Development of a Worker Engagement Measurement Tool (WEMT) for Construction Safety Program

Many studies revealed that construction industry has the highest risks compared with other industries, risks that sometimes lead to death.

Each construction companies have their own safety measures implementation. But how to lessen if not totally eliminate this kind of accidents is everybody’s concern especially those who are working in the construction sites.

Dr. Oulawan Kulchartchai made a research to find the answer to the following questions:

• How can worker engagement in safety program implementation be assessed?
- What process should be used to develop Worker Engagement Measurement Tool (WEMT)?
- What are the components/elements of worker engagement?

• What are the factors that affect worker engagement in safety program implementation?
• What are the critical factors contributing to the success of worker engagement in safety program implementation?

The general objective of her research is to develop an assessment tool to measure worker engagement in the safety program implementation. This assessment should allow managers to assess the real status of their workers from the workers’ views, and then provide adequate actions to improve worker engagement. To accomplish these, the specific objectives of the study are set out and identified as the following:
• To develop a reliable assessment tool in order to measure worker engagement in safety program implementation in construction projects.
• To identify critical factors of successful worker engagement (WE) in safety program implementation

Conclusion on Answers to the Questions

In assessing the worker engagement in safety program implementation, two questions must be addressed: first; what are the components/elements of worker engagement? And second; what is that the process that should be used to develop worker engagement measurement tool?

On assessing worker engagement in safety program implementation:

a. What process should be used to develop Worker Engagement Measurement Tool (WEMT)?

The literature reviewed revealed that there is a lack of empirical data on many of the measures of an engagement in construction area, particularly for the workers. The development of a worker engagement measurement tool, which is perceived to be valid, should clearly reflect the emerging research perspectives on engagement. The tool should look at the total context (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domain) and not focus on a singular dimension (the degree of freedom for workers to make their own decisions regarding health and safety issues).

Ground theory analysis was adopted to define the concept ‘worker engagement’ and associated descriptive elements.

Lawshe's (1975) quantitative content validity technique was used to determine the perception of safety experts based on the model or framework on worker engagement and its descriptive elements. The results derived from the content validity technique showed that fifty-three (53) out of the seventy-eight (78) descriptive elements were included in the validity assessment questionnaire of a worker engagement). The element consisted of cognitive domain (21 items), affective domain (26 items), and psychomotor domain (6 items), and content validity index as perceived by safety experts which are 0.72, 0.60, and 0.43 respectively. It can be concluded that the theoretical construct of the worker engagement model and descriptive elements were verified and thus acceptable for use in the development of a worker engagement measurement tool.

b. What are the components/elements of worker engagement?

To determine the components/elements of worker engagement, a process was needed to initially develop a worker engagement measurement tool. By using triangulation techniques, models including the scale development process were developed. This process was also used by Du Plessis (2004), and was based from DeVellis’s work (1991) as supported by the latter study from Clark and Watson’s (1995). The theoretical model construct was derived from the related literature study. To get the descriptive elements of worker engagement, Grounded Theory’s techniques were applied. The data was verified by safety experts using Lawshe’s techniques. The verified items were subjected to item analysis and exploratory factor analysis techniques using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software. The reliability test in SPSS was adopted through the Independent sample, t-test.

In conclusion, the questions above could be positively answered from the literature reviewed and qualitative study. These answers provided the background to the empirical part of the study and supported the inputs to the primary objective.

The secondary objective of this study is ‘to identify critical factors of successful worker engagement (WE) in safety program implementation’. To accomplish this objective, two steps were considered: (1) the common factors affecting worker engagement in safety program implementation; and (2) the critical factors contributing to the success of worker engagement in safety program implementation.

Based on a learning theoretical model, factors affecting worker engagement in safety program implementation can be grouped into situation related factors and individual related factor. Although many psychological and management literatures have studied engagement factors, little work in current literature attempted to explore the factors contributing to worker engagement in safety programs implementation at construction projects. Therefore, the qualitative and quantitative studies were carried out.

In order to identify the affecting factors, a qualitative study was done using the Grounded Theory’s technique. Subsequently, the factors were verified using Lawshe’s techniques. The results indicated that affecting factor consists of situation-related factor (31 items) and individual related factors (12 items) and the content validity index as perceived by safety experts are 0.56 and 0.59 respectively. It can be concluded that the affecting factors which were perceived by experts were valid.

