training among Australian construction workers. Training providers and construction organisations may use this PhD research as a reference to develop strategies to increase the utilisation of trained OHS skills and knowledge of their trainees/employees.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Lingard, Helen; Wakefield, Ron and Zhang, Rita |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Australian construction workers; occupational health and safety training; theory of planned behaviour; training transfer; mixed methods research |
| Index terms: | mixed method, construction organization, Australia, illness, construction employee, planned behaviour, construction industry, implementation, fatalities, construction worker, framework analysis, health and safety, occupational health and safety, structural equation modelling, strategy |
| Subjects: | organization, practitioner, contractual arrangements, Geography, health safety and environment, behavioral psychology, data collection methods, data analysis and analytics, health risk and incident analysis, management, health conditions and diseases, occupational health and safety management, statistical analysis, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Procurement, Health and Safety, Geographical Context |
| 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