A longitudinal analysis of safety climate in the dynamic construction project environment

There has been emerging evidence that safety climate is not stable but changes over time. In the complex and dynamic construction project environment, it is highly likely that safety climate fluctuates over the life of a project. This study longitudinally measured safety climate at construction projects, and also explored the overall safety climate change patterns. Safety climate was measured with a multi-level safety climate measurement instrument. At the organizational level, the instrument measured construction workers' perceptions of client organizational safety response (COSR) and principal contractor organizational safety response (PCOSR). At the workgroup level, the instrument measured workers' perceptions of supervisors' safety response (SSR) and coworkers' safety response (CWSR). Three waves of data collection were undertaken at four processing plant construction projects in New Zealand. The research results indicate that safety climate does change over the life of a construction project at different levels. Workers' perceptions of COSR and PCOSR generally declined across all projects over the three surveys. At two projects, although workers' perceptions of COSR and PCOSR declined between the second survey and the third survey, workers' perceptions of SSR increased during the same period. Moreover, while workers' perceptions of COSR, PCOSR and SSR generally declined between the first survey and the second survey, workers' perceptions of CWSR increased during the same period at three projects. The research highlights the potential role played by supervisors in managing boundary relationships between their workgroups and the organizational environment, and maintaining a positive safety climate in their workgroups. The research also suggests the opportunities to further study the development of safety concerns and responsibilities among construction workers over time, as well as cross-level relationships between managerial activities and locally experienced safety climates.