Health and safety management and performance among construction contractors in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The construction industry is of vital importance to the economies of nations. It employsabout seven percent of the global workforce but accounts for between 30 and 40percent of all work-related fatalities, with developing countries recording more fatalitieswhen compared to developed countries. The economic cost of construction accidentsis also significant in terms of compensation claims, lost productivity, and overruns onproject schedule and cost. Health and safety management within the constructionindustry has not developed at the same pace as in other industries and withtechnological advances within the industry itself. The failure of health and safetymanagement systems and the lack of safety culture within contractor organisationshave been highlighted as factors responsible for the high rate of construction accidentsin developing countries such as South Africa.Previous studies have focused on construction phase health and safety managementinterventions. Few studies have investigated health and safety management within theconstruction industry from the organisational/enterprise perspective. In this study, theaim was to identify and compare the effectiveness of the different H&S managementarrangements employed by construction contractors in South Africa. In the context ofthis study, a health and safety management arrangement is defined as:the organisational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, procedures,processes, resources and practices for managing the health and safety risksassociated with the business of an organisation.This study uses a mixed methods research design that combined qualitativedescriptive research and quantitative research approaches to achieve the researchobjectives.The broad spectrum of health and safety management arrangements (HSMA) withinmedium to large size contractor organisations in South Africa were categorised intothree distinct types – (1) traditional/compliance motivated, (2) systematic/compliancemotivated, and (3) systems/best practice motivated. Areas of strengths andweaknesses in the strategically developed policies and procedures, as well as theirimplementation were identified for each type.Top management leadership, operational managers' leadership, safety professionals'leadership were identified as critical factors responsible for variations in the safety performance of the three HSMA types. Top management leadership was identified asan important factor to building systems that support effective health and safetymanagement. Safety professionals' leadership and operational managers' leadershipwere identified as factors that positively impacted health and safety managementpractices and workers' behaviour respectively.The study concludes that to improve the safety performance within the South Africanconstruction industry, health and safety management practices and safety relatedbehaviour of construction workers within the industry must improve. Achieving thisrequires emphasis on policies that improve safety professionals' leadership andoperational managers' leadership within contractor organisations.The uniqueness of this study is the adoption of a holistic organisational perspective toinvestigating health and safety management efforts of construction contractororganisations. The value of this study lies in the improved understanding of thedifferent types of health and safety management arrangements within contractororganisations in South Africa, their characteristics and their relative effectiveness. It isbelieved that this study will draw greater attention to the study of construction safetychallenges from an organisational perspective and inform actions that strengthenidentified weaknesses in the health and safety management efforts of contractororganisations.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University