RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SOCIAL CAPITAL, SAFETY CLIMATE AND UNSAFE BEHAVIOUR OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

Abstract

The construction industry is infamous for its high injuries and fatalities rates from poor safety record. Construction safety is a global concern affecting countries worldwide. The rising trend of migrant workers from different countries in construction industry makes the industry fragmented and complex to manage. There is also a lack of long-term indicators used. This research aims to study the relationship among safety climate, social capital and safety behaviour to identify the role of social capital using a social network perspective on safety climate and safety behaviour; to explore long-term indicators of safety performance so that better intervention can be proposed in future studies to enhance worker’s safety behaviour in the construction industry. A literature review was done to examine the research gaps and concepts. Interviews with industry professionals were conducted to strengthen theoretical framework. A novel approach to social capital was used in this study which involve four dimensions (safety resource within, individual structural positional, accessibility to safety resource and mobilisation to safety resources), with a social network analysis (SNA) perspective. 92 responses were collected with one of the company, used for SNA analysis. Safety climate was found to influence social capital on several dimensions (accessibility and mobilisation of safety resource), mobilisation of safety resources also showed indirect and direct effects on safety behaviour. SNA results paired with qualitative data showed mixed significance relationship with accessibility to safety resource. Self-reported wellbeing was found to provide validity as a long-term indicator of safety performance. This paper provided a new perspective on the interaction between safety climate, social capital and safety behaviour and utility of long-term safety performance indicator suggesting ideas for future studies.