Lingard, H; Pink, S; Harley, J and Edirisinghe, R (2015) Looking and learning: Using participatory video to improve health and safety in the construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 33(9), pp. 740-751. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
Construction health and safety (H&S) is usually managed using a top-down approach of regulating workers' behaviour through the implementation and enforcement of prescriptive rules and procedures. This management approach privileges technical knowledge over knowledge based on workers' tacit and informal ways of knowing about H&S. The aim is to investigate the potential for participatory video to: (1) identify areas in which formal policies and procedures do not reflect H&S as practised by workers; (2) encourage creative thinking and elicit workers' ideas for H&S improvements; and (3) provide an effective mechanism for capturing and sharing tacit H&S knowledge in construction organizations. Interviews were conducted in two case study organizations (CSOs) in the Australian construction industry. The results suggest reflexive participatory video enabled workers and managers to view their work practices from a different perspective. Workers identified new hazards, reflected about the practical difficulties in performing work in accordance with documented procedures and reframed their work practices and developed safer ways of working. Workers described how the participatory video capturing the way they work enabled them to have more meaningful input into H&S decision-making than they had previously experienced. Workers also expressed a strong preference for receiving H&S information in a visual format and commented that video was better suited to communicating H&S 'know how' than written documents. The research is significant in providing initial evidence that participatory video has the potential to improve H&S in construction.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Australia; health and safety; participatory management; training; visualization |
| Index terms: | participatory management, health and safety, interview, manager, visualization, preference, evidence, documents, work practice, decision-making, Australia, case study, construction organization, enforcement, implementation, construction industry, privilege |
| Subjects: | sociology, decision analysis, industry analysis, decision-making and reasoning, management, design practice, professional development, health safety and environment, Geography, contractual arrangements, organization, data collection methods, evaluation and assessment methods, practitioner |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Design Practice, Ethics, Risk Management, Roles and Professions, Procurement, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, 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