Framework for Measuring Resilient Safety Culture in Vietnam’s Construction Environment
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 145, Issue 2
Abstract
Resilient safety culture is characterized by continuous improvements to safety performance and the capacity to have foresight, recognizing and anticipating the changing shape of safety risks in complex sociotechnical systems. This study aims to conceptualize resilient safety culture in the construction environment by integrating resilience engineering principles into the concept of safety culture. To fulfill this research aim, a correlational research design was used. Data were collected using questionnaire surveys targeting construction project managers involved in the delivery of 78 recently completed building projects in Vietnam. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique with partial least-squares estimation (PLS) was used to analyze the data. The results confirmed 3 dimensions (i.e., psychological resilience, behavioral resilience, and contextual resilience) with 24 measurable scale items to assess safety culture with respect to resilience. The study also revealed that psychological resilience has a weaker impact on accident prevention under higher contextual resilience and behavioral resilience levels. Theoretically, this study provides the theoretical development and empirical evidence to clarify the concept of resilient safety culture in terms of definition, purpose, and value in the context of construction projects. In practical terms, the study suggests that project hazards, unexpected events, and the risk tolerance of construction workers should be addressed to achieve consistently high safety performance. It also offers construction organizations a framework of safety practices to assess their capabilities in managing on-site safety risks.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information about the Journal’s data-sharing policy can be found here: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001263.
Acknowledgments
This research was jointly supported by the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam, and Western Sydney University (Project ID: P00022974).
References
ACSNI (Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations). 1993. Third report: Organizing for safety. Sheffield, UK: HSE Books, Health and Safety Commission.
Akgün, A. E., and H. Keskin. 2014. “Organisational resilience capacity and firm product innovativeness and performance.” Int. J. Prod. Res. 52 (23): 6918–6937. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2014.910624.
Akselsson, R. E. A., F. Koornneef, S. Stewart, and M. Ward. 2009. “Resilience safety culture in aviation organisations.” In Proc., 17th World Congress on Ergonomics. Beijing: IEA.
Aksorn, T., and B. H. W. Hadikusumo. 2008. “Critical success factors influencing safety program performance in Thai construction projects.” Saf. Sci. 46 (4): 709–727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.006.
Azadeh, A., S. M. Haghighi, and V. Salehi. 2015. “Identification of managerial shaping factors in a petrochemical plant by resilience engineering and data envelopment analysis.” J. Loss Prev. Process Ind. 36: 158–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2015.06.002.
Bandura, A. 1986. Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A., and D. McClelland. 1977. Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Chen, Q., and R. Jin. 2013. “Multilevel safety culture and climate survey for assessing new safety program.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 139 (7): 805–817. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000659.
Chin, W. W. 1998. “The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling.” In Modern methods for business research, 295–336. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Choudhry, R. M., and D. Fang. 2008. “Why operatives engage in unsafe work behavior: Investigating factors on construction sites.” Saf. Sci. 46 (4): 566–584. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.027.
Choudhry, R. M., D. Fang, and S. Mohamed. 2007. “The nature of safety culture: A survey of the state-of-the-art.” Saf. Sci. 45 (10): 993–1012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2006.09.003.
Cigularov, K. P., P. Y. Chen, and J. Rosecrance. 2010. “The effects of error management climate and safety communication on safety: A multi-level study.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 42 (5): 1498–1506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2010.01.003.
Clarke, S. 1999. “Perceptions of organizational safety: Implications for the development of safety culture.” J. Organiz. Behav. 20 (2): 185–198. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(199903)20:2%3C185::AID-JOB892%3E3.0.CO;2-C.
Cooper, D. R., and C. W. Emory. 1995. Business research methods. Chicago: Richard D. Irwin.
Cooper, M. D. 2000. “Towards a model of safety culture.” Saf. Sci. 36 (2): 111–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-7535(00)00035-7.
