Chesworth, B (2015) Is the concept of zero harm an achievable goal? In: Raiden, A and Aboagye-Nimo, E (eds.) Proceedings of 31st Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2015, Lincoln, UK.
Abstract
The concept of zero harm is widely accepted to be the social norm across many industries; providing organisations at least with the 'opportunity' to go 'beyond simple compliance' and into the realm of 'business sustainability'. Achievability of these opportunities however is dependent on the workforce’s capacity to successfully work under what is simply a well-branded slogan. Dependence on Zero Harm success at such a level creates for organisations a disconnection between management reporting and workforce performance driven by the quantifying of key performance indicator data. Viewing the Zero Harm concept through social constructivism provides an opportunity to explore the issues present rather than simply quantifying them. A case study approach utilising an inductive open-ended interviews strategy was used to explore the organisational relationships present within a construction company participating in a zero harm workplace. The approach assists in understanding what drives the collection and analysis of safety data and programming and the capturing of performance. Findings from the case study demonstrate that organisational expectations influence the overall Zero Harm approachability.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | case study; constructivism; organisational culture; safety performance; zero harm |
| Index terms: | compliance, construction company, interview, key performance indicator, strategy, case study, programming, safety performance, organizational culture |
| Subjects: | organization, data collection methods, occupational health and safety management, programming, sociology, management, project delivery, health safety and environment |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Digital Applications, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Project Management, Health and Safety |
| 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