Promoting Safety Culture in Construction Industry

This report focuses on promoting safety culture and climate in the construction industry by analyzing a severe accident that occurred in a construction site in Australia. It discusses the lack of safety measurements, ineffective leadership, and improper implementation of preventive systems. The report recommends the adoption of the Project Safety Climate (PSC) model to ensure the implementation of safety culture and climate in both organizational and employee levels.

Student Name
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION(S) |
Construction work
safety
[DOCUMENT SUBTITLE]

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Executive summary
The construction industry has grown tremendously in past few decades and have
provided many companies with increased profits, commodities and financial accessibility in
Australia as it has in other developed and developing countries. Despite the significance
gained, construction industry has long been recognised as one of the most perilous industries
in various parts of the globe. Overall, fall from height represents around one third of injuries
in construction industry and has become one leading cause of fatalities and multi-serious
injuries. Similar accident has taken place in one of the construction sites in Australia in the
year 2017 that have made a builder fined around $22,000 due to falling of an apprentice from
in the construction site that evidences lack of preventive measures taken for workers safety
culture and climate. Control and management are two ways that can potentially avoid
unexpected events and since accidents are unplanned, an effective implementation of safety
culture/climate can help in avoiding injuries taking at constriction sites. Safety management
needs to be thorough and applicable to all aspects, starting from estimation phase until last
workers has left the premises of the project.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Case description.........................................................................................................................3
Literature review........................................................................................................................5
Case Analysis and recommendations.........................................................................................8
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Construction project are regarded as complex and dynamic due to their project sites
and manpower involved. They are also recognised as transitory and temporary in nature since
most of the workers in construction projects are usually appointed on temporary basis. As
most of the time are spent in construction site, the construction crew are exposed to higher
probability of fatal injuries that can result to deaths even. Among all accidents taking place in
construction sites, falls are the most leading ones that have caused serious injuries to around
48% workers while 30% faced fatalities (Nadhim, et al., 2016). This report has been prepared
after identifying a construction site accident that occurred due to scaffolding method which
was not provided with any kind of protection that caused a worker face life-long injury. The
incident that took place two years ago and will be analysed in this report with the help of
current literature related to falls from height in construction industry and how they can be
prevented by promoting safety culture/climate in construction site. This report aims at
reviewing credible sources to find safety issues at construction site along with providing
recommendations that can avoid taking place of such accidents by promoting safety
culture/climate in construction industry.
Case description
In August 2017, a severe accident took place in Two Rocks, Australia, due to which
the registered builder was fined $22,000 along with paying $900 in costs after the apprentice
fell from above six metres height from trestle scaffolding and got severely injured. According
to the media and online news report, Mr Gregson, who belongs to Gregson Construction
Company had pleaded guilty for the incident which occurred along with maintaining safety
work culture, but was fined by the Joondalup Magistrates court. In August, Mr Gregson and

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his two employees were completing the work on one of the two-storeyed framed house
located in Two Rocks. Among two employees who accompanied Mr Gregson, one was a
qualified carpenter and the other one an apprentice carpenter. Mr Gregson controlled all the
work by himself and gave every single instructions and directions concerning construction
work to his employees alongside giving them detailed description about how to perform the
tasks that was undertaken by the company (WAtoday, 2018).
On 23rd August morning, the two workers were told to place carpenter’s trestles that
can help them in installing barge boards at the house front area on the roof gable. According
to Mr Gregor’s instruction, a single plank needed to be placed between double 1.8m height
trestles on 1st floor veranda made of timber that was approximately 3 meters above the
ground level. However, only 1 scaffold bay was placed to make the plank fall in an angle
which shows that no fall accident prevention was undertaken in the construction site. And
thus, an apprentice fell during the installation stage from approximately 6 meters height to the
levelled and compacted ground below. Though the apprentice sustained, he had to face severe
facial injuries and was admitted for critical surgeries to insert a steel plate in his cheek along
with treatment for fractured left wrist (Wa.Gov.Au, 2018).
According to WorkSafe WA Commissioner, Ian Munns, “The apprentice involved in
this incident is very fortunate not to have lost his life in the six-metre fall,” (Wa.Gov.Au,
2018). The commissioner also infirmed that in past 10 years, around twenty-eight Western
Australian workers lost their lives due to work-related falls and many others faced life-
changing injuries due to falls from the height during work hours. After two days of the
incident, scaffolding was erected again at the front elevation tilt the roof edge to provide safer
access and workplace that was grounded on safety platform for eliminating fall hazards.
However, since these measures were taken lately, it costed an apprentice life-changing injury.
Australian construction companies are supposed to follow The Code of Practice (2004) that

