Recent Development in Safety Climate of Construction Industry

Naveen Kumar

doi:10.3759/joise.v5i2.1284

Abstract

Safety climate is of current interest to construction practitioners and researchers. The concept ofsafety climate has been actively explored in the field of industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology but is just gaining popularity in the construction industry. This paper purposes to review the literature of safety climate in a systematic manner and highlight future directions for safety research and development of safety practices in the construction industry. The value of safety climate lies in its ability to predict safety behavior. Safety climate, as a mediator, unfolds the relationship between organizational variables and safety behavior. It, as a moderator, affects the effectiveness of any safety initiatives to improve safety performance. Future research directionswould be likely to look at relationship between organizational factors and safety climate using amulti-level analysis. To the construction industry, safety climate measurement is a good indicator to assess safety performance. Empirical studies show that frontline supervisor would be the bestconduit to create a positive safety climate at workgroup level. This paper is beneficial to researchers interested in behavioral aspects of construction safety and industry practitionersstriving for achieving better safe behavior on site.