DeJoy, D. M. 2005. “Behavior change versus culture change: Divergent approaches to managing workplace safety.” Saf. Sci. 43 (2): 105–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2005.02.001.
Dekker, S. 2012. Drift into failure: From hunting broken components to understanding complex systems. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Department of Work Safety. 2018. Report of work-related accidents. Hanoi, Vietnam: Ministry of Labor, Invalids & Social Affairs.
Falk, R. F., and N. B. Miller. 1992. A primer for soft modeling. Akron, OH: University of Akron Press.
Fang, D., and H. Wu. 2013. “Development of a safety culture interaction (SCI) model for construction projects.” Saf. Sci. 57: 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.02.003.
Fellows, R. F., and A. Liu. 2015. Research methods for construction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Feng, Y. 2013. “Effect of safety investments on safety performance of building projects.” Saf. Sci. 59: 28–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.04.004.
Feng, Y. 2015. “Mathematical models for determining the minimum level of voluntary safety investments for building projects.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 141 (7): 04015015. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000987.
Feng, Y., P. Wu, G. Ye, and D. Zhao. 2017. “Risk-compensation behaviors on construction sites: Demographic and psychological determinants.” J. Manage. Eng. 33 (4): 04017008. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000520.
Fernández-Muñiz, B., J. M. Montes-Peón, and C. J. Vázquez-Ordás. 2007. “Safety culture: Analysis of the causal relationships between its key dimensions.” J. Saf. Res. 38 (6): 627–641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2007.09.001.
Fornell, C., and F. L. Bookstein. 1982. “Two structural equation models: LISREL and PLS applied to consumer exit-voice theory.” J. Marketing Res. 19 (4): 440–452. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151718.
Fornell, C., and D. F. Larcker. 1981. “Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error.” J. Marketing Res. 18 (1): 39–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312.
Geller, E. S. 1994. “Ten principles for achieving a total safety culture.” Prof. Saf. 39 (9): 18.
Guldenmund, F. W. 2000. “The nature of safety culture: A review of theory and research.” Saf. Sci. 34 (1): 215–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-7535(00)00014-X.
Guo, H., H. Li, G. Chan, and M. Skitmore. 2012. “Using game technologies to improve the safety of construction plant operations.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 48: 204–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.06.002.
Hair, J. F., G. T. M. Hult, C. M. Ringle, and M. Sarstedt. 2016. A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hinze, J. 2002. Safety plus: Making zero accidents a reality. Gainesville, FL: Construction Industry Institute, Univ. of Florida.
Hollnagel, E. 2008. “Risk + barriers = safety?” Saf. Sci. 46 (2): 221–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.028.
Hollnagel, E. 2011. “Prologue: The scope of resilience engineering.” In Resilience engineering in practice: A guidebook. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Huang, L., Y. Han, Y. Zhou, H. Gutscher, and J. Bi. 2013. “How do the Chinese perceive ecological risk in freshwater lakes?” PLoS One 8 (5): e62486. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062486.
Jaselskis, E. J., S. D. Anderson, and J. S. Russell. 1996. “Strategies for achieving excellence in construction safety performance.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 122 (1): 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(1996)122:1(61).
Lengnick-Hall, C. A., T. E. Beck, and M. L. Lengnick-Hall. 2011. “Developing a capacity for organizational resilience through strategic human resource management.” Human Resour. Manage. Rev. 21 (3): 243–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.07.001.
McDonald, N., S. Corrigan, C. Daly, and S. Cromie. 2000. “Safety management systems and safety culture in aircraft maintenance organisations.” Saf. Sci. 34 (1–3): 151–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-7535(00)00011-4.
Ministry of Construction. 2016. Circular: Regulations for classification of construction projects. Hanoi, Vietnam: Ministry of Construction.
Mitropoulos, P., T. S. Abdelhamid, and G. A. Howell. 2005. “Systems model of construction accident causation.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 131 (7): 816–825. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2005)131:7(816).
