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There are several components of the safety culture in the construction industry. Some of these components relate to leadership, employee behaviour, and values. These components all affect the occurrence of accidents/injuries in the construction workplace.

2.9.1 Safety Culture and Leadership

The culture of safety is largely based on strong and effective leadership. Leadership is the driving force for culture and “in turn drives behaviour” (Oil and Gas Producers, 2013, p. 11). The top leaders of any organisation build on a safety culture and this culture would usually emanate from the provision of resources, a committed safety staff and employees, as well as safety trainings and investigations carried out within the company. With more time and commitment rendered by the leaders of the organisation, safety management systems can be established including site-level tools. Managers at different levels of the organisation have to be the safety leaders as well. Some individuals often manifest some qualities often related to leaders. Leaders who place a value on production and the personnel seem to be directed more towards securing best results for the company (Blake and Mouton,

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1964). There are different types of leaders and leadership qualities, which have to be applied by safety leaders. The most common type of leadership qualities in this case are the transactional and the transformational leadership style. In general, the transaction leaders work more as leaders, not so much managers. These individuals impose objectives; they evaluate performance, and impose corrections where necessary. For the transformational leaders, these parties have a vision, and they usually prompt other people to act beyond their selfish interests (Nanus, 1992). Although safety leaders require transactional qualities, they also need transformational qualities in order to fully engage the employees. The safety leader also has to make adjustments to his style and to the situation in the workplace in order to ensure that the safety of the workers at all times.

Evaluating the different cultures and ensuring sufficient coordination for these cultures has also been considered a critical aspect of leadership (Singer, et.al., 2009). Sufficient cultural management has also been important in order to ensure the success of changes being implemented in the organisation. In other words, cultural management has been a primary leadership and management element (House, et.al., 1991). People have been aware of successful leaders in organisations, especially those who have been able to change the culture of their organisations (Baker, 2002). There have also been successful political and charismatic leaders who seemed to perform better in terms of their economic and political performance (House, et.al., 1991). Still, a successful cultural management does not necessarily lead to effective individual leaders or charisma (Collins and Porras, 1994). In some cases, charisma does help, however in the end, effective and reliable leadership may be more effective (Collins and Porras, 1994).

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Crucial elements for affecting and conceptualising culture. The effective planning of important cultural elements, securing consistent culture. Mission with goals and processes, promoting formal principles on the organisational goals, promoting sustainable goals and systems, and finally, performance evaluation and measurement (Wenger and Snyder, 2000). Organisational culture is also associated with coaching, mentoring, as well as both formal and informal training (Schein, 1999). Wenger and Snyder (2000) said that it also relates to the management and promotion of strong organisations and communities. As a strong management of organisations and communities is made possible, the value of promoting a safety culture and maintaining safe employee behaviours is also observed. The section below shall seek to understand the safety culture and employee behaviours in the workplace.

2.9.2 Safety Culture and Employee Behaviours

Employee behaviour also has an impact on safety culture. An employee’s behaviour or attitude towards safety is generally related to his “value expectancy for safety” (Uryan, 2007, p. 48). The employee’s behaviour and attitude towards safety is also related to the individual’s feelings about different matters. Which would be associated with his or her personality. These elements impact on an individual’s actions and also his behaviour (Baron, 2008). An employee would likely expect either positive or negative outcomes in relation to his or her actual intended actions (Hall, 2006). Such intentions on behaviour are subjective in value and are associated with a person’s assessment. Still, the subjective values of an intention can prompt an individual to manifest specific actions in relation to behaviour based on the expected outcome (Uryan, 2007). An individual’s strength flows from his attitude and behaviour, which mostly relates to a behavioural intention and an assessment of the

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possible result. Individual attitude indicators are often meant to show an employee’s feelings in relation to risks in the workplace, the use of safety tools, their commitment to safety including the attitudes on safety regulations, intended violations, additionally unintended errors or accidents. The employee attitude is admitted as an element of the safety climate and also a major predictor for planned actions or behaviour (Ajzen, 2005). In general, Aizen (2005) also discuss that an employee’s attitude and behaviour are very much associated with group or organisational norms, including the management attitudes regarding safety. An employee’s behaviour and attitude toward safety therefore has a direct impact on their desire or intention to comply with safety policies (Uryan, 2007). Where the employee’s behaviour and attitude is welcoming and engaged with the safety standards and policies in the workplace. Workplace injuries and accidents can be avoided. Such safety standards are also associated with safety values observed by the employee and by the organisation. The discussion below shall further discuss safety values.

2.9.3 Safety Culture and Injury/Accident Rate

Based on the Centre for Construction Research and Training (2012) global rates indicate that fatal injuries from construction work in some industrial countries registered at an average of 3.3 to 10.6 deaths for every 100,000 workers. The rates of death for the US were particularly high at 9.7 deaths for every 100,000 workers. These rates are similar to the rates in Spain and Italy, but about three times the rates registered in Norway. However, in terms of nonfatal construction injuries in the US, rates in America were low when compared to other industrial nations where 1.7 injuries for every 100 workers were noted (Centre for Construction Research and Training, 2012). This rate may however be associated with

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underreporting in the US. Switzerland has the second lowest rate in fatality in the construction industry, but their nonfatal injury rates seem to be high. These are based on data also from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which has been able to gather data on fatal and nonfatal occupational injuries in some industrial states (Centre for Construction Research and Training, 2012). These rates are different for developing countries, which have poor safety policies. The ILO (2014) discusses that in developing countries, injuries and fatalities are at least ten times higher when compared to developed countries mostly because developing countries are inadequately implementing safety standards in the construction industry. Safe workplaces and gadgets are often not provided to workers, or if they are provided are of poor quality (ILO, 2014). With these rates or injuries, the safety culture in the construction industry may be considered to be of poor quality or poor placement. In other words, the construction industry does not have a strong and effective safety culture, sufficient to adequately prevent injuries and/or fatalities in the workplace. In knowing these rates, it is also important to understand how a culture of safety in the construction industry would impact on improvements for safety.