Neural Network Model for the Prediction of Safe Work Behavior in Construction Projects
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 141, Issue 1
Abstract
A model has been developed employing an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the safe work behavior of employees using 10 safety climate constructs determined through literature review. The model utilizes safety climate constructs (determinants) as inputs and safe work behavior as an output. Two hundred twenty-two responses from several construction projects across India were collected through a questionnaire survey. A three-layer feed-forward back-propagation neural network (10-11-1) was appropriate in building this model which has been trained, validated, and tested with sufficient data sets. The model predicts the safe work behavior of employees reasonably well. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to study the impact of each construct on the safe work behavior of employees. As a result, safety climate constructs like supervisory environment, work pressure, employees’ involvement, personal appreciation of risk, and supportive environment were significantly associated with the safe work behavior of employees. This model has great potential in aiding contractors and clients in promoting safe work behavior and the efficient management of the safety of employees in construction projects.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Agrilla, J. A. (1999). “Construction safety management formula for success.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. of the Int. Council for Building (CIB) General Secretariat, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 33–36.
Albert, A., Hallowell, M., and Kleiner, B. (2014). “Enhancing construction hazard recognition and communication with energy-based cognitive mnemonics and safety meeting maturity model: Multiple baseline study.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 04013042.
Azadeh, A., Rouzbahman, M., Saberi, M., and Mohammad Fam, I. (2011). “An adaptive neural network algorithm for assessment and improvement of job satisfaction with respect to HSE and ergonomics program: The case of a gas refinery.” J. Loss Prev. Process Ind., 24(4), 361–370.
Beriha, G. S., Patnaik, B., and Mahapatra, S. S. (2012). “Assessment of occupational health practices in Indian industries: A neural network approach.” J. Modell. Manage., 7(2), 180–200.
Berry, M. J. A., and Linoff, G. (1997). Data mining techniques, Wiley, New York.
Boussabaine, A. H. (1996). “The use of artificial neural networks in construction management: A review.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 14(5), 427–436.
Brown, K. A., Willis, P. G., and Prussia, G. E. (2000). “Predicting safe employee behaviour in the steel industry: Development and test of a sociotechnical model.” J. Oper. Manage., 18(4), 445–465.
Brown, R. L., and Holmes, H. (1986). “The use of a factor analytic procedure for assessing the validity of an employee safety climate model.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 18(6), 455–470.
Chen, Q., and Jin, R. (2012). “Safety4site commitment to enhance jobsite safety management and performance.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 509–519.
Chen, Q., and Jin, R. (2013). “Multilevel safety culture and climate survey for assessing new safety program.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 805–817.
Cheung, S. O., Wong, P. S. P., Fung, A. S. Y., and Coffey, W. V. (2006). “Predicting project performance through neural networks.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 24(3), 207–215.
Choudhry, M. R., Fang, D., and Lingard, H. (2009). “Measuring safety climate of a construction company.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 890–899.
Choudhry, R. M., Fang, D. P., and Mohamed, S. (2007). “The nature of safety culture: A survey of the state of the art.” Saf. Sci., 45(10), 993–1012.
Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC). (2005). India Country Rep. 2005–06, New Delhi, India.
Cooke, T., Blismas, N., and Lingard, H. (2013). “Australian construction supervisors’ response to occupational health and safety.” Manage. Procurement Law, 166(6), 287–296.
Cooper, M. D. (2000). “Towards a model of safety culture.” Saf. Sci., 36(2), 111–136.
Cooper, M. D., and Philips, R. A. (1994). “Validation of a safety climate measure.” Proc., Annual Occupational Psychology Conf., British Psychological Society, Birmingham, U.K.
Cooper, M. D., and Phillips, R. A. (2004). “Exploratory analysis of the safety climate and safety behavior relationship.” J. Saf. Res., 35(5), 497–512.
Cox, S. J., and Cheyne, A. J. T. (2000). “Assessing safety culture in offshore environments.” Saf. Sci., 34(1–3), 111–129.
DeDobbeleer, N., and Beland, F. (1991). “A safety climate measure for construction sites.” J. Saf. Res., 22(2), 97–103.
Delen, D., Sharda, R., and Bessonov, M. (2006). “Identifying significant predictors of injury severity in traffic accidents using a series of artificial neural networks.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 38(3), 434–444.
Demuth, D., and Beale, M. (2000). Neural network toolbox for use with MATLAB, MathWorks, Natick, MA.
