Inertia and change: lean construction and health and safety work on construction sites

Abstract

Lean construction has been articulated as a concept that can solve health and safety (H&S) problems at construction sites. The question is whether it is that simple. Lean construction and H&S work can be perceived as two different societal change programmes. The focus in this article is on how organizations implement the change programmes and what new forms of practice they stabilize as a result of the implementation process. In particular, the stabilization of new routines for coupling production planning and H&S work are investigated. Applied theories lie within the areas of change processes in organizations, H&S and construction management. The method was based on three qualitative case studies. Three major Danish contractors were involved in the investigation, and for each contractor a construction project was studied on site over a six-month period. Contractors are project-based companies and it seemed that the change programmes and the stabilized new practices that relate production planning and H&S work at construction sites were dependent on the relationship between the functional departments at the company and the construction project, the organizational location of the key actors that drive the change programmes, the ‘softness’ of the concepts that are implemented and the perception of H&S.