Assessment of the resilience of safety management systems in the Algerian construction sector

Traditional safety approaches (safety-I) promote the idea that safety arises from preventing adverse events. This is considered as insufficient to succeed in a complex and uncertain environment such as the construction sector. Therefore, the purpose is to assess SMSs capabilities within the framework of resilience engineering in the Algerian construction sector. For this, a cross-sectional exploratory study was conducted using the resilience assessment grid (RAG) questionnaire that assesses SMSs resilience in terms of four abilities (i.e., respond, monitor, learn and anticipate). The questionnaire was distributed to OHS professionals belonging to 31 construction companies operating on a national scale in Algeria. Findings showed that problematic resilience abilities for the Algerian construction sector were the ability to learn and to anticipate. Areas for improvement were highlighted, such as the focus on collaborative planning, the implementation of decentralised monitoring mechanisms and operationalising of continuous improvement principles.