Occupational safety and health management in developing countries: a study of construction companies in Malawi

Effectiveness of Occupational Safety and Health interventions: a long way to go

Background

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) has become an area of increasing concern for organizations and institutions. As it evolves, it has gradually posed ongoing challenges, becoming more complex, for organizations. Consequently, more comprehensive studies are required to advance academic and institutional research. From this perspective, this study aims to gather research contributions on the effectiveness of existing interventions for OSH improvement and identify areas for further exploration.

Methods

According to the nature of scientific literature, the overall process of a literature review was investigated following an integrative approach, which involved searching for, selecting, and analyzing various literature in a creative and integrated manner, without a predefined structure.

Results

The analysis suggests that there is room for improvement in understanding the effectiveness of OSH interventions and more concrete guidance is still desirable. Based on the literature, some research areas for future developments in OSH interventions are identified. One potential area to explore further is fostering human-centered technological development and a more conscious network of stakeholders, with higher coordination, shared knowledge, and open communication.

Implications

Focusing on the proposed directions will support scholars and practitioners in pursuing continuous OSH improvement through more effective and well-grounded workplace interventions and encourage organizations to be proactive in daily OSH management.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Health and Safety Management Systems within Construction Organisations

PURPOSE

Previous studies presented the advantages of implementing health and safety management systems (HSMS) in the construction industry. Few studies have investigated the effectiveness of HSMS in developing countries. This study adopts a strategic management and multilevel perspective to assess the three main construction health and safety management system types in South Africa in terms of their adequacy across 14 HSMS dimensions.

METHOD

A literature review identified 14 health and safety management dimensions as building blocks of the strategically developed component of a HSMS. Statistical methods analysed the feedback from a questionnaire survey amongst 59 construction companies on the adequacy of three HSMS types observed in these companies across 14 HSMS dimensions.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Differences between the three health and safety management types were identified, with inadequacies in three of the 14 health and safety management dimensions across all three HSMS types. The three dimensions are accountability and incentives for employee participation, management of subcontractors, and employee competence and training. This could indicate less attention is paid to behavioural based safety control strategies. The study quantified the differences between the three health and safety management types and will help contractor organisations to improve their health and safety management systems.

Construction Safety Performance Measurement Using Leading Indicator-based Jobsite Safety Inspection Method - A Case Study of Building Construction Project

AbstractThe construction industry is one of the hazardous industries all over the world. There have been continuous safety efforts on post-facto safety investigations and related corrective actions. However, to prevent future accidents, post-facto reports may not be able to provide comprehensive insights. Also, past literature pointed at limited proactive efforts to measure the current level of safety at the project. Therefore, this study introduced a leading indicator-based Jobsite safety inspection (JSI) method to measure the project's safety performance. A total of 781 observations were reported in baseline and follow-up JSI on a real construction site. The study's findings highlighted an increase in safe behavior and conditions (SB&C) by reducing unsafe behavior (UB) and unsafe conditions (UC). Results confirmed the significant improvement in the safety performance index (SPI) of the case study from 39.07% to 67.47%. This study also investigated hazardous locations and weak safety dimensions for further SPI improvement.

Investigation of Multi-level Safety Culture in the Indian Construction Industry: A Multi-level Employees' Perception Based Approach

Inadequate compliance with safety practices is a major hurdle in the construction industry, and a single-level source of input to assess safety culture is a major limitation of the literature. Therefore, this study aimed to capture multi-level employees' (top management (TM), middle management (MM), and workers) perceptions to assess multi-level safety culture (organization level (OL), project level (PL), and personnel level (PPL)) in the construction industry. This study considered Indian construction industry a study area and used a questionnaire survey and interview technique as research instruments. 184 responses were collected from multi-level employees. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistical method and hypothesis testing using the Mann-Whitney U test followed by the Kruskal-Wallis and Post Hoc test. Findings highlighted inadequate safety compliances and significant (p < 0.05) perception differences among multi-level employees. Further, root cause analysis for observed perception differences was performed, and managerial implications were discussed from implementation perspectives.

An analysis of occupational accidents involving national and international construction workers in Spain using the association rule technique

Worker safety awareness on construction sites is a major concern due to the hazardous work conditions. Additionally, globalization is increasing the cultural diversity of the workforce and this influences workers' attitudes, beliefs and behaviour. The growing number of migrant workers in this sector has become a distinctive feature of the industry's labour market. The objective of this article is to analyse occupational accidents that occurred on Spanish construction sites while taking into consideration the nationality of the workers. Due to the large number of accidents and attributes associated with them, the use of association rules is proposed. Overall, results evince similar behaviour, although interesting differences can be observed regarding the occupation of workers. In addition, the results are in accordance with previous studies carried out in other countries. The analysis of these accidents will serve to establish initiatives that provide safer work environments.

Characteristics of the Construction Industry in Developing Countries and Its Implications for Health and Safety: An Exploratory Study in Ghana

From both practical and theoretical perspectives, understanding the health and safety (H&S) implications of the characteristics and foundation upon which the construction industry in developing countries is built and operates is essential for H&S management within the industry. While many studies have provided evidence of factors affecting construction H&S in developing countries, none has fully considered the H&S implications of the industry’s characteristics. The current study thus examined how the peculiar characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries impact on the industry’s H&S management. Data were collected using questionnaire surveys from construction industry professionals in Ghana. Nine distinct characteristics were identified and ranked, as well as their relationships and statistical significance determined through correlation and analysis of variance (ANOVA), respectively. The findings showed that these characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries, particularly the lack of skilled and educated workforce, reliance on labour intensive methods and lack of single regulatory authority, present huge challenges to the management of H&S. Accordingly, this research recommended strategic interventions which are tailored towards the context of the industry’s characteristics. With the construction industry in developing countries exhibiting similar characteristics, the findings of this research can serve as a framework for country-specific study. The study contributes to the broader H&S performance improvement research in developing countries by throwing light on the characteristics of the industry that pose challenges to H&S performance.

Occupational health and safety practices among contractors in Malawi: a generic overview

The construction industry accounts for a high percentage of occupational accidents, leading to violation of workers’ human dignity and labour rights. The situation is critical in developing countries owing to occupational health and safety (OHS) interventions being in their infancy and inadequacy in systematic implementation of OHS programmes. This study was concerned with obtaining a generic overview of implementation of selected OHS practices by construction companies in Malawi in order to identify underlying motivations for their implementation or non-implementation and determine OHS management techniques for improvement. A questionnaire was used to collect data, which were analysed using a combination of frequency distribution and categorisation of OHS implementation levels. The results revealed inadequacies in the provision of OHS facilitation services and training practices on construction sites and to construction workers, respectively. Further, the findings revealed workers’ negativity towards OHS practices and reporting of construction accidents to insurance companies despite a legal mandate to notify the OHS directorate. The study supports the notion that developing countries are poor at establishing and implementing OHS legislation and programmes. If properly utilised, the study may guide interventions for improving OHS management at company and national levels.