Sociotechnical Systems of Fatal Electrical Injuries in the Construction Industry
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 142, Issue 1
Abstract
The construction industry experiences the greatest proportion of workplace electrical injuries globally. Much research effort has gone toward analyzing this phenomenon, yet a majority of which focused on isolated elements while ignored the work system. Modern work systems are complex, within which humans interact with technology, social structures, and environments. Outcomes (including accidents and injuries) resulting from such a complex system are not attained by any system element in isolation. As a result, effective risk management requires the control over the whole sociotechnical system (STS). This work demonstrates such an effort in investigating STSs. The work uses a triangulation approach in examining construction-fatality reports. The findings identify three typical STSs, reveal their system weaknesses, and provide remedial recommendations. The work contributes to the knowledge body of risk management, electrical safety, and research methodologies. The introduced triangulation approach in injury analysis and intervention is grounded in the broad concept of workplace safety, namely, organizational, social, political, and psychological contexts.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the reviewers for the insights and constructive comments.
References
Arboleda, C., and Abraham, D. (2004). “Fatalities in trenching operations—Analysis using models of accident causation.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 273–280.
BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). (2013). “Standard occupational classification.” 〈http://www.bls.gov/soc〉 (Dec. 25, 2013).
BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). (2014). “Census of fatal occupational injuries (CFOI).” 〈http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm〉 (Aug. 30, 2014).
Bunn, T. L., Slavova, S., and Hall, L. (2008). “Narrative text analysis of Kentucky tractor fatality reports.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 40(2), 419–425.
Carayon, P., Sainfort, F., and Smith, M. J. (1999). “Macroergonomics and total quality management: How to improve quality of working life?” Int. J. Occup. Saf. Ergon., 5(2), 303–334.
Cawley, J. C., and Brenner, B. C. (2012). “Occupational electrical injuries in the US, 2003–2009.” Proc., Electrical Safety Workshop (ESW), 2012 IEEE IAS, IEEE, New York, 1–5.
Cawley, J. C., and Homce, G. T. (2003). “Occupational electrical injuries in the United States, 1992–1998, and recommendations for safety research.” J. Saf. Res., 34(3), 241–248.
Cohn, L. D., Macfarlane, S., Yanez, C., and Imai, W. K. (1995). “Risk-perception: Differences between adolescents and adults.” Health Psychol., 14(3), 217–222.
Collins, L. M., and Lanza, S. T. (2010). Latent class and latent transition analysis: With applications in the social, behavioral, and health sciences, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Conte, J. C., Rubio, E., García, A. I., and Cano, F. (2011). “Occupational accidents model based on risk-injury affinity groups.” Saf. Sci., 49(2), 306–314.
Depaire, B., Wets, G., and Vanhoof, K. (2008). “Traffic accident segmentation by means of latent class clustering.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 40(4), 1257–1266.
Du, J., and El-Gafy, M. (2012). “Virtual organizational imitation for construction enterprises: Agent-based simulation framework for exploring human and organizational implications in construction management.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 282–297.
Erikson, E. H. (1993). Childhood and society, W. W. Norton & Company, New York.
Feng, Y., Zhao, D., Wu, P., and Xia, B. (2013). “Risk compensation in construction workers’ activities.” Proc., 38th Australasian Univ. Building Education Association Conf. (AUBEA), Univ. of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 1–10.
Ferrante, P., Marinaccio, A., and Iavicoli, S. (2013). “Home injuries in Italy: Patterns of injury and the most exposed people.” Int. J. Inj. Control Saf. Promot., 20(1), 36–41.
Goodman, L. A. (1974). “The analysis of systems of qualitative variables when some of the variables are unobservable. Part I—A modified latent structure approach.” Am. J. Sociol., 79(5), 1179–1259.
Greenacre, M., and Blasius, J. (2006). Multiple correspondence analysis and related methods, CRC, Boca Raton, FL.
Guimarães, L. B. D. M., Ribeiro, J. L. D., Renner, J. S., and de Oliveira, P. A. B. (2014). “Worker evaluation of a macroergonomic intervention in a Brazilian footwear company.” Appl. Ergon., 45(4), 923–935.
Hagenaars, J. A., and McCutcheon, A. L. (2002). Applied latent class analysis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Hanninen, M., and Kujala, P. (2012). “Influences of variables on ship collision probability in a Bayesian belief network model.” Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf., 102, 27–40.
Haro, E., and Kleiner, B. M. (2008). “Macroergonomics as an organizing process for systems safety.” Appl. Ergon., 39(4), 450–458.
Hendrick, H. W., and Kleiner, B. M. (2002). Macroergonomics: Theory, methods, and applications, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.
Higgins, D. N., Casini, V. J., Bost, P., Johnson, W., and Rautiainen, R. (2001). “The fatality assessment and control evaluation program’s role in the prevention of occupational fatalities.” Inj. Prev., 7, i27–i33.
Huss, A., Vermeulen, R., Bowman, J. D., Kheifets, L., and Kromhout, H. (2013). “Electric shocks at work in Europe: Development of a job exposure matrix.” Occup. Environ. Med., 70(4), 261–267.
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). (2014). “IEC standard voltages.” 〈https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/153〉 (Dec. 25, 2014).
