Safety Rules And Procedures Development And Implementation: A Study On Construction Industries In Thailand

The construction industry is known for its poor safety performance when compared with other industries. According to Mohamed (1999), construction accident contribute to many human tragedies, de-motivate workers, disrupt site activities, delay project progress and negatively affect the overall cost, productivity or even the industry’s reputation.

Many researchers made a lot of studies to find ways in having a concrete safety measures to be applied in the construction firm to minimize these related accidents.

Mr. Andreas Adihartanto made a case study on the “Safety Rules and Procedures Development and Implementation” that Thai Construction firms are now applying. The main objective of his study is to investigate effective ways to manage safety rules and procedures when they have to deal with several types of violations. However, to attain the main objective, several sub-objectives were also proposed in his research to (1) investigate the prevalent safety rules and procedures practices in the construction industry in Thailand; (2) explore the relationship between organizational culture attribute and safety rules and procedures development and implementation; (3) examine the relationship between safety rules and procedures development, implementation and type of worker’s violations; (4) explore the relationship between leadership styles and types of safety rules and procedures violations; and (5) As an initial research to investigate the possibility of the “Peltzman Effect” occurrence in construction safety.

Mr. Adihartanto’s conclusions:

SRP’s practices in the construction industry in Thailand

He found out that there were no significant differences between medium-sized and large-sized construction projects in the way they develop and implement SRPs. Most of the SRP’s development variables were scored as high which indicated that contractor companies in Thailand typically take into accounts all of these variables when they develop their SRPs. However, during the implementation, they do not prefer to provide SRPs in form of writing documents (safety cards, manuals, etc.) to all of the workers, including translating written SRPs to the workers’ native language. Further analysis revealed a predisposition that management exploits these variables merely as of value to protect their back from the workers’ excuses. Regarding the translation of written SRPs, most respondents preferred to utilize interpreters to communicate their safety messages into the workgroups in which commonly they are the head of the groups. Therefore, it can be concluded that workers’ type of violations were occurred in similarity, in which they were ranging from erroneous to routine violations.

Organizational culture and SRP’s development and implementation

His analysis result indicated that neither of the clan nor the hierarchical culture attributes is more superior and effective in the development and implementation of SRPs. Each of these attributes has both positives and negatives. It is suggested therefore, that it is much more important for the management to understand the strengths as well as the weaknesses of particular attributes in their relation to the SRP’s development and implementation in order to make necessary adjustment for their organizational effectiveness.

Safety rules and procedures which were known to be complicated or confusing were adjusted, and it is more likely that they willing to put operatives’ suggestions into the rules development. However, in this kind of organizations, drawbacks are resulted from the management deficiencies in supporting their site operation as apparently, the availability of the SRP’s documents to the workforces and maintenance of safety visual signs were insufficient. Therefore, the decisions are skewed more on the management’s side.

SRP’s development and implementation with the type of worker’s violations

The result came with some SRP’s development and implementation variables that could potentially reduce particular type of violations. Therefore, it should be pointed out that mismanaging some of these variables could potentially promote violations. Although the rest of the variables were not found in contributing to the reduction of any type of violations, it is still suggested that management takes these variables into their Hierarchical Attributes Negatives Positives Operation, technical support deficiency Open-systems approach Bureaucratic approachOrdered, well-arranged Procedural rigidity, over reliance Output maximization, torientedClan Attributes Towards FlexiTowards Centra consideration when developing and implementing their SRPs. Table 5.3 and 5.4 below summarizes the analysis result analysis in which they portrayed the potential of each SRP’s development and implementation variable to reduce particular type of violations.

Leadership styles and type of worker’s violations

The result signifies the need for the Safety Officers to carefully understand the impact of their leadership behaviors. It is suggested that emphasize should have been taken to minimize the negative effect of the leadership styles rather than to reduce them. Based from the observations on-site combined with the analyses results, the researcher postulated that the problem largely relies on the workers’ perception. Thus, safety trainings were suggested to address this problem, particularly to take bigger portion in correcting workers’ perception.

5. The Peltzman Effect

In terms of workers’ activeness in safety programs participation, this study did not identify the presence of Peltzman Effect. However, further studies are suggested to investigate this phenomenon from different angle.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to identify problems associated with the development and implementation of safety rules and procedures (SRPs) to ensure worker’s compliance and to give an insight of effective solutions to overcome these problems. The discussions were broadened to identify the influence of organizational culture to the SRP’s development and implementation, the potential of leadership styles in handling particular type of violations and the possibility of the Peltzman Effect occurrence in the construction industry.

The result revealed that several SRP’s development and implementation variables have a great potential in reducing particular type of violations. Therefore, management should be aware that mismanaging these variables could potentially promote violations. In general, the finding suggested that SRP’s should be: (i) developed following project risks assessment, (ii) designed so that it will not over restricted individuals working efficiency, and (iii) designed considering operational difficulties. As well, during the implementation, SRP’s should be: (a) available to all of the workforces, (b) implemented alongside with varieties of safety trainings, and (c) enforced by providing wide ranging of PPE or any other resources necessary to do the job safely.

Furthermore, the findings also suggested the need for the management to understand the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the particular organizational culture attributes in their relation to the SRP’s development and implementation in order to make necessary adjustments for their organizational effectiveness. It is also suggested the need for the Safety Officers to carefully understanding the impact of their leadership behaviors. At last, in terms of worker’s activeness in safety programs participation, this study did not identify the presence of the Peltzman Effect.