Mohamed, S. 2002. “Safety climate in construction site environments.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 128 (5): 375–384. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2002)128:5(375).
Pęciłło, M. 2016. “The resilience engineering concept in enterprises with and without occupational safety and health management systems.” Saf. Sci. 82: 190–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.09.017.
Peltzman, S. 1975. “The effects of automobile safety regulation.” J. Political Econ. 83 (4): 677–725. https://doi.org/10.1086/260352.
Pillay, M., D. Borys, D. Else, and M. Tuck. 2010. “Safety culture and resilience engineering—Exploring theory and application in improving gold mining safety executive.” In Proc., Gravity Gold Conf. Ballarat, Australia.
Radujković, M., and I. Burcar. 2005. “Risk breakdown structure for construction projects.” In Proc., 3rd Int. Conf. on Construction in the 21st Century-Advancing Engineering, Management and Technology. Athena, Greece.
Reason, J. 1997. Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Vol. 6. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Righi, A. W., T. A. Saurin, and P. Wachs. 2015. “A systematic literature review of resilience engineering: Research areas and a research agenda proposal.” Reliability Eng. Syst. Saf. 141: 142–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2015.03.007.
Shirali, G. H. A., I. Mohammadfam, and V. Ebrahimipour. 2013. “A new method for quantitative assessment of resilience engineering by PCA and NT approach: A case study in a process industry.” Reliability Eng. Syst. Saf. 119: 88–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2013.05.003.
Shirali, G. H. A., M. Motamedzade, I. Mohammadfam, V. Ebrahimipour, and A. Moghimbeigi. 2015. “Assessment of resilience engineering factors based on system properties in a process industry.” Cognition Technol. Work 18 (1): 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-015-0343-1.
Shirali, G. H. A., M. Shekari, and K. A. Angali. 2016. “Quantitative assessment of resilience safety culture using principal components analysis and numerical taxonomy: A case study in a petrochemical plant.” J. Loss Prev. Process Ind. 40: 277–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2016.01.007.
Tam, C. M., S. X. Zeng, and Z. M. Deng. 2004. “Identifying elements of poor construction safety management in China.” Saf. Sci. 42 (7): 569–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2003.09.001.
Trinh, M. T., Y. Feng, and X. Jin. 2018. “Conceptual model for developing resilient safety culture in the construction environment.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 144 (7): 06018003. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001522.
Vernero, F., and R. Montanari. 2007. “Risk management persuasive technologies: The case of a technologically advanced, high-risk chemical plant.” Psychol. J. 5 (3): 285–297.
Vinodkumar, M. N., and M. Bhasi. 2010. “Safety management practices and safety behaviour: Assessing the mediating role of safety knowledge and motivation.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 42 (6): 2082–2093. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2010.06.021.
Wachter, J. K., and P. L. Yorio. 2014. “A system of safety management practices and worker engagement for reducing and preventing accidents: An empirical and theoretical investigation.” Accid. Anal. Prev. 68: 117–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.07.029.
Westrum, R. 2006. “A typology of resilience situations.” In Resilience engineering: Concepts and precepts, 55–65. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Weyman, A., and C. J. Kelly. 1999. Risk perception and risk communication: A review of literature. London: Institute for Policy Research.
Wilson, H. A. 1989. “Organizational behaviour and safety management in the construction industry.” Constr. Manage. Econ. 7 (4): 303–319. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446198900000030.
Woods, D. D. 2010. Behind human error. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Woods, D. D., and E. Hollnagel. 2006. “Prologue: Resilience engineering concepts.” In Resilience engineering: Concepts and precepts, 1–16. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Zou, P. X. W., Y. Chen, and T. Y. Chan. 2009. “Understanding and improving your risk management capability: Assessment model for construction organizations.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 136 (8): 854–863. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000175.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 145 • Issue 2 • February 2019
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 12, 2018
Accepted: Aug 7, 2018
Published online: Nov 26, 2018
Published in print: Feb 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Apr 26, 2019
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.