Measuring Safety Climate of a Construction Company
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135, Issue 9
Abstract
Safety climate can benefit contractors, specialty contractors, and owners of industries by providing them with the knowledge of attitudes and perceptions that can help to consistently achieve better safety performance. The objective of this research was to determine safety climate that would enhance safety culture and positively impact perceived safety performance on construction projects. A safety climate questionnaire survey was conducted on the construction sites of a leading construction company and its subcontractors in Hong Kong. Approximately, 1,500 hard copy questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was excellent, resulting in 1,120 valid questionnaires being collected from 22 construction projects. By means of factor analysis, two underlying safety climate factors were extracted, accounting for 43.9% of the total variance. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that these climate factors, “management commitment and employee involvement” and “inappropriate safety procedure and work practices” were significant predictors of workers’ perceptions of safety performance. The findings indicated that the relationship between perceived safety performance and “inappropriate safety procedure and work practices” was inversely correlated. The results suggest that safety climate can be used as an effective measure of assessing and improving site safety for projects under construction. The findings of this study and the methodology might be useful for research at other construction sites in other regions and countries. This work provides useful information for project managers and safety practitioners who desire to improve safety climate and safety performance on construction sites.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support from UNSPECIFIEDHigher Education Commission, Pakistan is gratefully appreciated to undertake this research. Acknowledgments are addressed to Gammon Construction Limited, Hong Kong and its employees, including subcontractors, for supporting and participating in this research.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135 • Issue 9 • September 2009
Pages: 890 - 899
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 25, 2008
Accepted: Mar 3, 2009
Published online: Aug 14, 2009
Published in print: Sep 2009
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