INTEGRATING REASONED ACTION FRAMEWORK AND BEHAVIOUR BASED SAFETY TO IMPROVE CONSTRUCTION SAFETY

Abstract

Over the years, the Singapore construction sector has seen a shift from lagging to leading indicators in its assessment of safety performances. One increasingly popular example of this is the Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS) model, an observation-focused approach that identifies behaviours in workers with unsafe practices so as to develop targeted, behaviour-specific interventions for them. While largely effective, the BBS model is potentially insufficient as it fails to identify the underlying cognitive factors that drive these behaviours, which the Theory of Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) is then proposed to address. Hence, this study aims to enhance the effectiveness of the BBS approach in improving safety in “working at height” activities through the integration of the RAA framework. It is believed that this will provide a more holistic evaluation of unsafe behaviour and thereby improve the effectiveness of on-site behavioural interventions. There are two main components in this study: Observation and a Perception-based survey. 80 migrant workers from Bangladesh, India, Thailand and China were first observed and surveyed by safety supervisors. Statistical methods such as stepwise multiple linear regression, Pearson correlation and neural network were then used to validate the formulated hypotheses. Finally, thorough analysis revealed that Normative Belief (NB) was the most significant factor influencing safety-related behaviour, as opposed to other determinants such as perceived behavioural control and subjective norms. The potential benefits and challenges of an integrated RAA-BBS model were also elucidated through this study. In the future, a longitudinal approach can be further explored in this field to test the effectiveness of this integrated RAA-BBS model in the long run.