Safety Management in Construction Industry

Safety Management 1
SAFETY MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
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Table of Content
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Safety Management 2
Executive summary.......................................................................................................................2
1.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Problem statement.................................................................................................... 5
1.2 Research Significance and Scope.................................................................................5
1.3 Research aim and objectives....................................................................................... 7
1.3.1 Research aim..................................................................................................... 7
1.3.2 Research objectives............................................................................................. 8
1.4 Research Approach................................................................................................... 8
2.0 Literature Review....................................................................................................................9
2.1 Research Concepts and Contexts.................................................................................. 9
2.2 Review of Works by Others...................................................................................... 10
2.3 Research Gap........................................................................................................ 13
2.4 Significance of Addressing the Research Question..........................................................13
3.0 Research Methodology..........................................................................................................13
3.1 Research Design.................................................................................................... 15
3.2 Research methodology Rationale...............................................................................17
4.0 Findings and Discussion........................................................................................................17
4.1 Major accidents in the construction industry..................................................................17
4.2 Consequences of construction accidents.......................................................................20
4.3 Safety Management Procedure..................................................................................20
5.0 Timeline..................................................................................................................................22
6.0 Scope and Limitations...........................................................................................................23
7.0 Conclusion..............................................................................................................................23
8.0 References...............................................................................................................................25
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Safety Management 3
Executive summary
This research involves the study of the safety management in the construction industry. The
construction industry is considered as one of most dangerous working places. There is need to
control and prevent the accidents and injuries which occurs in the construction during the
construction process. Hence this research will focus on identifying and analyzing the safety
managements which should be put in place to prevent and control the construction accidents and
injuries. This research will employ qualitative research approach whereby different data
collection techniques will be applied. Some of the data collection techniques that will applied in
the collection of data include; Interviews, reviewing secondary sources which have relevant data
to the topic of study and studying cases studies of construction projects.
Safety management is defined as the procedures which are followed in identifying the safety risk
in any workplace and taking the most appropriate action to mitigate the possibility of the risk
materializing and preventing or completely eliminating it.
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Safety Management 4
1.0 Introduction
Safety in workplace is both an economic and humanitarian concern that requires proper
management and control which is expected to take care of all the risks and accidents in a
construction site. Investing in construction safety will increase site productivity which will in
turn lead to high profits, a boost in employee morale and decreased attrition. Past research have
shown that construction sites have posed a serious threat on the safety of its workers to the extent
of causing serious injuries and deaths ranking construction industry among the top jobs that are
prone to frequent mortality rates (Zin & Ismail, 2012).
Therefore, project managers are left to deal with this action by creating a setting in which
workers can be motivated and trained to be productive and safe at construction work.
Accordingly, accidents that occur in a construction site are mainly attributed by individual
factors and unsafe working conditions. Moreover, the main problem experienced is with falls
that affect the construction industry globally due to heights experienced during construction.
Safety in construction mainly deals with the physical wellbeing of employees other than the
psychological health effects that also adversely affect construction activities (Zin & Ismail,
2012). This should concern the government, employees and the project participants. Making
productive changes that address the safety standards to reduce construction accidents can
increase productivity, profitability; improve quality; and improve recruitment.
Addressing these issues is extremely relevant since failing to follow the required
principles in construction site can compromise the legal, moral, social, economic, psychological
frameworks of a society. Since the working conditions are constantly changing the health and
safety risks in construction are also becoming more diverse, thus developing new measures will
help address these risk factors (Schaufelberger & Lin, 2014). Furthermore, implementing risk
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Safety Management 5
management procedures in construction will significantly help in saving life, money, time and
increase the business reputation and goodwill. Moreover, the safety working conditions have
raised debates globally where safety laws and regulations have been given separate sections for
the construction industry.
Having safer working conditions will greatly help in alleviating poverty and developing
sustainable projects since construction is labor intensive in most of the developing countries. The
government is responsible in ensuring the safety of workers is at its best in any modern
construction. In order to ensure optimum safety in construction sites, certain parameters must be
achieved including the knowledge of handling machines such as cranes; proper sanitation; firmly
fixed scaffolding; plant and equipment hygiene practices (Rubio-Romero, et al., 2013).
Construction sites have cost the lives of majority of the workers, and leaving others
permanently crippled from construction related accidents. Moreover, job’s safety laws are not
carefully implemented. Majority of building sites do not have safety rules and if they do, the
regulatory authority poorly implements them. In Case of accidents occurrence, the outcome leads
to both direct costs and indirect costs like ‘medical bills, compensational premium benefits,
liability and loss of possessions’ and ‘delayed burial ceremonies, time consuming investigation,
down time on destroyed equipment and site closure risks respectively. An example is the scene
reported in Melbourne east at a construction site in Box Hill carne accident that killed a worker
and injured two who were rushed to hospital after a tub of concrete fell from a crane burying
workers alive in a heap of concrete and steel rubble.
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1.1 Problem statement
The study conducted was guided by a number of research questions as formulated below;
 What are the common accidents which occurs in the construction sites?
 What are the effects of the accidents which occurs in the construction sites?
 How can the accidents in the construction sites be reduced?
 What is safety management in construction?
What are the benefits of the construction safety management? (Hill, 2017, p. 67).
1.2 Research Significance and Scope
The significance of a safe workplace environment is a very important factor that has been
retaliated in various literatures because of the intrinsic hazard and the related risk factors that
seemingly underlie every work and their negative impact on any organization’s performance.
Risk can be defined as the probability of a worker or a person being harmed for experiencing any
form of adverse effect on health if exposed to any Hazard in our workplace. Likewise, hazard
can be defined as a situation or a source of potential damage to a person, property or machines.
However, it is believed that certain Industries can be more hazardous than others as such
construction industry is considered to be one of the worst hazardous Industries all over the world.
International Labor Organization affirms that one-in-seven fatal accidents at workplace occur in
construction sites. It further claims that at least 70, 000 accidents happen in construction sites
every year around the world. Similar allegations are made by Zin and Ismail, (2012). The fact
that construction work is highly prone to accidents does not mean that it is susceptible to control
measures, this largely depends on human efforts. Safety records implemented by the most
advanced countries in construction prove this fact to be true. Twort and Rees (2011) deduce that
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