Safety Risk Tolerance in the Construction Industry: Cross-Cultural Analysis
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 146, Issue 4
Abstract
Disparities in worker risk tolerance may create barriers to implementing safety management systems and improving safety performance. At present, it is unclear if and to what extent construction safety risk tolerance vary across broad geographic regions. To better understand patterns in these sociocultural constructs, a survey of building trade contractors and subcontractors was administered. Using principal component analysis and K-means clustering, the determinants of risk tolerance were analyzed for 11,997 construction workers from 17 countries via controlled sampling for equal representation. The analysis showed that risk tolerance is influenced and linked by individual and sociocultural determinants, i.e., affective associations, control beliefs, safety culture, and risk-taking attitudes. Differences and distinct groupings were observed when the derived global risk tolerance scores were compared to country-specific risk-tolerance scores. This study contributes to the literature by empirically identifying determinants of risk tolerance and quantifying cross-cultural disparities in risk tolerance. It was found that the natural grouping of countries, based on their risk-tolerance determinants, coincides with their ancestral heritage and socioeconomic systems. The results can be used to inform policymakers, stakeholders, safety professionals, and industry leaders to improve safety decisions in the workplace, promote strong situational awareness, design structural policies, and implement safety programs.
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 this study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information regarding the Journal’s data-sharing policy can be found at the following website: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001263.
References
Choi, B., S. Ahn, and S. Lee. 2017. “Role of social norms and social identifications in safety behavior of construction workers. I: Theoretical model of safety behavior under social influence.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 143 (5): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001271.
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.
Cockerman, W. 2005. “Health lifestyle theory and the convergence of agency and structure.” J. Health Social Behav. 46 (1): 51–67.
Eaton, G., and D. Little. 2011. “Risk: Assessing & mitigating to deliver sustainable safety performance.” In ASSE Professional Development Conf. and Exposition, 35–41. Park Ridge, IL: American Society of Safety Engineers.
Endsley, M., and D. Jones. 2004. “Designing for situation awareness.” In Designing for situation awareness. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Gerbert, P., S. Castagnino, C. Rothballer, and A. Renz. 2016. Shaping the future of construction a breakthrough in mindset and technology, 1–64. Cologny, Switzerland: World Economic Forum.
Greene, W. 2000. Econometric analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Hallowell, M. R. 2010. “Safety risk perception in construction companies in the Pacific Northwest of the USA.” Constr. Manage. Econ. 28 (4): 403–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446191003587752.
Hinze, J., and J. Gambatese. 2003. “Factors that influence safety performance of specialty contractors.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 129 (2): 159–164. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2003)129:2(159).
Hofstede, G. 2016. “National cultures in four dimensions : A research-based theory of cultural differences among nations.” Int. Stud. Manage. Organ. 13 (1): 46–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/00208825.1983.11656358.
Hopkins, A. 2010. Failure to learn: The BP Texas city refinery disaster. Sydney, NSW, Australia: CCH Australia Limited.
ILO (International Labour Organization). 2018. Key indicators of the labour market. Geneva: ILO.
James, G., D. Witten, T. Hastie, and R. Tibshirani. 2013. An introduction to statistical learning with applications in R. New York: Springer.
Korkmaz, S., and D. J. Park. 2018. “Comparison of safety perception between foreign and local workers in the construction industry in Republic of Korea.” Saf. Health Work 9 (1): 53–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2017.07.002.
Krueger, N., and P. Dickson. 1994. “How believing in ourselves increases risk taking: Perceived.” Decis. Sci. 25 (3): 385. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.1994.tb01849.x.
Link, B. 2008. “Epidemiological sociology and the social shaping of population health.” J. Health Social Behav. 49 (4): 367–384. https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650804900401.
Man, S. S., A. H. S. Chan, and H. M. Wong. 2017. “Risk-taking behaviors of Hong Kong construction workers: A thematic study.” Saf. Sci. 98 (Oct): 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.05.004.
Oxford Economics. 2018. The economic significance of the meetings and events industry to the U.S. economy, 1–52. Oxford, UK: Oxford Economics.
Perlman, A., R. Sacks, and R. Barak. 2014. “Hazard recognition and risk perception in construction.” Saf. Sci. 64 (Apr): 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.11.019.
Pinheiro, A., B. Cranor, and D. Anderson. 2011. “Assessing risk: A simplified methodology for prejob planning in oil & gas production.” Prof. Saf. 56 (9): 34–40.
Rasmussen, J. 1997. “Risk management in a dynamic society: A modelling problem.” Saf. Sci. 27 (2): 183–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-7535(97)00052-0.
Reason, J. 1997. Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Reason, J. 2000. “Human error: Models and management.” Br. Med. J. 320 (768): 1–8. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136%2Fbmj.320.7237.768.
Robson, L. S., J. A. Clarke, K. Cullen, A. Bielecky, C. Severin, P. L. Bigelow, E. Irvin, A. Culyer, and Q. Mahood. 2007. “The effectiveness of occupational health and safety management system interventions: A systematic review.” Saf. Sci. 45 (3): 329–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2006.07.003.
Rohrmann, B., and O. Renn. 2006. “Risk perception research: An introduction.” In Cross-cultural risk perception: A survey of empirical studies, 13–43. Boston: Springer.
Rundmo, T. 2011. “Employee images of risk.” J. Risk Res. 4 (4): 393–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/136698701100653259.
Sitkin, S. B., and A. L. Pablo. 1992. “Reconceptualizing the determinants of risk behavior.” Acad. Manage. Rev. 17 (1): 9. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1992.4279564.
Thompson, B. 2010. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
US Census. 2017. Construction spending: Historical value put in place. Washington, DC: US Census.
Williams, D., and J. Noyes. 2007. “How does our perception of risk influence decision making? Implications for the design of risk information.” Theor. Issues Ergon. Sci. 8 (1): 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/14639220500484419.
Zhao, D., A. P. McCoy, B. M. Kleiner, T. H. Mills, and H. Lingard. 2016. “Stakeholder perceptions of risk in construction.” Saf. Sci. 82 (Feb): 111–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.09.002.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 146 • Issue 4 • April 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 8, 2019
Accepted: Aug 29, 2019
Published online: Feb 6, 2020
Published in print: Apr 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Jul 6, 2020
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.