Janicak, C. A. (2008). “Occupational fatalities due to electrocutions in the construction industry.” J. Saf. Res., 39(6), 617–621.
Katz, D., and Kahn, R. L. (1966). The social psychology of organizations, Wiley, New York.
Kleiner, B. M. (1999). “Macroergonomic analysis and design for improved safety and quality performance.” Int. J. Occup. Saf. Ergon., 5(2), 217–245.
Kleiner, B. M. (2006). “Macroergonomics: Analysis and design of work systems.” Appl. Ergon., 37(1), 81–89.
Kleiner, B. M., Smith-Jackson, T., Mills, T., O’Brien, M., and Haro, E. (2008). “Design, development, and deployment of a rapid universal safety and health system for construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 273–279.
Kline, P. (1994). An easy guide to factor analysis, Routledge, Oxford, U.K.
Langley, J. (1995). “Experiences using New Zealand’s hospital based surveillance system for injury prevention research.” Methods Inf. Med., 34(4), 340–344.
Lazarsfeld, P. F. (1950). “The logical and mathematical foundation of latent structure analysis.” Measurement and prediction, S. A. Stouffer, ed., Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 362–412.
Ling, F. Y. Y., Liu, M., and Woo, Y. C. (2009). “Construction fatalities in Singapore.” Int. J. Project Manage., 27(7), 717–726.
Loomis, D., Dufort, V., Kleckner, R. C., and Savitz, D. A. (1999). “Fatal occupational injuries among electric power company workers.” Am. J. Ind. Med., 35(3), 302–309.
Lu, S., Mei, P., Wang, J., and Zhang, H. (2012). “Fatality and influence factors in high-casualty fires: A correspondence analysis.” Saf. Sci., 50(4), 1019–1033.
Magidson, J., and Vermunt, J. K. (2001). “Latent class factor and cluster models, bi-plots, and related graphical displays.” Sociol. Methodol., 31(1), 223–264.
McCann, M., Hunting, K. L., Murawski, J., Chowdhury, R., and Welch, L. (2003). “Causes of electrical deaths and injuries among construction workers.” Am. J. Ind. Med., 43(4), 398–406.
Mitropoulos, P., Abdelhamid, T. S., and Howell, G. A. (2005). “Systems model of construction accident causation.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 816–825.
Murphy, L. A., Robertson, M. M., and Carayon, P. (2014). “The next generation of macroergonomics: Integrating safety climate.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 68, 16–24.
Nagamachi, M., and Imada, A. S. (1992). “A macroergonomic approach for improving safety and work design.” Proc. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. Annu. Meet., 36(11), 859–861.
Ore, T., and Casini, V. (1996). “Electrical fatalities among U.S. construction workers.” J. Occup. Environ. Med., 38(6), 587–592.
Pasmore, W. A., and Sherwood, J. J. (1978). Sociotechnical systems: A sourcebook, University Associates, Lajolla, CA.
Rasmussen, J. (1997). “Risk management in a dynamic society: A modelling problem.” Saf. Sci., 27(2–3), 183–213.
Robertson, M. M., Schleifer, L. M., and Huang, Y.-H. (2012). “Examining the macroergonomics and safety factors among teleworkers: Development of a conceptual model.” Work, 41, 2611–2615.
Sawacha, E., Naoum, S., and Fong, D. (1999). “Factors affecting safety performance on construction sites.” Int. J. Project Manage., 17(5), 309–315.
Sourial, N., et al. (2010). “Correspondence analysis is a useful tool to uncover the relationships among categorical variables.” J. Clin. Epidemiol., 63(6), 638–646.
Stevens, J. P. (2002). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences, Routledge, New York.
Strauch, B. (2002). Investigating human error: Incidents, accidents and complex systems, Ashgate, Burlington, VT.
Suárez-Cebador, M., Rubio-Romero, J. C., and López-Arquillos, A. (2014). “Severity of electrical accidents in the construction industry in Spain.” J. Saf. Res., 48, 63–70.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2014). “North American industry classification system.” 〈http://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics〉 (May 18, 2014).
Van der Heijden, P. G., Gilula, Z., Der Ark, V., and Andries, L. (1999). “An extended study into the relationship between correspondence analysis and latent class analysis.” Sociol. Methodol., 29(1), 147–186.
Vermunt, J. K. (2008). “Latent class and finite mixture models for multilevel data sets.” Stat. Methods Med. Res., 17(1), 33–51.
Zhao, D., McCoy, A. P., Kleiner, B. M., and Smith-Jackson, T. L. (2015). “Control measures of electrical hazards: An analysis of construction industry.” Saf. Sci., 77, 143–151.
Zhao, D., Thabet, W., McCoy, A., and Kleiner, B. (2012). “Managing electrocution hazards in the US construction industry using VR simulation and cloud technology.” eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction: ECPPM 2012, CRC, Leiden, Netherlands, 759–764.
Zhao, D., Thabet, W., McCoy, A., and Kleiner, B. (2014). “Electrical deaths in the U.S. construction: An analysis of fatality investigations.” Int. J. Inj. Control Saf. Promot., 21(3), 278–288.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 142 • Issue 1 • January 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 21, 2014
Accepted: May 28, 2015
Published online: Jul 16, 2015
Discussion open until: Dec 16, 2015
Published in print: Jan 1, 2016
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.