Recent Development in Safety Climate of Construction Industry
Abstract
Safety climate is of current interest to construction practitioners and researchers. The concept of
safety climate has been actively explored in the field of industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology but is just gaining popularity in the construction industry. This paper purposes to review the literature of safety climate in a systematic manner and highlight future directions for safety research and development of safety practices in the construction industry. The value of safety climate lies in its ability to predict safety behavior. Safety climate, as a mediator, unfolds the relationship between organizational variables and safety behavior. It, as a moderator, affects the effectiveness of any safety initiatives to improve safety performance. Future research directions
would be likely to look at relationship between organizational factors and safety climate using a
multi-level analysis. To the construction industry, safety climate measurement is a good indicator to assess safety performance. Empirical studies show that frontline supervisor would be the best
conduit to create a positive safety climate at workgroup level. This paper is beneficial to researchers interested in behavioral aspects of construction safety and industry practitioners
striving for achieving better safe behavior on site.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Brown, R.L. and Holmes, H. (1986). The use of a factor-analytic procedure for assessing the
validity of an employee safety climate model. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 18, 455-470.
Abbe OO, Harvey CM, Ikuma LH et al. (2011) Modeling the relationship between occupational stressors, psychosocial/ physical symptoms and injuries in the construction industry. Int J Ind Ergon; 41: 106–17.
Arcury TA, Mills T, Marín AJ et al. (2012) Work safety climate and safety practices among immigrant Latino residential construction workers. Am J Ind Med; 55: 736–45.
Burt CDB, Gladstone KL, Grieve KR. (1998) Development of the Considerate and Responsible Employee (CARE) scale. Work Stress; 12: 362–9.
Clarke, S. (2006). Safety climate in an automobile manufacturing plant: The effects of work
environment, job communication and safety attitudes on accidents and unsafe behaviour.
Personnel Review, 35(4), 413-430.
Coyle, I.R., Sleeman, S.D. and Adams, N. (1995). Safety climate. Journal of Safety Research, 26(4) 247-254.
Guldenmund, F.W. (2000). The nature of safety culture: A review of theory and research. Safety Science, 24, 215-257.
Hofmann, D.A. and Stetzer, A. (1996). A cross-level investigation of factors influencing unsafe behaviors and accidents. Personnel Psychology, 49, 307-339.
Lin, S.H., Tang, W.J., Miao, J.Y., Wang, Z.M. and Wang, P.X. (2008). Safety climate measurement at workplace in China: A validity and reliability assessment. Safety Science, 46, 1037-1046.
Mohamed, S. (2002). Safety climate in construction site environments. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 128(5), 375-384.
Parker, S.K., Axtell, C.M., and Turner, N. (2001). Designing a safer workplace: Importance of job autonomy, communication quality, and supportive supervisors. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5, 211-228.
Probst, T.M. and Brubaker, T.L. (2007). Organizational safety climate and supervisory layoff
decisions: Preferences versus predications. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37(7), 1630-
Seo, D.C., Torbai, M.R., Blair, E.H. and Ellis, N.T. (2004). A cross-validation of safety climate scale using confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Safety Research, 35, 427-445.
Teo, E.A and Feng, Y. (2009) The role of safety climate in predicting safety culture on construction sites. Architectural Sciences Review,52(1), 5-16.
Yule, S., Flin, R. and Murdy, A. (2007). The role of management and safety climate in preventingrisk-taking at work. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 7(2), 137-151.
Zhou, Q., Fang, D. and Wang, X. (2008). A method to identify strategies for the improvement of human safety behavior by considering safety climate and personal experience. Safety Science, 46(10), 1406-1419.
Almen, L., Larsson, T. J., and Thunqvist, E. (2012), “The Influence of the Designer on the Risk of falling from Heights and of Exposure to Excessive workloads on Two Construction Sites”, Safety Science Monitor, Vol. 16, Article 6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3759/joise.v5i2.1284
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.