Multilevel Safety Climate and Safety Performance in the Construction Industry: Development and Validation of a Top-Down Mechanism

Analysis of design-for-safety implementation factors in the Indonesian construction industry: A two-staged SEM-artificial neural network approach

Despite the rapid growth of infrastructure development in Indonesia, work safety remains a major concern in construction projects. Design-for-safety (DfS) is a critical strategy to prevent work accidents. The implementation of design-for-safety is one of the most important strategies for preventing work accidents. This study aimed to analyze multiple factors that influence the implementation of work safety design using two statistical approaches: structural equation modeling and an artificial neural network. Structural equation modeling analyzes the relationship pattern between variables and their indicators, and artificial neural network maps various similar patterns to predict variables that influence implementation. Designers, owners, policies, tools/equipment, knowledge, and contract documents positively affect design-for-safety implementation, with design and contract documents being the most significant variables. Accordingly, industry and government agencies are advised to prioritize contract documents and design factors, along with other variables as supporting factors in their programs to accelerate design-for-safety implementation in Indonesia.

Improving Safety Performance of Construction Workers through Learning from Incidents

Learning from incidents (LFI) is a process to seek, analyse, and disseminate the severity and causes of incidents, and take corrective measures to prevent the recurrence of similar events. However, the effects of LFI on the learner's safety performance remain unexplored. This study aimed to identify the effects of the major LFI factors on the safety performance of workers. A questionnaire survey was administered among 210 construction workers in China. A factor analysis was conducted to reveal the underlying LFI factors. A stepwise multiple linear regression was performed to analyse the relationship between the underlying LFI factors and safety performance. A Bayesian Network (BN) was further modelled to identify the probabilistic relational network between the underlying LFI factors and safety performance. The results of BN modelling showed that all the underlying factors were important to improve the safety performance of construction workers. Additionally, sensitivity analysis revealed that the two underlying factors-information sharing and utilization and management commitment-had the largest effects on improving workers' safety performance. The proposed BN also helped find out the most efficient strategy to improve workers' safety performance. This research may serve as a useful guide for better implementation of LFI practices in the construction sector.

The Influence of Mutual Assistance of Construction Workers with Different Personality Traits on Team Safety

Construction workers’ unsafe behaviors are closely related to construction safety performance. Most existing studies on construction workers’ personality traits and safety behaviors have ignored the flexibility of worker mix at construction sites, the dynamics of workers’ behaviors, and the complexity of environmental risks at construction sites. Based on the cognitive process of construction workers’ safety behaviors and from the perspective of personality traits, this research establishes an agent-based model of steelworkers’ mutual assistance behavior. The AnyLogic platform is adopted to show emerging phenomena in complex problems. Through simulation experiments, the optimized configuration of construction team members under different risk environments can be obtained. This research is conducive to project managers to understand the influence of construction workers’ mutual assistance on team safety, assess workers’ potential for safe work before recruitment, and carry out active safety management from the source instead of looking for the cause of the accident afterward, making safety management theory more realistic and dynamic.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Perception on Job Stress of Construction Workers

Construction has been regarded as one of the most stressful industries, and the COVID-19 pandemic has deteriorated this situation. This research developed and tested a model of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic perception on job stress of construction workers. Both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping were considered as mediators. Empirical data were collected using a detailed questionnaire from the Chinese construction industry. The results showed that pandemic perception was significantly related to psychological and physical stress. Emotion-focused coping was mainly triggered by pandemic fear and job insecurity, while problem-focused coping was mainly triggered by organizational pandemic response. Furthermore, the effects of pandemic fear and organizational pandemic response on job stress were mediated by problem-focused coping. Finally, the theoretical and practical significance, research limitations, and future research directions of this study are discussed.

Study of Occupational Safety Risks in Prefabricated Building Hoisting Construction Based on HFACS-PH and SEM

As the concern for environmental pollution and occupational safety caused by the construction industry is gradually increasing worldwide, the prefabricated building model has become a type of construction promoted by sustainable societies. In China, the management codes of prefabricated buildings are not mature enough and safety accidents occur frequently during the construction process. Therefore, how to analyze and determine the main factors that affect the safety of the construction of prefabricated buildings has become a problem to protect the lives and health of construction workers. In this study, we focused our research on the accident-prone component-hoisting construction phase. First, through the questionnaire and accident data, the traditional human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS) was improved into the HFACS-prefabricated building hoisting (PH) risk model. This study also established a comprehensive safety prevention and control system for the component-hoisting process of prefabricated buildings by combining the factor analysis of using structural equation modeling (SEM). The prevention and control measures to avoid the occurrence of prefabricated building component-hoisting accidents were also proposed from four aspects: external environment, organizational factors, prerequisites for triggering accidents, and unsafe leadership behaviors. The results showed the following: (1) For the external environment, occupational safety and health system standards should be established and safety supervision responsibilities should be implemented. (2) For organizational factors, safety management systems should be improved with more capital investment. (3) For unsafe leadership behaviors, safety education and training should be strengthened to ensure workers' optimal physical and psychological states. (4) For the prerequisite of accidents, it is necessary to create a good hoisting work environment.

