Identifying factors of health and safety (H&S) culture for the construction industry

Abstract

Construction H&S performance improvement has in recent years become a priority and thus has gained industry-wide attention (Cheung et al, 2004 and Hamalainen et al, 2009) because of the economic benefits, the need to improve construction industry image, the need for organisations to be socially responsible and the need for an improved general regard and respect for people working in the construction industry. In addition, the legislative pressure coupled with debate concerning the personal responsibility that senior managers should bear for their organisations on H&S failures (Fitzgerald, 2005) has contributed to most organisations to focus on H&S improvement. However improving H&S performance in the construction industry has also proved to be somewhat challenging partly due to the industryʼs complex nature. Despite this complexity of the industry, H&S performance improvement remains a crucial issue and its importance or need has been demonstrated in numerous studies (Smallman and John, 2001; Lee et al, 2006; ILO, 2003; and Hoonakker et al, 2005)