External Factors Affecting Managers’ Safety Risk Perception in Construction Projects Decision Making

Abstract

The external environment that decision-makers are in have an effect on their perception, thinking, decision-making and behavior. Since risk perception is one of the most crucial factors in risk management, which largely depends on manager’s subjective assessment, certainly will be affected by the influences from external environment. This paper aims to analyze the effect of external environmental factors on construction safety risk perceiving process from managerial perspectives. The external factors considered include safety culture, workers on-site behavior, law and regulation. Quantitative research methodology was adopted to test the theoretical model developed in this research. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys and the data collected were analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM) method. Except the relationship between relative laws and risk perception was not confirmed, the results support the hypothesis that construction manager’s safety culture, and worker’s behavior positively influences the perception of safety risks. In addition, both as methods to regulate manager’s behaviors, safety culture has positive effect on laws and regulations. Furthermore, based on the one-way ANONA analysis, it is shown that risk perception will change due to individual’s age, position and education, and the safety culture and laws and regulation have significant difference with different categories of working experience. This study contributes to the body of knowledge of construction project risk management by furthering the understanding of risks perceiving process. It is suggested that construction project managers develop a supportive working environment to help improve safety behavior of managers or workers.