A review of safety climate and risk-taking propensity in occupational health, safety and well-being in the construction industry

Abstract

Studies which take safety climate as a safety monitoring tool are rarely reported. This study reports a benchmarking program to identify prominent safety management issues in three ongoing railway projects using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative aspect, the research team conducted a safety climate survey with three random samples, one sample from each ongoing project. A robust 11-factor structure of the safety climate questionnaire emerged after factor analysis. Most of the mean scores of safety climate indicators for subcontractors were below 3 (out of 4) and specific indicators were identified as in need of urgent attention. The main contractor’s direct labour scored similarly with subcontractors. Two main contractor management teams had to do more to take on the leadership role. The major weaknesses were the following indicators: work procedure for safety, safety compliance, safety priority over work pressure, safety cooperation and involvement, and appreciation of risk. In the qualitative aspect, the research team sought respondents’ comments on current safety management practice and suggestions as to further improvement in safety performance. Content analysis showed that conflicting safety rules and inadequate training were common in the three projects, and increased supervision was proposed as the way to improve safety performance.