International benchmarking for performance improvement in construction safety and health
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge on the advantages of integrating safety earlier in the construction project lifecycle.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study approach is used to collect data from construction sites in the USA, which performs poorly in construction safety and health, and Australia (AU), which performs well in construction safety and health. Qualitative data are collected to determine how and when safety is considered in the project lifecycle in both countries, and then the results are benchmarked to determine the benefits of addressing safety earlier in the process.
Findings
Data show that addressing a potential hazard earlier in the project lifecycle has performance benefits in terms of the level of hazard control.
Research limitations/implications
The processes that are identified as possibly explaining the performance difference are just based on qualitative data from interviews. Targeted research addressing the relationship between these processes and safety outcomes is an opportunity for further research.
Practical implications
The case study data are used to identify specific processes that are used in AU that might be adopted in the USA to improve performance by integrating safety earlier into the decision-making process.
Social implications
This paper highlights the advantages of integrating safety as a decision factor early in the process. Worker safety is not just an issue in the construction industry, and thus the findings are applicable to all industries in which worker safety is an issue.
Originality/value
This paper advances the safety in design literature by quantitatively supporting the link between when a hazard is addressed and performance. It also links the results to specific processes across countries, which advances the literature because most research in this area to data is within a single country.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number U60 OH009761, under which RMIT is a subcontractor to Virginia Tech, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC/NIOSH.
Citation
Saunders, L.W., McCoy, A.P., Kleiner, B.M., Lingard, H., Cooke, T., Mills, T., Blismas, N. and Wakefield, R. (2016), "International benchmarking for performance improvement in construction safety and health", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 916-936. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-11-2013-0105
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited