TY - JOUR
T1 - Health and safety (hs) risks normalization in the construction industry
T2 - the SMEs perspective
AU - Adegboyega, Adesoji Anthony
AU - Eze, Chidiebere Emmanuel
AU - Sofolahan, Onyinye
PY - 2021/8/1
Y1 - 2021/8/1
N2 - The construction industry is hazardous and experiences poor health and safety performance records; as a result of the abuse and negligence of health and safety policies. Emphasis is now on health and safety management as health and safety risks are now normalised in the construction industry by the actions of construction SMEs. The study assessed the factors promoting health and safety risks normalisation in the construction industry of Nigeria. The study sampled construction professionals and tradespeople, using a well-structured questionnaire and snowball sampling techniques. With a response rate of 72.61% and a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.916; percentage, frequency, Mann-Whitney U Test and factor analysis were used to analyse the gathered data. It was found that there is a low level of occupational health and safety policies application and performance in the construction industry. The poor health and safety performance is prompted by HS risks normalisation promoted by factors such as misconception of and unwillingness to invest in HS, informal and unstructured HS policies, medical issues and excessive workload, Planning and client unwillingness, management commitment issues, and unorganised HS culture. Also, there was no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the professionals and the tradespeople regarding 89.29% of the assessed variables. Commitment from the management and leadership of the SMEs and making of health and safety culture an integral part of the functioning of the organisations was thus recommended.
AB - The construction industry is hazardous and experiences poor health and safety performance records; as a result of the abuse and negligence of health and safety policies. Emphasis is now on health and safety management as health and safety risks are now normalised in the construction industry by the actions of construction SMEs. The study assessed the factors promoting health and safety risks normalisation in the construction industry of Nigeria. The study sampled construction professionals and tradespeople, using a well-structured questionnaire and snowball sampling techniques. With a response rate of 72.61% and a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.916; percentage, frequency, Mann-Whitney U Test and factor analysis were used to analyse the gathered data. It was found that there is a low level of occupational health and safety policies application and performance in the construction industry. The poor health and safety performance is prompted by HS risks normalisation promoted by factors such as misconception of and unwillingness to invest in HS, informal and unstructured HS policies, medical issues and excessive workload, Planning and client unwillingness, management commitment issues, and unorganised HS culture. Also, there was no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the professionals and the tradespeople regarding 89.29% of the assessed variables. Commitment from the management and leadership of the SMEs and making of health and safety culture an integral part of the functioning of the organisations was thus recommended.
KW - Health and safety risks
KW - deviance normalisation
KW - construction project
KW - construction industry
KW - onstruction SMEs
KW - Nigeria
U2 - 10.14807/ijmp.v12i5.1417
DO - 10.14807/ijmp.v12i5.1417
M3 - Article
VL - 12
SP - 1466
EP - 1495
JO - Independent Journal of Management & Production
JF - Independent Journal of Management & Production
IS - 5
ER -