Denison, D. R. (1996). “What is the difference between organizational culture and organizational climate? A native’s point of view on a decade of paradigm wars.” Acad. Manage. Rev., 21(3), 619–654.
Fang, D. P., Chen, Y., and Wong, L. (2006). “Safety climate in construction industry: A case study in Hong Kong.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 573–584.
Feng, Y., Teo, A. L., and Peng, W. (2012). “Capability of safety climate to predict construction safety outcomes.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Modelling on Building and Health Safety, International Council for Building (CIB) General Secretariat, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 157–164.
Flin, R., Mearns, K., O’Connor, P., and Bryden, R. (2000). “Measuring safety climate: Identifying the common features.” Saf. Sci., 34(1–3), 177–192.
Geller, E. S. (1994). “Ten principles for achieving a total safety culture.” Prof. saf., 39(9), 18–24.
Glendon, A. I., and Litherland, D. K. (2001). “Safety climate factors, group differences and safety behavior in road construction.” Saf. Sci., 39(3), 157–188.
Glendon, A. I., and McKenna, E. F. (1995). Human safety and risk management, Chapman and Hall, London.
Goh, Y. M., and Chua, D. (2013). “Neural network analysis of construction safety management systems: A case study in Singapore.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 31(5), 460–470.
Hamalainen, P., Takala, J., and Saarela, K. L. (2006). “Global estimates of occupational accidents.” Saf. Sci., 44(2), 137–156.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE). (2001). “Summary guide to safety climate tools.”, U.K.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE). (2002). “Evaluating the effectiveness of the health and safety executive’s health and safety climate survey tool.” London.
Hinze, J. W. (1997). Construction safety, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
International Labor Organization (ILO). (2005). “Facts on safety work.” 〈http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_067574.pdf 〉 (Oct. 31, 2011).
Jaselisks, E., Anderson, S., and Russell, J. (1996). “Strategies for achieving excellence in construction safety performance.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 61–70.
Jha, K. N., and Chockalingam, C. T. (2009). “Prediction of quality performance using artificial neural networks evidence from Indian construction projects.” J. Adv. Manage. Res., 6(1), 70–86.
Johnsosn, S. E. (2007). “The predictive validation of safety climate.” J. Saf. Res., 38(5), 511–521.
Kaila, H. L. (2006). “Behaviour based safety management.” Indian J. Occup. Environ. Med., 10(3), 102–106.
Kath, L. M., Marks, K. M., and Ranney, J. (2010). “Safety climate dimensions, leader–member exchange, and organizational supports as predictors of upward safety communication in a sample of rail industry workers.” Saf. Sci., 48(5), 643–650.
Langford, D., Rowlinson, S., and Sawacha, E. (2000). “Safety behavior and safety management: Its influence on the attitudes of workers in the UK construction industry.” Eng. Constr. Archit. Manage., 7(2), 133–140.
Lee, T., and Harrison, K. (2000). “Assessing safety culture in nuclear power stations.” Saf. Sci., 34(1–3), 61–97.
Lingard, H., Cooke, T., and Blismas, N. (2012). “Do perceptions of supervisors’ safety responses mediate the relationship between perceptions of the organizational safety climate and incidents rates in the construction supply chain?” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 234–241.
Lingard, H., and Rowlinson, S. (1998). “Behavior-based safety management in Hong Kong’s construction industry: The results of a field study.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 16(4), 481–488.
Loushine, W. T., Hoonakker, P. L. T., Carayon, P., and Smith, M. J. (2006). “Quality safety management in construction.” Total Qual. Manage., 17(9), 1171–1212.
Lusk, S. L., Ronis, D. L., and Baer, L. M. (1995). “A comparison of multiple indicators.” Eval. Health Professions, 18(1), 51–63.
Mahalingam, A., and Levitt, R. E. (2007). “Safety issues on global projects.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 506–516.
Maiti, J., Chatterjee, S., and Bangdiwala, S. I. (2004). “Determinants of work injury–An application of structural equation modeling.” Inj. Control Saf. Promotion, 11(1), 29–37.
Maloney, W. F., Cameron, I., and Hare, B. (2007). “Tradesmen involvement in safety and health.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 297–305.
Maloney, W. F., and Smith, G. R. (2003). “Reciprocal determinism model of safety.” Proc., Construction Research Congress, ASCE, Reston, VA, 1–8.
