Differences in Pathways to Resilient Safety Culture for Construction Projects of Different Sizes

Abstract

A positive safety culture is essential in improving the construction industry’s poorer occupational health and safety (OHS) performance. The resilient safety culture (RSC) is a state-of-the-art safety culture model whose practices enable construction projects to develop adaptive capabilities to manage ever-changing, unforeseen safety risks. However, academic attention has been limited to identifying the pathways for construction projects of different sizes to achieve RSC. To fill this research gap, the current study models the causal links between various safety practices and dimensions of RSC for varying-sized construction projects using structural equation modeling (SEM). The study collected 180 valid survey responses cross-validated with interviews and field inspections from 27 construction projects in India. Contract value is used as a metric to segregate projects into three sizes: small, medium, and large. The study results revealed distinct pathways between safety practices and RSC dimensions for projects of different sizes, contradicting the existing literature suggesting that causal linkages between safety practices and safety cultural dimensions are often uniform and smaller projects should emulate larger projects to enhance their safety culture. The study’s SEM result revealed that the impact of error-management-related practices on improving RSC dimensions significantly differs between small and large projects. In addition to hazard-prevention-related practices, large projects may rely more on mindful organizing practices to improve their safety culture, whereas small and medium projects may prioritize using error-management-related practices. The safety practitioners may strategically use the study results to prioritize specific practices for achieving RSC in their projects.