Construction Safety Culture and Climate: Satisfying Necessity for an Industry Framework

Much of the construction literature that examines safety culture and safety climate ignores the unique characteristics of construction workplaces. Therefore, existing safety culture and climate models do not capture the true nature of construction practices where the upper management, such as project managers and safety coordinators, often manage several construction projects. Accordingly, a framework that addresses the contribution of the management personnel as well as the site-level personnel has been presented as part of the current research. The proposed framework captures safety culture and safety climate using the following two distinct factors: (1) the management safety (MS) factor and (2) the site safety (SS) factor. A survey was administered to collect the perceptions of construction practitioners and site personnel regarding the suggested variables of the MS and SS factors. In addition, the experience modification rate (EMR) was collected to assess the relation between the suggested model and the overall safety performance. The results obtained provide support for the proposed model by suggesting that the MS factor significantly influences the SS factor and that the two factors are negatively associated with the EMRs of the participating organizations. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the MS factor represents the construction safety culture and the SS represents the construction safety climate.