The role of communication in managing the safety climate of construction site environments

Abstract

Managers in the construction sector are met with a critical charge: they are responsible for the safety of employees in one of the most notoriously dangerous industries in the world. In terms of managing the safety climate of construction site environments, no recommendations have been made in the literature that truly elucidate the role of organisational communication therein. The aim of this research was to fill this void by enriching the seminal work of Mohamed (2002) which focusses on the nature of the safety climate in construction organisations, and the factors it is comprised of. To this end, the research comprised a data-triangulated qualitative and quantitative empirical study undertaken at nine different construction sites in South Africa, which allowed for the reformulation of the model for safety climate management in construction environments, with an added understanding of the role of communication therein. The findings indicated that communication is conducive to a positive safety climate when it is managed to be strategic, holistic, relational and symmetrical. The model put forward in this article offers an empirical application of the four identified constructs of communication, which gives way to data-driven recommendations for use in construction organisation settings