Browsing by Author "Okonkwo, Nwabueze Patrick"

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    Health and safety management and performance among construction contractors in South Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Okonkwo, Nwabueze Patrick; Wium, Jan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Civil Engineering.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The construction industry is of vital importance to the economies of nations. It employs about seven percent of the global workforce but accounts for between 30 and 40 percent of all work-related fatalities, with developing countries recording more fatalities when compared to developed countries. The economic cost of construction accidents is also significant in terms of compensation claims, lost productivity, and overruns on project schedule and cost. Health and safety management within the construction industry has not developed at the same pace as in other industries and with technological advances within the industry itself. The failure of health and safety management systems and the lack of safety culture within contractor organisations have been highlighted as factors responsible for the high rate of construction accidents in developing countries such as South Africa. Previous studies have focused on construction phase health and safety management interventions. Few studies have investigated health and safety management within the construction industry from the organisational/enterprise perspective. In this study, the aim was to identify and compare the effectiveness of the different H&S management arrangements employed by construction contractors in South Africa. In the context of this study, a health and safety management arrangement is defined as: the organisational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, procedures, processes, resources and practices for managing the health and safety risks associated with the business of an organisation. This study uses a mixed methods research design that combined qualitative descriptive research and quantitative research approaches to achieve the research objectives. The broad spectrum of health and safety management arrangements (HSMA) within medium to large size contractor organisations in South Africa were categorised into three distinct types – (1) traditional/compliance motivated, (2) systematic/compliance motivated, and (3) systems/best practice motivated. Areas of strengths and weaknesses in the strategically developed policies and procedures, as well as their implementation were identified for each type. Top management leadership, operational managers’ leadership, safety professionals’ leadership were identified as critical factors responsible for variations in the safety performance of the three HSMA types. Top management leadership was identified as an important factor to building systems that support effective health and safety management. Safety professionals’ leadership and operational managers’ leadership were identified as factors that positively impacted health and safety management practices and workers’ behaviour respectively. The study concludes that to improve the safety performance within the South African construction industry, health and safety management practices and safety related behaviour of construction workers within the industry must improve. Achieving this requires emphasis on policies that improve safety professionals’ leadership and operational managers’ leadership within contractor organisations. The uniqueness of this study is the adoption of a holistic organisational perspective to investigating health and safety management efforts of construction contractor organisations. The value of this study lies in the improved understanding of the different types of health and safety management arrangements within contractor organisations in South Africa, their characteristics and their relative effectiveness. It is believed that this study will draw greater attention to the study of construction safety challenges from an organisational perspective and inform actions that strengthen identified weaknesses in the health and safety management efforts of contractor organisations.