TITLE:
Safety Climates in Construction Industry: Understanding the Role of Construction Sites and Workgroups
AUTHORS:
Sílvia Silva, Adriana Araújo, Dário Costa, J. L. Meliá
KEYWORDS:
Construction; Safety Climate; Workgroup Safety Climate; Workers’ Safety Response
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology,
Vol.3 No.4,
December
13,
2013
ABSTRACT: Studies of safety climate in construction revealed a significant
positive association between safety climate and various aspects of occupational
health and safety. The mechanisms through which this impact operates are still
unclear and safety climate is usually studied without considering the
complexity of this industry (companies, worksites and groups). The aim of this
research is to analyze to what extend there are differences between construction
sites and to explore the relations between construction sites’ safety climate
and workers’ safety response and to examine how this influence occur
considering the workgroups. The safety climate was evaluated using a reduced
version of the questionnaire that is a part of Battery HERC (Herramienta para
evaluacion riesgos comportamentales). The data were collected in a
Portuguese construction company (5 construction sites; including
sub-contractors) comprising 213 workers. Differences between construction
sites safety climate were found, suggesting the prevalence of safety
sub-climates. The workgroup safety climate played a determinant role on
workers’ safety response in subcontracted workgroups and it is an important
mechanism through which the principal contractor can influence subcontractors’
safety response. Designers of preven- tion and training programs for accidents
prevention should include specific contents in order to improve supervisory
safety leadership and workgroup safety responses.