Peter Chen, PhD Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO
Ph: 970-491-4135
Email: chenp@lamar.colostate.edu
Abstract:
The importance of safety culture for occupational safety and health in construction has underscored the need for a better understanding of the key factors that contribute to strong safety cultures in order to improve the effectiveness of safety and health management programs, as reflected in the NORA2 Goals 8.0 and 9.0. Furthermore there is a pressing need to address the increase of safety and health risks faced by numerous hard-to-reach small to medium size businesses, and to understand the organizational factors that affect safety systems (NORA2 Goal 10.0). Among various organizational factors, safety leadership has been recognized as a key vehicle for creating and strengthening positive safety cultures, as recommended by OSHA’s Safety and Health Management Systems (2009), Health and Safety Executive (2005), and safety management experts. Hofmann and Morgeson’s review (2004) highlights the tremendous impact and high return of investment that safety leadership can have on safety and health cultures. However, scholars note the pressing need for more research examining how leaders create safety cultures through their actions. Such research will address NORA2 Goal 11.0, which calls for more attention to focus on how best to change workers’ and contractors’ safety practices by changing their attitudes and values about safety. Considering that a positive safety culture can be established and strengthened by supervisors’ actions (Zohar & Luria, 2005), it is essential that supervisors possess effective safety leadership skills to successfully manage, shape, and motivate workers’ efforts in achieving the collective goal of improving safety and decreasing injuries and illnesses. The significance and innovative features of the proposed study are demonstrated by focusing on safety leadership and safety culture as intervention targets, and vehicles for improving the effectiveness of safety and health management programs in construction industry. Specifically, the proposed study will identify and validate the effective leadership skills considered critical to safety in the construction industry. In addition, it will develop and evaluate the proposed safety leadership program. Finally, it will identify and develop strategies to circumvent R2P barriers in regards to implementation and dissemination of the program.