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prevents falls at workplaces and must be followed by anyone who undertakes the
responsibility for preventing falls at workplaces. This code also provides practical advice for
installing safe systems in work and must be present at the places where there is a risk of
recognising accidents due to work. Moreover, employers as well as employees need to be
aware of the country safety and culture related models especially when there are fall risks in
workplaces to ensure that they have sustainable and safe work culture/climate in their
workplace (WAtoday, 2018).
Literature review
Accidents and fatalities in construction industry have attracted many researcher’s
attention for example, factors influencing falls in construction sites research made by
Nadhim, et al. (2016) in general. Although it is useful to have an insight of most of the
factors related to construction accidents, most of the papers has been published prior 2009
and have focused more upon accidents due to fall in workplaces. A research made by
Hosseini, Maghrebi, Rameezdeen, & S. (n.d.) finds that safety record in construction industry
is not up to the mark as compared to other industries. Due to unique nature of work in
construction projects, occupational injuries rates stand highest in construction sector majorly
due to risk-oriented tasks, working in poor environment, using too many resources and
working at risky heights. In fact, the construction industry in UK accounts for more than one
third of fatalities and in Australia, construction industry is regarded as 3rd most dangerous
industry. Thus, many research has been conducted in past few years about why and how to
promote safety culture/climate in construction industry. Promoting safety measurements in
construction industry have few managerial implications also. Construction company
managements shall have an approach that not only focuses upon managing process related

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issues, but also focus and appreciate other critical matters like workplace safety and hygiene
to implement safety measurement into their core management systems (Chan, 2012).
According to Kadam, Desale, & Khalkar (2017), “The construction industry produces
the built environment, creates employment and generates wealth” (p. 685). Indeed, but
establishing efficient and good workplace environment can potentially help construction
companies in controlling and reducing costs related to fatalities alongside enabling long-term
efficacy. Since construction industry is commonly considered as one of the hazardous land-
based activity, it is great need in promoting risk assessments, safety committees, policies and
documented safety management processes. However, the research conducted by the author
finds that such measurements are usually absent in small businesses as they were unaware of
their duties, and many accidents were reported that violated construction workers health and
safety. According to Naoum, Roswell, & Fong (2009), safety culture is derived from theories
related to organisational culture and thus the authors suggest that safety culture must be
considered as a significant aspect in every industry while assessing the impacts of safety
performance and any change seen in safety climate.

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Figure 1: Causes and preventive measures for construction sites (Bhole, 2016)
According to Bhole (2016), major accidents in construction sites occurs due to lack of
safety awareness, training and organisational commitment alongside poor technical
supervision and uncontrolled operations. Unsafe conditions like lack of sufficient light,
missing guardrails and defective tools are few among various others that constitutes among
primary causes behind accidents (figure 1). The above figure demonstrates establishing
shared and realistic approach towards safety role that every construction site can provide with
and can considerably reduce the current uncertainty ratio. The author pinpoints that designing
and management of construction community must ensure that every entity attached with the
project focuses upon their role and ultimately share their experience that can prevent
accidents from occurring and improve the safety layout in construction sites.
Cooper (2018) reveals that between the years 1986-2000, three most influential safety
culture models were developed that helped in guiding safety culture in practice.

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Guldenmund’s adopted Schein’s model that interpreted three-layer organisational culture
layout reflecting organisational and anthropological theories. Cooper reciprocal safety culture
framework was more based upon functional approach that leveraged social learning theory.
Third model introduced was Reason’s five inter-dependent sub-cultures that are based upon
incident analysis. According to the author, all the three models provided actionable
framework and has influenced many researchers and regulators for making use of them while
measuring practical capacity of accidents or making empirical study. The author also opines
that safety culture in organisations is driven by leadership control who cultivates, creates and
sustains the project journey to excellence. Leaders set the vision and direction, provides with
resources and constantly emphasise to reinforce the significance behind safety among people
and the company. Ineffective safety leadership can become a major cause for blockage while
accomplishing success in projects.
Case Analysis and recommendations
After reviewing the case, it can be said that the construction site in the case study
lacked safety measurements, effective leadership, improper implementation of preventive
systems and lack of guidance that made one of the apprentice face severe injury. As per
current literature, site conditions can impact workers safety especially the ones who work at
an elevated height due to several reasons. Fall from height mainly occurs due to defects in
work surface like lopped angles and unprotected layouts (He, Xu, & Fu, 2012). Since, the
apprentice carpenter was asked to perform a task to put plank boards in the roof gable that
was 3 meters above the ground level, Mr Gregson must have ensured himself regarding safe
installation since he looked upon every decisions and directions related to his projects. By
rechecking unsafe practice and finding alternative ways could have avoided occurrence of
such uncertainty (Subramani & Lordsonmillar, 2014). Secondly, the case reveals that