Factors Influencing Safety on Construction Projects (fSCPs): Types and Categories

Due to the fact of activity, environment and work dynamics, the construction industry is characterised by high accident rates. Different initiatives have emerged to reduce these figures, which focus on using new methodologies and technologies for safety management. Therefore, it is essential to know the key factors and their influence on safety in construction projects (fSCPs) to focus efforts on these elements. Through a systematic literature review, based on PRISMA methodology, this article identifies, describes and categorises 100 factors that affect construction safety. It thus contributes by providing a comprehensive general framework, unifying previous studies focused on specific geographic areas or case studies with factors not considered or insufficiently disaggregated, along with an absence of classifications focused on understanding where and how factors affect the different dimensions of construction projects. The 100 factors identified are described and categorised according to the dimensions and aspects of the project in which these have an impact, along with identifying whether they are shaping or immediate factors or originating influences for the generation of accidents. These factors, their description and classification are a key contribution to improving the systematic creation of safety and generating training and awareness materials to fully develop a safety culture in organisations.

Measuring Safety Climate in the Construction Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

Recent studies on safety in various fields use the concept of safety climate to explain the causes of safety accidents. Many studies attempt to measure the safety climates and identify the causes for accidents in the high-risk construction industry. Studies have shown that the higher the level of the safety climate, the lower the accident rate at construction sites. Methods of measuring safety climate, including the NOSACQ-50 survey, have been presented. Studies on the methodology of measuring safety climate should be continued to improve reliability and precision. Although many studies have been conducted to measure safety climate, such as questionnaires, regression analysis, and suggestions for safety climate measurement methods, there are few studies on a systematic literature review of them. This requires a systematic literature review (SLR) of the studies conducted so far. This study conducted an SLR on the definition and measurement methods of safety climate in the construction industry published since 2000, when safety climate’s impact on accidents began to be established. This review study utilized the PRISMA method, analyzed 735 studies, and selected 57 papers finally. SLR was carried out for selected research works, and the results were summarized. There are three methods to measure safety climate: literature survey, questionnaire, and data analysis. Factor analysis, development of measuring model, development of questionnaire, statistical analysis, and machine learning were investigated as their sub-methods. This study’s results can be used as fundamental sources for improving existing methods and developing new methods of measuring safety climate in the construction industry.

Impact of Safety Culture on Safety Performance; Mediating Role of Psychosocial Hazard: An Integrated Modelling Approach

We conceptualize that safety culture (SC) has a positive impact on employee’s safety performance by reducing their psychosocial hazards. A higher level of safety culture environment reduces psychosocial hazards by improving employee’s performance toward safety concerns. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how psychosocial hazard mediates the relationship between safety culture and safety performance. Data were collected from 380 production employees in three states of Malaysia from the upstream oil and gas sector. Structural equation modeling was implemented to test the suggested hypotheses. The proposed model was evaluated using structural equation modeling. A stratified sampling with a Likert 5-point scale was used to distribute the questionnaires. Furthermore, the proposed model was tested using the simulation of the structural equation and partial. According to our findings, all hypotheses were significant. A review of prior studies was used to select the items of the dimension for the data collection. Safety culture was assessed with psychosocial hazard to determine its direct and indirect impact on safety performance. Results suggest that to enhance safety performance (leading and lagging), psychosocial concerns in the workplace environments should be taken into consideration by employees. In addition, the findings showed that the psychosocial hazard fully mediates the relationship between safety culture and safety performance.

