Journal of Academic Research for Humanities (JARH) is a double-blind peer-review, Open Free Access, online Multidisciplinary Research Journal
Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2023)
The International "Journal of Academic Research for Humanities"

Research Articles

Impact of Safety Climate on Safety Performance in Construction Companies

Published 27-02-2023

  • Mariam Mansoor

Mariam Mansoor
university of Karachi

truth

Abstract

The construction industry plays a key role in assisting each country’s economy to nurture. Due to its distinctive, dynamic, and transient nature), the construction industry is among the most hazardous industry compared to several others. Workplace accidents can have a serious impact on society as a whole because they result in a variety of losses for businesses, society, and wounded workers' families. The expenses of construction injuries have a significant influence on the financial viability of construction organizations and increase the overall costs of building. The current study has used SEM-structural equation modeling to analyze the impact of SC on the SP of employees in construction companies. The SP of employees has been measured keeping in view the safety behavior constituent, safety participation, and safety compliance and how an employee with their safety compliance and participation can promote SC in their company, preventing accident rate in the long run. The data is collected through mixed method approach including descriptive and exploratory analysis. The data is collected bysending questionnaire surveys to 10 private construction companies operating in Karachi, Pakistan. Online questionnaires were sent to the relevant prospects via different social media platforms, especially LinkedIn, and paper-based questionnaires were given during work hours. The results were found to validate the hypothesis that related an organizational SC to its employee's safety participation and compliance. Contrastingly their role in preventing accidents was found insignificant, suggesting future researchers explore further the implications, and recommendations for future research studies are discussed in detail in this study.

Keywords

Safety climate (SC), safety compliance, safety participation, construction industry, Safety Performance (SP)

