A Critical Review of Safety Leadership Maturity Model in the Construction Industry

Abstract

The construction industry faces a high safety risk, owing to its high complexity, changeability, and stakeholder involvement. Several publications have focused on the causes of accidents in the industry, and several others have identified safety leadership and the involvement of project owners as the fundamental factors. The maturity model is recognized by many as an effective assessment method for safety leadership in the construction industry. This study aims to determine the most effective model by developing the maturity framework of project owners. Firstly, 31 publications were reviewed under several selection criteria, revealing that maturity models have been used extensively in various industries. Subsequently, two designs were compared, namely, levelling and factorized maturity models, to see which is more effective for assessing the safety leadership of construction project owners. The results show that the factorized maturity model was more suitable, for its ability to adapt to changes. Safety leadership was also observed as a fundamental causative assessment factor by the maturity model framework. The findings provide a good reference for assessing the safety leadership of project owners with the most appropriate maturity model.