Employees' safety perceptions of site hazard and accident scenes

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Han, Y., Feng, Z., Zhang, J., Jin, R. and Aboagye-Nimo, E. ORCID: 0000-0002-7651-744X, 2019. Employees' safety perceptions of site hazard and accident scenes. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 145 (1): 04018117. ISSN 0733-9364

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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001590

Abstract

Despite the improvement of digital technologies (e.g., building information modeling) in enhancing construction safety management, human factor-related issues such as individual perceptions, attitudes, and behavior in safety cannot be downplayed. Existing studies have addressed safety issues by assessing site hazards and preventing avoidable accidents. Such approaches to safety management can be undertaken through the establishment of safety climates and safety cultures, as well as identifying certain demographic or subgroup factors that affect safety management. Aiming to expand the subgroup factor analysis in safety management and integrate it with hazard/accident categorization, this study adopted a site survey approach by recruiting construction employees from multiple job duties and trades. The follow-up statistical analysis revealed that: 1) a hazard/accident scene with higher occurrence and lower severity caused a higher variation among employees' opinions in perceiving its severity; 2) entry-level employees were likely to be more cautious about hazards but their cautiousness might diminish as they gained more site experience; 3) compared to early career employees and senior peers, the mid-career professionals tended to underestimate severities of a given hazard/accident scene. This study categorized eight commonly encountered site hazard/accident scenes, integrated them in the analysis of subgroup differences based on employees' job duties or work trades, and their experience levels. Future research was also recommended addressing individuals' safety perceptions and demographic factors in safety management.

Item Type:

Journal article

Alternative Title:

An empirical study of employees' safety perceptions of site hazard/accident scenes

Publication Title:

Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

Creators:

Han, Y., Feng, Z., Zhang, J., Jin, R. and Aboagye-Nimo, E.

Publisher:

American Society of Civil Engineers

Date:

January 2019