Abstract
How to improve the safety behaviors of construction workers has dogged the realm of construction project management. Previous studies mainly focused on the individual and/or organizational factors shaping safety behaviors, while there is a dearth of research focusing on the effect of individual-organizational nexus (i.e., the network embeddedness of individuals within the organization). Thus, this study employs social network analysis (SNA) and multivariable regression analyses to explore the relationship between the characteristics of social networks of construction workers (i.e., degree, closeness, and betweenness centralities) and their safety behaviors (i.e., safety participation and safety compliance), considering the mediating role of safety communication. The primary data were collected from ten Chinese construction projects. The results include the following three aspects. First, degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality all exert significant positive effects on safety participation. Closeness centrality yields a positive effect on safety compliance in formal networks. Degree centrality has a positive effect on both safety compliance and safety participation, whereas the other two centrality characteristics exhibit no significant effect in informal networks. Second, in formal networks, safety communication plays a partial mediation role between closeness centrality and safety compliance and a full mediation role between degree and closeness centralities and safety participation. Third, in informal networks, safety communication plays a full mediation role between degree centrality and safety compliance and a partial mediation role between degree centrality and safety participation. This study provides new insights for construction project management in achieving improved safety performance via shaping the social network characteristics.
Highlights
In recent years, the numbers of construction safety accidents and casualties have remained relatively high and impede sustainable project delivery [1, 2], especially in developing countries such as China that is experiencing unprecedented levels of urbanization [3]
Given the different nature of variables, the methods used to calculate their correlation coefficients were different. e Pearson simple correlation coefficient was used for continuous variables, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used for classified variables, and the Kendall t correlation coefficient was used for Worker label ABCDEFG
How to improve the safety behaviors of construction workers to reduce the number of safety accidents has been an ongoing focus of construction engineering management
Summary
The numbers of construction safety accidents and casualties have remained relatively high and impede sustainable project delivery [1, 2], especially in developing countries such as China that is experiencing unprecedented levels of urbanization [3]. In this regard, the factors that are responsible for the unsafe behaviors of construction workers attract increasing attention. Others focus on the effect of organizational factors, such as safety management, safety climate, and safety culture [8,9,10].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