Safety Climate and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Investigation on Safety Perceptions among Farmers in Italy

The diffusion of the COVID-19 pandemic has generated numerous interventions aimed at reducing the contagion by means of specific prevention measures, also characterized by stricter occupational health and safety (OHS) procedures at the workplace. To better understand how this novel working context has impacted on farmers’ safety behavior and attitude, a safety climate assessment was carried out by means of the Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50), which was augmented to include specific items related to the modifications of working conditions due to COVID-19. This allowed us to analyze changes in safety climate perceptions, pointing out worker-manager discrepancies in safety behavior and attitude. Additionally, the COVID-19 questionnaire contributed to analyzing the effects of the specific OHS measures due to the pandemic from the workers’ standpoint. Results showed that concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic have augmented the attention paid to OHS, demonstrating a correlation between the safety climate dimensions and the OHS measures due to COVID-19. Besides, farmers’ risk-taking behavior and attitude appeared still critical, highlighting the need for more specific and contextual interventions in terms of safety information and training. Overall, this study aims to expand knowledge on shared safety awareness and perceptions in the COVID-19 period.

A prediction model for safety performance of construction sites using a linear artificial bee colony programming approach

The reputation of the construction industry as one of the most world's dangerous industries is because of its tremendous accident and fatality rate. In this study, a prediction model for construction projects' safety performance was presented as an alarm system. The proposed model can predict the safety performance at the beginning of the project. To do so, firstly, data preparation and, secondly, developing an automatic regression model were carried out as the two main steps of the study. To collect data, after identifying effective criteria, a questionnaire was developed. Next, an innovative machine learning method, named linear artificial bee colony programming, was used to discover the relationship between the identified criteria and safety performance. The results of one-dimensional and two-dimensional sensitivity analysis show that the four criteria of management commitment to safety, safety training, safety team and safety budget are the most important factors that influence safety performance.

NOSACQ-50 for Safety Climate Assessment in Agricultural Activities: A Case Study in Central Italy

Safety climate assessment has been recognized as a powerful tool to bring to light workers' perceptions related to safety practices, attitudes and behaviors at the workplace. Accordingly, its investigation can provide useful information about safety problems within a company before accidents occur. In literature, numerous studies can be found investigating safety climates in different types of industry. However, safety climate assessment in agricultural activities is addressed scarcely, even though agriculture represents a very hazardous sector. To reduce this gap, the present study proposes an investigation of safety climate among farmers by means of the Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50). The results of the survey brought to light a low level of safety perception of the interviewed sample, especially as concerns safety commitment and risk-taking attitudes. In particular, a different attitude toward safety issues has been registered depending on both the position and gender of the interviewed farmers. Overall, the output of this cross-sectional analysis adds to the current literature by expanding knowledge of safety climate among farmers, representing a baseline for further investigations based on human-centered approaches to enhance safety in agriculture and consequently social and workplace aspects of sustainable agricultural systems.

Determinants for Safety Climate Evaluation of Construction Industry Sites in Saudi Arabia

The hazardous nature of the construction industry requires giving increasing attention to safety management and the available means to eliminate or reduce the risks of workers' injuries. Workers in the construction industry of Saudi Arabia face similar daily risks as workers face in other countries. The safety climate significantly influences safety performance, making research in the field of safety climate a vital step toward raising safety levels at construction sites. This study aims at exploring key components of determinants for safety climate evaluation of Saudi Arabian construction sites. Using data collected from 401 industry practitioners, a dimension reduction statistical approach and exploratory factor/principal component analysis were conducted on 13 safety climate factors that were found to significantly correlate with safety climate evaluation of construction sites. The study revealed three key components of determinants for safety climate evaluation of Saudi Arabian construction sites. Notable components are safety commitment, safety interaction, and safety support. Implications of this study include assisting construction industry stakeholders to bolster the safety climate at their construction sites, which should lead to improved safety performance levels.

Safety Climate Perceptions in the Construction Industry of Saudi Arabia: The Current Situation

Workers’ wellbeing and safety is important in the construction industry due to the high risk of accidents. Safety climate development is a positive initial step toward raising the safety levels of construction practitioners. This study aims at revealing the factors influencing safety climate perceptions in the construction industry of Saudi Arabia. A set of extracted factors from the literature was validated and used to design a comprehensive questionnaire survey. Data was collected from 401 personnel working on 3 large construction project sites in Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistics and the crosstabulation algorithm, Kendall’s tau-b correlation test, were used to analyze the data. The study revealed a set of 13 factors influencing safety climate perceptions, which are: Supervision, guidance and inspection, appraisal of risks and hazards, social security and health insurance, workmate influences, management safety justice, management commitment to safety, education and training, communication, workers’ safety commitment, workers’ attitude toward health and safety, workers’ involvement, supportive environment, and competence. The results also indicate the significant and anticipated role of top management in safety climate at sites. Implications of this study include assisting construction industry stakeholders to better understand and enhance safety climate, which in turn will lead to improved safety behavior, culture, motivation, and performance.

