A multilevel socio-technical perspective on work health and safety related design decision making

Research in construction has identified considerable benefits in the integration of construction expertise and knowledge into early project decision making. Improved constructability and health and safety (H&S) have been frequently highlighted among other benefits. Research evidence has suggested that early-stage collaboration and effective interaction within and between design and construction participants are vital to make construction process knowledge accessible to design decision makers. Nevertheless, effective interaction still seems to be a problem in practice and in many cases, the efforts to promote collaborative interactions have failed to cope with the complex nature of the design process. A case study was undertaken to explore the way in which the interactions between design and construction decision makers impact on the quality of design decisions and H&S outcomes. Social network analysis (SNA) was applied to explore the patterns of interaction between project participants. Unlike the previous applications of SNA in construction, which have largely been cross-sectional and single-level in their focus, a multilevel framework was implemented to recognise the socio-technical complexities and interdependencies in design decision-making. Thus, the design process and its underlying interactions were explored jointly. The study evidence suggested that positive outcomes could be achieved through an alignment between the information interdependencies of the design decisions and the communication patterns that underpin them. The findings of this study can be used to understand, proactively design and maintain interaction networks that support effective decision-making in the context of 'safety in design'.