Safety management in construction is an integral effort and its success requires inputs from all stakeholders across design and construction phases. Effective risk mitigation relies on the concordance of all stakeholders’ risk perceptions. Many researchers have noticed the discordance of risk perceptions among critical stakeholders in safe construction work, however few have provided quantifiable evidence describing them.
In an effort to fill this perception gap, this research performs an experiment that investigates stakeholder perceptions of risk in construction.
Data analysis confirms the existence of such discordance, and indicates a trend in risk likelihood estimation. With risk perceptions from low to high, the stakeholders are architects, contractors/safety professionals, and engineers. Including prior studies, results also suggest that designers have improved their knowledge in building construction safety, but compared to builders they present more difficultly in reaching a consensus of perception.
Findings of this research are intended to be used by risk management and decision makers to reassess stakeholders’ varying judgments when considering injury prevention and hazard assessment.
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From the full-text paper:
- “The results indicate that OSH [occupational safety and health] risks also contain ‘‘social attributes” in lieu of technological and engineering attributes only … the risks may be perceived subjectively due to the itinerary of interests, roles, opportunities, or power differentials, which is interpreted as ‘‘social structures”… Social structures together with cultural systems … shape people’s perceptions, actions, their attempts to influence others … People with shared social structures and cultural systems group into stakeholders; and hence stakeholders’ perceptions represent their social roles” (pg 117).
- “The findings suggest project managers include the social attributes of OSH risks into their considerations when making OSH-related decisions” (p117).
- “Findings identified the gaps of risk perception between designers (i.e., architects and engineers) and builders (i.e., contractors and safety professionals) … designers have difficulty achieving consensus in safety-related perceptions while builders are likely to reach such an agreement.
- It’s suspected that designers may lack hazard awareness during the construction phase and be “unfamiliar with OSH control measures” (pg. 117); nevertheless, OSH risks in the construction phase can often be traced “back to decisions made by persons who are organizationally and spatially removed from the productive work” that is, the people without great knowledge of construction risks
- “The builders’ risk assessment seems comparatively accurate assuming they thoroughly understand construction means and methods. The architects’ risk assessment is low since they often allocate OSH responsibility to other stakeholders due to liability exposure … The engineers’ risk assessment is comparatively high because they are obligated to ensure satisfactory building performance in their design and calculation and hence prone to be sensitive to uncertainties” (pg 117).
- The authors note that these findings have practical implications for prevention through design. This is because OSH risk management is based on decision makers recognising hazards, assessing risk and implementing appropriate controls. However, this process can be hindered when “decision makers differ significantly in their understandings of the nature of an OSH hazard and/or opportunities for its control” (pg 118). Thus, these findings provide information on those gaps between stakeholders on risk perceptions.
Authors: Zhao, D., McCoy, A.P., Kleiner, B.M., Mills, T.H., & Lingard, H. (2016). Science.
Study link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.09.002
Link to the LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stakeholder-perceptions-risk-construction-ben-hutchinson
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