MATLAB [Computer software]. Natick, MA, Mathworks.
Mattila, M., Hyttinen, M., and Rantanen, E. (1994). “Effective supervisory behavior and safety at the building site.” Int. J. Ind. Ergon., 13(2), 85–93.
Mearns, K. J., Whitaker, S. M., and Flin, R. (2003). “Safety climate, safety management practice and safety performance in offshore environments.” J. Constr. Steel Res., 41(8), 641–680.
Melia, J. L., Mearns, K., Silva, S. A., and Lima, M. L. (2008). “Safety climate responses and the perceived risk of accidents in the construction industry.” Saf. Sci., 46(6), 949–958.
Mohamed, S. (2002). “Safety climate in construction site environments.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 375–384.
Molen, H., Koningsveld, E., Haslam, R., and Gibb, A. (2005). “Ergonomics in building and construction: Time for implementation.” Appl. Ergon., 36(4), 387–389.
Molenaar, K. R., Park, J., and Washington, S. (2009). “Frame work for measuring corporate safety culture and its impact on construction safety performance.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 488–496.
NeuroSolutions 6 [Computer software]. Gainesville, FL, NeuroDimension.
Ng, S. T., Cheng, K. P., and Skitmore, R. M. (2005). “A framework for evaluating the safety performance of construction contractors.” Build. Environ., 40(10), 1347–1355.
O’Toole, M. (2002). “The relationship between employees’ perceptions of safety and organizational culture.” J. Saf. Res., 33(2), 231–243.
Paul, P. S., and Maiti, J. (2007). “The role of behavioral factors on safety management in underground mines.” Saf. Sci., 45(4), 449–471.
Pousette, A., Larsson, S., and Torner, M. (2008). “Safety climate cross-validation, strength and prediction of safety behavior.” Saf. Sci., 46(3), 398–404.
Rumelhart, D., Widrow, B., and Lehr, A. (1994). “The basic ideas in neural networks.” Comm. ACM, 37(3), 87–92.
Rundmo, T. (1996). “Association risk perception and safety.” Saf. Sci., 24(3), 197–209.
Sawacha, E., Naoum, S., and Fong, D. (1999). “Factors affecting performance on construction sites.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 17(5), 309–315.
Sozen, A., Arcaklioglu, E., and Ozalp, M. (2004). “Estimation of solar potential in Turkey by artificial neural networks using meteorological and geographical data.” Energy Convers. Manage., 45(18–19), 3033–3052.
Tadesse, Z., Patel, K. A., Chaudhary, S., and Nagpal, A. K. (2012). “Neural networks for prediction of deflection in composite bridges.” J. Constr. Steel Res., 68(1), 138–149.
Teo, A. L. E., and Fang, D. P. (2006). “Measurement of health and safety climate in construction industry: Studies in Singapore and Hong Kong.” Proc., International Council for Building (CIB) Int. Conf. on Global Unity for Health and Safety and Health in Construction, Tsinghua University Press, Beijing, 599–606.
Teo, A. L. E., and Feng, Y. (2009). “The role of safety climate in predicting safety culture on construction sites.” Archit. Sci. Rev., 52(1), 5–16.
Teo, A. L. E., Ling, F. Y. Y., and Chong, A. F. W. (2005). “Framework for project managers to manage construction safety.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 23(4), 329–341.
Thompson, R. C., Hilton, T. F., and Witt, L. A. (1998). “Where the safety rubber meets the shop floor: A confirmatory model of management influence on workplace safety.” J. Saf. Res., 29(1), 15–24.
Wang, Y. R., and Gibson, G. E. (2010). “A study of pre-project planning and project success using ANNs and regression models.” Autom. Constr., 19(3), 341–346.
Yule, S. (2003). “Senior management influence on safety performance in the UK and US energy sectors.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Aberdeen, U.K.
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.” Saf. Sci., 46(10), 1406–1419.
Zohar, D. (1980). “Safety climate in industrial organizations: Theoretical and applied implications.” J. Appl. Psychol., 65(1), 96–102.
Zohar, D. (2008). “Safety climate and beyond: A mutli level multi climate framework.” Saf. Sci., 46(3), 376–387.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 141 • Issue 1 • January 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 7, 2014
Accepted: Jul 15, 2014
Published online: Aug 20, 2014
Published in print: Jan 1, 2015
Discussion open until: Jan 20, 2015
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.