- Title
- The role of a resilient work environment to predict safety performance on construction refurbishment projects
- Creator
- Ranasinghe Ranawalage, Udara Chathurangi
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Complex and intractable work systems, such as construction refurbishment, highlight the need for effective safety management techniques. Although passive forms of safety behaviour are more than appropriate in managing known risks, proactivity is crucial in responding to unforeseen safety risks in order to aid enhanced safety outcomes, especially in the more uncertain work environments of construction refurbishment projects. Resilience Engineering (RE), a recent innovation associated with safety management, presents a successful methodology designed to deal with project uncertainty in high-risk work environments. This study aims to investigate the role of a resilient work environment to predict safety performance on construction refurbishment projects. In this study, a positivist research philosophy was utilised. The research adopted a quantitative research approach by employing a survey questionnaire to address four research objectives developed to achieve the research aim. A theoretical framework is tested against a quantitative data set comprised of 126 survey responses from major refurbishment projects carried out by medium/large-scale contractor organisations in Australia. This research adopted a partial least-squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique for the main data analysis. This research uncovers a number of interesting results and findings, provides support to empirical enquiries and also lends fresh insight into the domain of safety. Firstly, the study sought to examine and validate a four-factor resilient work environment model. The results confirm 21 measurement items, comprising four dimensions (i.e., top-management commitment, learning culture, flexibility and awareness) that define and measure a resilient work environment. Secondly, the study examines the associations between RE dimensions in order to engineer a resilient work environment in construction refurbishment projects. Accordingly, it was found that top management is a salient agent in construction refurbishment organisations, as their actions towards safety are a positive influence for the other RE dimensions: learning culture, flexibility and awareness. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the effect of top-management commitment to awareness and flexibility was partially mediated by learning culture. Thirdly, the study examines the influence of a resilient work environment and its dimensions on safety performance. Accordingly, a resilient work environment and three of its dimensions (learning culture, flexibility and awareness) are found to have a positive impact on an employee’s safety initiatives, while a resilient work environment and all of its dimensions (top-management commitment, learning culture, flexibility and awareness) have a negative impact on safety outcomes (accident frequency rate). Fourth, the study explores the moderating role of a resilient work environment on the relationship between project uncertainty and safety outcomes. The results found a positive impact from two dimensions of project uncertainty (uncertain information and uncertain complexity) on safety outcomes (accident frequency rate). The results of moderation analysis show that a higher level of resilient work environment factors evident in a construction refurbishment work setting weekend the adverse effect of project uncertainty on safety performance. Theoretically, the research adds a new mechanism to RE literature in terms of introducing, understanding, assessing and maintaining resilience in the work environment by shaping the resilience process (anticipating, coping and adapting) in the context of construction refurbishment. Moreover, this research identifies resilient capabilities that are vital to prioritise during the formation of safety plans and procedures in order to achieve more consistent levels of high safety performance despite inherent uncertainty in construction refurbishment projects.
- Subject
- resilient work environment; safety performance; construction refurbishment projects; safety management
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1509554
- Identifier
- uon:56258
- Rights
- Copyright 2021 Udara Chathurangi Ranasinghe Ranawalage
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 243 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |