Exploring the Multilevel Perception of Safety Climate on Taiwanese Construction Sites

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.

Relationships between Social Support, Social Status Perception, Social Identity, Work Stress, and Safety Behavior of Construction Site Management Personnel

The occupational injury death rate and mortality ratio owing to cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases in the construction industry are the highest among all industries in Taiwan. Reducing work stress and improving safety behavior is a must for reducing occupational disasters and diseases. Construction site management personnel’s safety behavior is an important paradigm for construction workers. This study explored the relationships among work stress, safety behavior, professional identity, social status perception, and social support for construction site management personnel by using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that low work stress can lead to favorable safety behavior. Greater company support, family support, and professional identity reduce work stress. Social status perception negatively influences work stress indirectly through the mediation of professional identity. The results revealed that construction site management personnel working within an exempt employee system (i.e., no overtime pay and compensatory leave) exhibited a significantly higher effort/reward ratio than those without this system. Gender, headquarter location, and site location also significantly influenced the on-site management personnel’s effort/reward ratio.

The Effects of Multi-Sociodemographic Characteristics of Construction Sites Personnel on Perceptions of Safety Climate-Influencing Factors: The Construction Industry in Saudi Arabia

The construction industry in Saudi Arabia relies prominently on migrant workers of multi-sociodemographic characteristics with different perceptions of a safety climate. The exploration of the perceptions regarding the safety climate among various groups of migrant workers may help identify effective means of improving safety levels at construction sites in Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to examine the effects of multi-sociodemographic characteristics of construction site personnel on their perceptions of the factors that influence the safety climate at construction sites in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected from 401 construction site workers, employed at ongoing construction project sites in Saudi Arabia, using a designed questionnaire. A generalized, linear model approach was applied, using the single ordinal logistic regression method, to analyze the collected data. The results revealed the significant sets of sociodemographic characteristics and their associated subgroups that had significant effects on the perception of importance assigned to each safety climate-influencing factor. These findings provide a better understanding of the views of construction site personnel on the safety climate and can assist construction industry decision-makers, safety policy designers, government agencies, and stakeholders when designing better-targeted enhancement plans and strategies to improve the safety climate of construction sites, based on the sociodemographic makeup of the personnel at each construction site.

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.

Construction Safety Success Factors: A Taiwanese Case Study

The international construction industry has long experienced high rates of occupational incidents resulting in serious injury and death. The high rate of fatal construction accidents has clearly highlighted the importance and urgency of safety management improvement for building and construction sites. This paper analyzed 33 nominated success factors of the site safety management (SSM) of building construction projects using Principle Components Analysis (PCA) to extract the success factors (SFs) of SSM in Taiwan. The internal relationships among these SFs were further explored using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the underlying relationships. The results of this study indicate that there are moderate correlations present between the selected SFs for SSM. Management behaviors, a safe work environment and safety resources, the safety behaviors of workers, and prevention and remedial actions were found to be the major influencers for SSM performance. Furthermore, the study shows that SSM in Taiwan is still overly focused on safe working conditions, to the detriment of workers’ safety perception and training. Further work is required to ensure that safety programs are agile enough to understand and adapt to the factors which influence SSM outcomes.