Conclusion and Answer to the Primary Objective Worker Engagement Measurement Tool (WEMT)

A worker engagement measurement tool (WEMT) was developed. This tool has a six-factor scale and a total of 39 items. This was derived from applying the research process which included Grounded Theory’s techniques, Lawshe’s techniques, the development of a scale instrument by using DeVellis’s (1991) process, and a reliability test of the developed worker engagement measurement tool by using Independent sample, t-test

The statistical techniques such as item analysis and exploratory factor analysis in SPSS was applied on the initial 78 variables under the three construct theoretical model developed from a learning theory and Kahn’s initial theoretical model, then worker engagement concept and associated descriptive elements were identified by utilizing Grounded theory and then verified by safety experts.

The final conclusion that can be made to answer the primary research objective is that the worker engagement measurement tool (WEMT) developed through this research is holistic in nature and measures a total worker engagement construct by means of the six factors; is reliable (statistically proven); can be used as a diagnostic tool because it can significantly distinguish between projects; and is perceived to have a valid construct.

Conclusion and Answer to the Secondary Objective Factor Affecting Worker Engagement

The factors affecting worker engagement consisted of six factors and had 29 items in total. This data was the output from series of analysis. After numerous literature researches, the theory was found relevant to this study.

The final conclusion answers “what are the critical factors contributing to the success of worker engagement in safety program implementation?” Safety policy, supportive management and supervisor behavior factor, and individual related factors were considered as the critical factors affecting to worker engagement in safety program implementation, whereas, workplace climate, communication and feedback, and reward and recognition were perceived by the respondents as the factors that need considerable attention in order to improve worker engagement in safety programs implementation.

Her thesis abstract is copied and posted.

ABSTRACT

The construction industry is considered to have the highest rate of fatal occupational injuries in many countries. In Thailand, the accident rate in the construction industry is reportedly the highest compared to other industries. Fatal injuries to workers occur more often in construction industry. Previous research emphases often analyze the effective safety programs rather than those that are geared towards creating safe working environments. Workers are expected to play and act as the “key driver” in safety program implementation. Due to this, worker engagement is now considered to be one of the most important approaches in reducing work-related injuries and diseases. Without this worker engagement, safety programs will be difficult to achieve. It is hypothesized that worker engagement can substantially reduce accidents and improve safety performance continuously.

The primary objective of this study was ‘to develop a reliable assessment tool to measure worker engagement in safety program implementation in construction projects” and ‘to identify critical factors of successful worker engagement (WE) in safety program implementation’. The findings therefore will enable construction firms to identify gaps in worker engagement within the safety program implementation, and facilitate improvements.

This study used triangulation techniques including; theoretical model construct by a thorough literature study, components of worker engagement indicated by Grounded Theory’s techniques, verification of the theoretical model using Lawshe’s techniques, the development of a scale instrument by using DeVellis’s (1991) process supported by Clark and Watson’s (1995) and used by Du Plessis (2004), a reliability test of the developed worker engagement measurement tool by using Independent sample, t-test.

In developing the WEMT, several consultation and tests were conducted with national safety experts. Results showed that worker engagement (WE) consisted of 3 domains; cognitive (21 items), affective (26 items), and psychomotor (6 items). The content validity index of the domains according to safety experts are 0.72, 0.60, and 0.43 respectively. Additionally, the situation-related factor (31 items) and individually related factors (12 items) with respect to the content validity index were 0.56 and 0.59 respectively. A questionnaire with 53 variables in three dimensions of worker engagement and 43 variables in affecting factor was distributed to the sample group of construction workers and personnel basis either by electronic-mail or hand carried to the representative sample group of 494. Approximately fifty two percent (258/494) responded anonymously. A scale instrument was developed through the item analysis and exploratory factor analysis function of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

A worker engagement measurement tool (WEMT) comprised of 39 items in a six-factor instrument was developed. It was found that the items in these factors were highly acceptable, receiving a Cronbach alpha coefficient above 0.8.

The developed WEMT was tested in two distinct construction projects in Oil&Gas and Building projects. These test confirmed that WEMT was a reliable diagnostic tool that can discriminate worker engagement level among different projects, particularly in the Thai construction firm context.

This research also determined factors that affect worker engagement within the safety program implementation. These factors are important when guided contractors to increase worker engagement level. This study showed that suitable safety policies, a supportive management team, and individually related factors were critical and directly affects the worker engagement in safety program implementation. Workplace climate, communication and feedback, and reward and recognition were perceived by the respondents as the factors that need considerable attention to improve worker engagement.

This research is relevant because it was able to identify a reliable worker engagement measurement tool that enables projects to identify the overall level of worker engagement in safety program implementation. This tool will serve to facilitate strategic actions to improve the working situations, thereby optimizing safety program implementation for continuous safety movements. The implementation of such strategies will be a forward move towards beginning and sustaining safety program implementation for further safety performance improvement within industries, particularly in Thailand.

Key words:

Worker engagement measurement tools, worker engagement, construction project, grounded theory, scale development, affecting factors.