Sherratt, F (2018) Shaping the discourse of worker health in the UK construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 36(3), pp. 141-152. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
The UK construction industry is in poor health, statistics show rates of occupational illness significantly higher than for workers in any other industry. Recently, the scope of occupational health management on large sites has increased as public health has become included within the organizational remit. Concerns have been raised around the consequences of this development, its close relationships to Corporate Social Responsibility, and how this is now shaping the wider discourse. To explore this phenomenon, a critical discourse analysis of UK “construction worker health” has been carried out, using the public-facing data of ten large UK contractors. Findings show that “public” has now overtaken “occupational”, the latter restricted to legal compliance presented as corporate citizenship, the former championed as evidence of benevolent organizational values. Yet public health concerns are limited to those of lifestyle and individual responsibility, whilst more complex issues around the social determinants of health as associated with work are missing from the discourse, separating organizations from the impacts of their work on their workers. A contemporary mapping of “construction worker health” is developed for consideration by industry and academics to support future health initiatives and research.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction worker; corporate social responsibility; critical discourse analysis; occupational health; public health |
| Index terms: | evidence, corporate citizenship, mapping, organizational value, compliance, occupational health, critical discourse analysis, construction industry, determinant, construction worker, corporate social responsibility, statistics, public health, lifestyle, illness |
| Subjects: | evaluation and assessment methods, risk assessment, business, mathematical modelling, practitioner, data analysis and analytics, spatial and geospatial analysis, health safety and environment, demography, occupational health and safety management, health conditions and diseases, industry analysis, environmental health |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Research Practice, Risk Management, Roles and Professions, Sustainability, Urban Studies, Organizational Design |
| 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