Skills for developing safety climate in construction projects

Despite its contribution to the global and national economies, the construction industry is notorious for being unsafe. In such an environment, project management personnel play an important role in leading safety task implementation and creating positive safety climate in construction projects. This, subsequently, leads to accident prevention through the efforts of eliminating unsafe acts and conditions. In order to do so, project management personnel need to possess sufficient skills. Therefore, this present research has investigated the role of project management personnel�s skills (comprising conceptual, human, political, and technical skills) in implementing safety management tasks and developing safety climate. This research applied mixed methods research design. Two hundred seventy-three quantitative data were collected using online surveys and were analysed using structural equation modelling method to develop a model that shows relationships between the research variables. Thereafter, qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews with eight experienced construction practitioners. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis to find recurring themes.The results of the quantitative analysis show that self-awareness, visioning, and apparent sincerity are the foundation skills scoping and integration, and self-management are the first-tier mediator skills and social awareness, social astuteness, and relationship management are the second-tier mediator skills. These skills contribute to the implementation of safety management tasks, which leads to safety climate development. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts identified two main recurring themes. The first theme is the verification of the final model derived from the quantitative analysis. The second theme focuses on methods to develop the important skill components for improving construction safety performance. This also involves training and learning processes that should be provided.The research findings have provided empirical evidence on the relationships between project management personnel�s skills, safety management tasks, and safety climate. Another unique theoretical contribution is confirming the role of political skill in construction management, particularly to manage safety. Practically, the important skill components have also been determined, thus helping project management personnel and construction organisations prioritise and strategise in their skill development process. Furthermore, construction organisations should incorporate safety management tasks in their existing safety management systems because of their positive influence in developing safety climate.