Elsevier

Safety Science

Volume 46, Issue 4, April 2008, Pages 566-584
Safety Science

Why operatives engage in unsafe work behavior: Investigating factors on construction sites

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.027Get rights and content

Abstract

This work discusses empirical research aimed at why construction workers engage in unsafe behavior. Interviews were conducted in Hong Kong with workers who had been accident victims. Both Chinese and non-Chinese operatives recorded their safety experiences when working on construction sites. Participants’ information such as age, experience and work environment was documented. Seven individual accidents and resulting injuries as reported by the injured operatives are described. Work-in-progress is briefly reported in an attempt to acquire and disseminate knowledge as to why operatives performed work in an unsafe behavior at construction sites. In-depth semi-structured interviews provided a rich data base allowing a grounded theory approach to be adopted to identify emerging themes during data analysis. The findings indicated that workers were involved in unsafe behavior because of: a lack of safety awareness; to exhibit of being ‘tough guys’; work pressure; co-workers’ attitudes; and other organizational, economic and psychological factors. The results substantiate the significant role of management; safety procedure; psychological and economic factors; self-esteem; experience; performance pressure; job security; and education as well as safety orientation and training. The influences of these factors on the safety behavior of workers are discussed along with implications of the research for management of the construction industry.

Introduction

The construction industry in Hong Kong has a history of and a reputation for poor safety performance, particularly in the eighties and early nineties. Lingard and Rowlinson (1994) revealed that the annual accident rate in 1991 was 374 per 1000 workers, which is 25 times worse than Japan and Singapore. However, a number of initiatives have been put in place to promote safety and health in the workplace in the form of legislation, law enforcement, safety promotion, and training which have reduced the number of industrial fatalities in the construction industry to 17 in 2004 in Hong Kong, the lowest figure ever recorded (LD, 2005). Nonetheless, the Hong Kong construction industry is still very risky in comparison to that of developed countries. Overall, further evidence has been documented around the world that construction has the highest rate of accidents among industries (Koehn et al., 1995, Sawacha et al., 1999, Ahmed et al., 2000).

The safety of workers is a complex phenomenon. Construction is always risky because of outdoor operations, work-at heights, complicated on-site plants and equipment operation coupled with workers attitudes and behaviors towards safety. The nature of the construction industry’s rapidly changing conditions, associated work hazards, and the characteristics of construction organizations further aggravate the situation. Mechanistic or automatic organizations are designed to function under relatively stable environments while organic types are best suited to unstable ones (Wilson, 1989). Mechanistic organizations allow for the exclusion of decision-making roles, and rules and procedures to be followed while organic types rely on decision-making roles, the use of the workforce, and training facilities for workers to carry out non-standardized operations. Construction falls under the organic type of organizations where the nature of the work, working environment, and job site conditions change rapidly.

In 2004, the Tsinghua – Gammon Construction Safety Research Center was invited to carry out research at the construction sites of a well-established construction company and a market leader in the Hong Kong construction industry (hereafter called ‘the company’). The company had implemented good safety, health and environment management systems on its more than 40 construction sites. Nonetheless, despite implementing up dated safety management systems (SMS), serious accidents still occurred on the company’s construction projects. One example is an accident that occurred on 12 June 2005 at the job of a subcontractor at the Shenzhen Western Corridor project when a worker died on 7 July 2005 after suffering severe injuries. There were many subcontractors performing work on-site, at all projects of the company. An estimated 70% of all their construction work in Hong Kong was being performed by subcontractors. Normally, subcontractors are responsible for their own work volume. Nevertheless, when a safety lapse occurs in their work, the accident is immediately charged to the primary contractor, the company. Researchers from Tsinghua University advised the company about the occurrences of these accidents so that prevention efforts could be directed in the form of an effective accident prevention program.

According to Chan et al. (2005) accidents happen due to a random combination of many contributing factors. Traditionally, they are categorized due to unsafe conditions and unsafe practices. Health and Safety Executives (HSE, 2002, p. 38) concluded that human behavior is a contributing factor in approximately 80% of the accidents. Many studies revealed that the majority of accidents and resulting injuries are attributed to unsafe work practices of the workers rather than unsafe working conditions (e.g. Garavan and O’brien, 2001). Some studies (e.g. Mullen, 2004) reveal that organizational and social factors are not to be overlooked because these factors influence safety behaviors. The argument in favor of this is that if unsafe conditions are present, it becomes the normal practice of workers to perform construction activities by accepting the risks associated with the work. In this situation, construction site accidents cannot be solely attributed to the unsafe work practices of workers. It gives the impression that rather than attributing the blame for accidents and injuries to construction workers, one must pay attention to and view the injury from the worker’s perspective. In construction, little to no attempt has been made to understand the organizational and operational factors from the workers viewpoint, which might contribute to the increased risk of accidents. The main objective of this research is to suggest recommendations for improving site safety on the company’s construction projects by listening to the viewpoints of the subcontractor’s workers. Specifically, the following objectives are identified:

  • 1.

    To understand the workers viewpoint as to why accidents happen within subcontractors’ employees by conducting in-depth interviews with workers who have suffered an injury.

  • 2.

    To gain understanding of why construction workers engage in unsafe work behavior on construction sites.

  • 3.

    To identify factors that influences the safety behavior of operatives at construction projects.

Section snippets

Literature review

Accident investigation techniques and reporting systems in construction identify what type of accidents occur and how they occur (Abdelhamid and Everett, 2000). Why the accident has occurred, generally, is not addressed. To understand this, one has to be aware of the theories of accident causation and theories of human error. Usually, an accident investigation stops at a premature level but should be required to be firmly based on theories of accident causation and human error (Brown, 1995). A

Research method

This research commenced by reviewing the relevant literature on construction safety from academic journals. Formal safety, health and environmental management system of a leading construction company in Hong Kong was reviewed by studying how this system was implemented on-site. The first author resided full time for two months on the company projects in Hong Kong and observed how communications flows from top to frontline workers of subcontractors. For instance, a safety management team of the

Research findings and analysis

Unsafe behaviors seem to be a combination of many factors, which include both the human and situational or environmental aspects involved in performing construction task. The interviews revealed that unsafe behaviors were evident in the daily practices of operatives. The participants provided insights into the type of work environment that supports unsafe behavior. As mentioned in the methodology, interview transcripts were analyzed systematically through iterative and repeated re-readings of

Discussion

In this section, the influence of factors on safety behaviors will be discussed along with their application to the construction industry. The identified factors may be useful for the prime contractor to improve its safety climate and safety performance. Workers might behave unsafely consciously or unconsciously. More attention should be paid to workers’ view on safety. One worker explained, “It is harsh to wear goggles under heat or sunlight and it is even difficult to see with grubby or mucky

Conclusion

This research has provided insight into why construction workers engage in unsafe work behavior, based on a qualitative sample of operatives on Hong Kong construction projects. The theories of accident causation and of human error are briefly described. In-depth semi-structured interviews were recorded both with Chinese and non-Chinese workers who had been accident victims. Seven individual accidents and their resulting injuries as reported by the injured operatives were documented. The

Acknowledgements

The first author would like to express his appreciation to the Higher Education Commission, Government of Pakistan for granting a Ph.D. scholarship to undertake this study. Financial support from National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan is also gratefully acknowledged. Acknowledgements are also addressed to Gammon Construction Limited, Hong Kong and its employees, including subcontractors, for supporting and participating in this research.

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    Faculty Member, National Institute of Transportation, National University of Sciences & Technology, Pakistan. Tel.: +92 923 631211; fax: +92 923 631594.

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