PDF

References

  1. Baysal, M. E., Kaya, İ., Kahraman, C., Sarucan, A., & Engin, O. (2015). A two phased fuzzy methodology for selection among municipal projects. Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 21(3), 405-422.
  2. Beus, J. M., Payne, S. C., Bergman, M. E., & Arthur Jr, W. (2010). Safety climate and injuries: an examination of theoretical and empirical relationships. Journal of applied psychology, 95(4), 713.
  3. Booth, D. B. (1991). Urbanization and the natural drainage system--impacts, solutions, and prognoses.
  4. Brown, A. D., &Phua, F. T. (2011). Subjectively construed identities and discourse: towards a research agenda for construction management. Construction management and economics, 29(1), 83-95.
  5. Brown, A. D., &Phua, F. T. (2011). Subjectively construed identities and discourse: towards a research agenda for construction management. Construction management and economics, 29(1), 83-95.
  6. Burke, R. R. (2002). Technology and the customer interface: what consumers want in the physical and virtual store. Journal of the academy of Marketing Science, 30(4), 411-432.
  7. Christian, M. S., Bradley, J. C., Wallace, J. C., & Burke, M. J. (2009). Workplace safety: a meta-analysis of the roles of person and situation factors. Journal of applied psychology, 94(5), 1103.
  8. Chua, D. K., & Goh, Y. M. (2004). Incident causation model for improving feedback of safety knowledge. Journal of construction engineering and management, 130(4), 542-551.
  9. Clarke, S. (2010). An integrative model of safety climate: Linking psychological climate and work attitudes to individual safety outcomes using meta‐analysis. Journal of Occupational and Organizational psychology, 83(3), 553-578.
  10. Cohen, J. (1988). Set correlation and contingency tables. Applied psychological measurement, 12(4), 425-434.
  11. Dedobbeleer, N., &Béland, F. (1991). A safety climate measure for construction sites. Journal of safety research, 22(2), 97-103.
  12. Fang, R., Landis, B., Zhang, Z., Anderson, M. H., Shaw, J. D., & Kilduff, M. (2015). Integrating personality and social networks: A meta-analysis of personality, network position, and work outcomes in organizations. Organization science, 26(4), 1243-1260.
  13. Fornell, C. (1981). A comparative analysis of two structural equation models: LISREL and PLS applied to market data.
  14. Gillen, M., Baltz, D., Gassel, M., Kirsch, L., & Vaccaro, D. (2002). Perceived safety climate, job demands, and coworker support among union and nonunion injured construction workers. Journal of safety research, 33(1), 33-51.
  15. Glendon, A. I., &Litherland, D. K. (2001). Safety climate factors, group differences and safety behaviour in road construction. Safety science, 39(3), 157-188.
  16. Griffin, M. A., & Neal, A. (2000). Perceptions of safety at work: a framework for linking safety climate to safety performance, knowledge, and motivation. Journal of occupational health psychology, 5(3), 347.
  17. Hallowell, M. R., &Gambatese, J. A. (2009). Construction safety risk mitigation. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 135(12), 1316-1323.
  18. Hallowell, M., Esmaeili, B., &Chinowsky, P. (2011). Safety risk interactions among highway construction work tasks. Construction Management and Economics, 29(4), 417-429.
  19. Hofmann, D. A., & Stetzer, A. (1996). A cross‐level investigation of factors influencing unsafe behaviors and accidents. Personnel psychology, 49(2), 307-339.
  20. Ikpe, E., Hammon, F., &Oloke, D. (2012). Cost-benefit analysis for accident prevention in construction projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 138(8), 991-998.
  21. ILO (2023) Ilo.org. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_834081.pdf (Accessed: 28 January 2023).
  22. Jitwasinkul, B., &Hadikusumo, B. H. (2011). Identification of important organisational factors influencing safety work behaviours in construction projects. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 17(4), 520-528.
  23. Le, Y., Shan, M., Chan, A. P., & Hu, Y. (2014). Investigating the causal relationships between causes of and vulnerabilities to corruption in the Chinese public construction sector. Journal of construction engineering and management, 140(9), 05014007.
  24. Lingard, H., Cooke, T., &Blismas, N. (2011). Coworkers' response to occupational health and safety: An overlooked dimension of group‐level safety climate in the construction industry?. Engineering, construction and architectural management.
  25. Mearns, K., Whitaker, S. M., &Flin, R. (2001). Benchmarking safety climate in hazardous environments: a longitudinal, interorganizational approach. Risk analysis, 21(4), 771-786.
  26. Moen, T. (2006). Reflections on the narrative research approach. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(4), 56-69.
  27. Mohamed, S. (2002). Safety climate in construction site environments. Journal of construction engineering and management, 128(5), 375-384.
  28. Nadhim, E. A., Hon, C., Xia, B., Stewart, I., & Fang, D. (2016). Falls from height in the construction industry: A critical review of the scientific literature. International journal of environmental research and public health, 13(7), 638.
  29. Neal, A., & Griffin, M. A. (2006). A study of the lagged relationships among safety climate, safety motivation, safety behavior, and accidents at the individual and group levels. Journal of applied psychology, 91(4), 946.
  30. Peng, D. X., & Lai, F. (2012). Using partial least squares in operations management research: A practical guideline and summary of past research. Journal of operations management, 30(6), 467-480.
  31. Pinto, J. R., Marshall, J. D., Dumroese, R. K., Davis, A. S., &Cobos, D. R. (2011). Establishment and growth of container seedlings for reforestation: A function of stocktype and edaphic conditions. Forest Ecology and Management, 261(11), 1876-1884.
  32. Rafique, M., Ahmed, S., & Ismail, M. (2021). Impact of Safety Climate on Safety Behaviour in Construction Projects: Mediating Mechanism and Interacting Effect. Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 26(2), 163-181.
  33. Rana, I.A. & Bhatti, S.S. (2018). Lahore, Pakistan: Urbanization challenges and opportunities. Cities, 72: 348-355.
  34. Sarstedt, M., Hair, J.F., Pick, M., Liengaard, B.D., Radomir, L. and Ringle, C.M., 2022. Progress in partial least squares structural equation modeling use in marketing research in the last decade. Psychology & Marketing, 39(5), pp.1035-1064.
  35. Satorra, A., &Bentler, P. M. (2001). A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika, 66(4), 507-514.
  36. Siu, O. L., Phillips, D. R., & Leung, T. W. (2004). Safety climate and safety performance among construction workers in Hong Kong: The role of psychological strains as mediators. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 36(3), 359-366.
  37. Zahoor, H., Chan, A.P.C., Choudhry, R.M., Utama, W.P. & Gao, R. (2015). Construction safety research in Pakistan: A review and future research direction. In F. Arif, U. Gazder and S.H. Lodi (eds.), 7th International Civil Engineering Congress: Congress Proceedings. Karachi: International Civil Engineering Congress (ICEC–2015), 1–8.
  38. Zohar, D. (1980). Safety climate in industrial organizations: theoretical and applied implications. Journal of applied psychology, 65(1), 96.
  39. Zohar, D. (2000). A group-level model of safety climate: testing the effect of group climate on microaccidents in manufacturing jobs. Journal of applied psychology, 85(4), 587.
  40. Zohar, D. (2003). Safety climate: Conceptual and measurement issues.
  41. Zohar, D., & Luria, G. (2005). A multilevel model of safety climate: cross-level relationships between organization and group-level climates. Journal of applied psychology, 90(4), 616.