Preliminary Human Safety Assessment (PHSA) for the Improvement of the Behavioral Aspects of Safety Climate in the Construction Industry

Occupational safety in the construction industry still represents a relevant problem at a global level. In fact, the complexity of working activities in this sector requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond normative compliance to guarantee safer working conditions. In particular, empirical research on the factors influencing the unsafe behavior of workers needs to be augmented. Thus, the relationship between human factors and safety management issues following a bottom-up approach was investigated. In particular, an easy-to-use procedure that can be used to better address workers’ safety needs augmenting the company’s safety climate and supporting safety management issues was developed. Such an approach, based on the assessment of human reliability factors, was verified in a real case study concerning the users of concrete mixer trucks. The results showed that the majority of human failures were action and retrieval errors, underlining the importance of theoretical and practical training programs as a means to improve safety behavior. In such a context, information and communication activities also resulted beneficially to augment the company’s safety climate. The proposed approach, despite its qualitative nature, allows a clearer understanding of workers’ perceptions of hazards and their risk-taking behavior, providing practical cues to monitor and improve the behavioral aspects of safety climate. Hence, these first results can contribute to augmenting safety knowledge in the construction industry, providing a basis for further investigations on the causalities related to human performances, which are considered a key element in the prevention of accidents.

A Conceptual Model for a Safety-Based Theory of Lean Construction

The construction industry is one of the most fatal industries, so it is important to pay more attention to safety solutions. Even though work-related accidents are known as a major waste in construction projects, little attention has been paid so far to incorporating safety into the lean construction framework. In this research, lean construction theory is reviewed through the lens of safety. That being so, the identified challenges in previous research on improving safety in construction projects are categorized, and those related to the concept of lean project delivery are introduced. Then, the principles of the lean construction framework are explained, and the relevant changes for incorporating safety into the framework are introduced and discussed. The proposed model includes a new approach to the Transformation-Flow-Value framework, in order to pay particular attention to safety in construction projects as one of the factors affecting the success of projects, and achieving optimal value for stakeholders. It is expected that this hybrid model would further enrich the lean construction framework. The careful attention of project executives to this model may improve the safety situation in construction projects. The conceptual model presented in this study can be used in the decision making process for project managers as well as research into optimization of safety costs, and eliminating waste (including models for optimizing the movement of machinery, controlling and reducing rework, and designing the site layout).

The Impact of Coworkers' Safety Violations on an Individual Worker: A Social Contagion Effect within the Construction Crew

This research developed and tested a model of the social contagion effect of coworkers’ safety violations on individual workers within construction crews. Both situational and routine safety violations were considered in this model. Empirical data were collected from 345 construction workers in China using a detailed questionnaire. The results showed that both types of safety violations made by coworkers were significantly related to individuals’ perceived social support and production pressure. Individuals’ attitudinal ambivalence toward safety compliance mediated the relationships between perceived social support and production pressure and both types of individuals’ safety violations. However, safety motivation only mediated the effects of perceived social support and production pressure on individuals’ situational safety violations. Further, this research supported the differences between situational and routine safety violations. Specifically, we found that individuals were more likely to imitate coworkers’ routine safety violations than their situational safety violations. Coworkers’ situational safety violations had an indirect effect on individuals’ situational safety violations mainly through perceived social support and safety motivation. By contrast, coworkers’ routine safety violations had an indirect effect on individuals’ routine safety violations mainly through perceived production pressure and attitudinal ambivalence. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications, research limitations, and future directions were discussed.

[Factors Associated with Stress Check Attendance: Possible Effect of Timing of Annual Health Examination]

OBJECTIVES

The stress check program has been part of annual employees' health screening since 2015. Employees are recommended, but not obliged, to undergo the stress check offered. This study was designed to examine the factors associated with stress check attendance.

METHODS

A total of 31,156 Japanese employees who underwent an annual health examination and a stress check service at an Occupational Health Service Center in 2016 participated in this study. Data from the annual health examination and stress check service included stress check attendance, date of attendance (if implemented), gender, age, workplace industry, number of employees at the workplace, and tobacco and alcohol consumption. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression.

RESULTS

The mean rate of stress check attendance was 90.8%. A higher rate of stress check attendance was associated with a lower duration from the annual health examination, age ≥30 years, construction and transport industry, and 50-999 employees at the workplace. A lower rate of stress check attendance was associated with medical and welfare industry and ≥1,000 employees at the workplace.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide insights into developing strategies for improving the rate of stress check attendance. In particular, stress check attendance may improve if the stress check service and annual health examination are conducted simultaneously.