Team Processes and Safety of Workers: Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Processes of Construction Crews

Abstract

High-risk sectors emphasize teamwork as a key strategy for systematic error management and accident prevention. In the construction sector, however—a sector that accounts for 6% of the employment and 20% of the occupational fatalities in the United States—current theories and practices of accident prevention ignore the important role of team processes. This study investigates the team processes that influence construction workers’ safety, and discusses the challenges in developing effective teamwork in construction crews. The paper first summarizes the literature on team performance with a focus on construction work groups. The review identifies the key cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of teamwork affecting workers, safety. These teamwork components provide the criteria for evaluating the attributes of construction operations and context that create challenges to effective teamwork at the production level. This discussion also reviews practices that construction supervisors use to improve teamwork. Research directions are identified for systematic evaluation and improvement of teamwork processes in construction crews. The identification of key teamwork constructs provides practitioners with a framework that can guide efforts to improve teamwork at the crew level.