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construction management in Mr Gregor’s company did not conducted any safety culture
programmes like training and development that resulted in occurrence of a severe accident.
Figure 2: Project Safety Culture Model (Maloney, n.d.)
To avoid occurrence of similar incident in Mr Gregor’s construction company, Project
Safety Climate (PSC) model can be recommended that can ensure implementation of safety
culture and climate in both organisational and employee levels (figure 2). In organisational
level, this model will provide workers with work perceptions and policy frameworks that are
associated with safety measurement. At employee level, this model will provide workers with
specific supervisors or leaders for ensuring safer work practices under technical guidance.
Since the apprentice carpenters were directed lamely, lacking technical expertise, this model
will ensure that they have full discretion as to what methods and tools will be required to
perform the task (Maloney, n.d.). Workers perception and behaviour fosters in group work
while reducing risks involved in construction projects through collaborative efforts. The case
reveals that only two apprentice carpenters were involved for conducting such risky task and
thus recommends Mr Gregor to consider employing larger number of workers especially
while conducting risky tasks and ones which needs to be performed in heights to promote a
safe and risk-free culture and workplace climate (Zou, 2011).

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Conclusion
The main objective behind preparing this report focussed upon promoting safety
culture and climate in construction industry after recognising a severe accident that took
place in one of the construction sites in Australia. To analyse the root cause behind the
accident, this paper used ideas and research conducted by the scholars in the related field and
finds that most of the accidents that takes place in construction sites are due to fall from
heights because the sites that were inspected either lacked technical supervision or
improper/negligence towards safety culture programs. The case study drawn from online
media news reports reveals how ineffective leadership provided to the workers caused one of
the apprentice face life-long injury and thus makes a recommendation to adapt PSC model
along with suggestions from academic lenses that can potentially avoid Gregor’s
Construction Company fall into similar incidents.

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References
Bhole, S. A., 2016. Safety Problems and Injuries on Construction Site: A Review.
International Journal of Engineering and Techniques , 2(4), pp. 24-35.
Chan, E., 2012. A Safety culture in construction business. Journal of Research in
International Business and Management, 2(13), pp. 335-340.
Cooper, M. D., 2018. The Safety Culture Construct: Theory and Practice. In: Safety Cultures,
Safety Models, SpringerBriefs in Safety Management. Franklin: B-Safe Management
Solutions Inc., pp. 47-61.
He, A., Xu, S. & Fu, G., 2012. Study on the Basic Problems of Safety Culture. Procedia
Engineering, Volume 43, pp. 245-249.
Hosseini, M. R., Maghrebi, M., Rameezdeen, R. & Waller, S. T., n.d. Statistically Reviewing
Construction Accidents within South Australia during 2002-2013. [Online]
Available at: http://www.iaarc.org/publications/fulltext/FFACE-ISARC15-3091482.pdf
[Accessed 31 05 2019].
Kadam, D. D., Desale, M. S. & Khalkar, A. S., 2017. Review on Study of Safety Culture at
Construction Sites. International Journal of Advance Research in Science and Engineering,
6(3), pp. 685-689.
Maloney, W. F., n.d. Conceptual Model of Safety Culture for Construction. [Online]
Available at: http://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB_DC24419.pdf
[Accessed 31 05 2019].

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Nadhim, E. A., Hon, C., Xia, B., Stewart, I., Fang, D., 2016. Falls from Height in the
Construction Industry: A Critical Review of the Scientific Literature. International Journal
of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(638), pp. 1-20.
Naoum, S., Roswell, E. & Fong, D., 2009. A Proposed Framework for Changing the Safety
Culture within the UK Construction Industry. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270798161_A_Proposed_Framework_for_Changin
g_the_Safety_Culture_within_the_UK_Construction_Industry
[Accessed 31 05 2019].
Subramani, T. & Lordsonmillar, R., 2014. Safety Management Analysis In Construction
Industry. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 4(6), pp. 117-120.
Wa.Gov.Au, 2018. Builder fined $22,000 over apprentice fall. [Online]
Available at: https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/announcements/builder-fined-22000-over-
apprentice-fall
[Accessed 31 05 2019].
WAtoday, 2018. Perth builder fined: Apprentice 'lucky not to lose his life' in six-metre fall.
[Online]
Available at: https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-builder-fined-
apprentice-lucky-not-to-lose-his-life-in-six-metre-fall-20181107-p50ejf.html
[Accessed 31 05 2019].
Zou, P. X., 2011. Fostering a Strong Construction Safety Culture. Leadership and
Management in Engineering, 11(1), pp. 11-22.

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