Development of a Safety Culture Interaction (SCI) model for construction projects

Fostering a positive safety culture is fundamental and critical for improving safety performance on a construction site. However, the complexity and evolutionary process of safety culture in a construction project team, which is different with other organizations, have not been well addressed and the basic model for construction project safety culture is still missing. The objectives of this paper are: (1) to put forward a distinct definition of construction project safety culture compared with the existing definitions of organizational safety culture, and (2) to propose a Safety Culture Interaction (SCI) Model, which demonstrates the evolvement of construction project safety culture and the specific interactive dynamism between owner, contractor and subcontractors in a project team as a temporary organization. A mixed approach of theoretical development and case-based development is applied. Intensive literature review on pertinent researches and the author’s experience are integrated in the theoretical model development to comprehend the characteristics of construction projects. A consulting project consists of safety climate survey and Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) implementation was conducted on two construction projects in Singapore to examine the theoretical model and elaborate the features of the model as the case-based development. Overall, the two-layer structure of the three constructs and the interactive dynamism of project safety culture are addressed in the model in consideration of the construction process, management practice, organization structure of project and the complicated site environments, which elaborate the concept of construction project safety culture, and provide a framework for safety culture study in construction.

► A clear definition of construction project safety culture is put forward.
► A SCI model is proposed to evaluate and foster construction project safety culture.
► The interactive dynamism of safety culture among parties is addressed in the model.
► The two-layer (workforce and management) structure is suggested for evaluation.
► Integrated measurement tools can be used to measure safety culture comprehensively.