COMPARISON STUDY BETWEEN SINGAPORE AND CHINA’S CONSTRUCTION PERSONNEL’S SAFETY PERFORMANCE ON CONSTRUCTION SITES

Abstract

The safety performance of the construction industry in developed and developing countries and are drastically different. Accident statistics usually differentiate these differences. However, safety behaviour of workers is a huge contributor to incidents in the industry. Nevertheless, not enough emphasis has been placed on the safety behaviours of the people working in the industry, particularly between developed and developing countries.

Hence, this study aims to identify construction personnel’s safety behaviour by comparing Singapore and China. The country’s development level, national culture values, and communication differences are potential predictors of safety behaviour. Knowing this information will improve safety behaviour by working on the factor that affects the safety behaviours the most.

This study takes a quantitative approach through a survey collecting construction personnel’s perception of their safety behaviour – namely safety participation and safety compliance, their perception of national culture – namely power distance and collectivism, and workers’ perception of supervisory safety communication.

Statistical methods such as Mann-Whitney U Test, binary logistic regression was used to validate the formulated hypotheses. The analyses revealed a difference in the two countries’ supervisory safety communication, safety participation, safety compliance but not in the national cultures. Also, the country's development predicts safety participation the most. In contrast, none of the other factors predicts safety participation and safety compliance.

Finally, recommendations were suggested to engage construction personnel to achieve higher safety behaviours and minimise construction incidents. This paper provides insights by being the first to compare Singapore and China’s construction personnel’s safety performance on construction sites.