Determining Safety Climate Factors in the Repair, Maintenance, Minor Alteration, and Addition Sector of Hong Kong
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 139, Issue 5
Abstract
The accident record of the repair, maintenance, minor alteration, and addition (RMAA) sector has been alarmingly high; however, research in the RMAA sector remains limited. Unsafe behavior is considered one of the key causes of accidents. Thus, the organizational factors that influence individual safety behavior at work continue to be the focus of many studies. The safety climate, which reflects the true priority of safety in an organization, has drawn much attention. Safety climate measurement helps to identify areas for safety improvement. The current study aims to identify safety climate factors in the RMAA sector. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the RMAA sector in Hong Kong. Data were randomly split into the calibration and the validation samples. The RMAA safety climate factors were determined by exploratory factor analysis on the calibration sample. Three safety climate factors of the RMAA works were identified: (1) management commitment to occupational health and safety (OHS) and employee involvement, (2) application of safety rules and work practices, and (3) responsibility for health and safety. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then conducted on the validation sample. The CFA model showed satisfactory goodness of fit, reliability, and validity. The suggested RMAA safety climate factors can be utilized by construction industry practitioners in developed economies to measure the safety climate of their RMAA projects, thereby enhancing the safety of RMAA works.
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Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (RGC Project No. PolyU 5103/07E). This paper forms part of the research project titled “Safety Climate and Its Impacts on Safety Performance of Repair, Maintenance, Minor Alteration and Addition (RMAA) Works,” from which other deliverables have been produced with different objectives/scope but sharing common background and methodology. The authors also wish to acknowledge the contributions of other team members including Prof. Francis Wong, Dr. Daniel Chan, Dr. Don Dingsdag, and Dr. Herbert Biggs.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 139 • Issue 5 • May 2013
Pages: 519 - 528
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 14, 2011
Accepted: Jul 20, 2012
Published online: Jul 26, 2012
Published in print: May 1, 2013
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