IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/conmgt/v19y2001i2p217-226.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understandings of occupational health and safety risk control in small business construction firms: barriers to implementing technological controls

Author

Listed:
  • Helen Lingard
  • Noni Holmes

Abstract

The construction industry poses a particular challenge for the making of occupational health and safety (OHS) risk control decisions which are equitable to all parties involved in the construction process. Typically, small business construction firms are engaged as subcontractors in the construction industry and are located at the lower end of the inter-organizational hierarchy in a construction project. As such, their ability to exert an influence on decision-making in the construction process is limited, despite their employees' day to day exposure to OHS risks. A qualitative study of understandings of OHS risk control was conducted among a sample of small businesses engaged in the Australian construction industry. Two OHS risks relevant to the construction industry were selected for study. One risk (falls from height) represented an immediate consequence while the other (occupational skin disease) represented a long-term health effect. Understandings of control for these OHS risks were explored during in-depth interviews. The results suggest that, at the small business end of the industry, there is a fatalistic resignation to OHS risks being an unavoidable part of the job. This leads to an emphasis on individual rather than technological controls for OHS risk. The implication of these findings for the effective management of OHS risk is discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Helen Lingard & Noni Holmes, 2001. "Understandings of occupational health and safety risk control in small business construction firms: barriers to implementing technological controls," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 217-226.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:19:y:2001:i:2:p:217-226
    DOI: 10.1080/01446190010002570
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01446190010002570
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01446190010002570?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fielding, J.E. & Piserchia, P.V., 1989. "Frequency of worksite health promotion activities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 79(1), pages 16-20.
    2. Witte, Kim, 1993. "Managerial style and health promotion programs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 227-235, February.
    3. Hollander, Roberta B. & Lengermann, Joseph J., 1988. "Corporate characteristics and worksite health promotion programs: Survey findings from fortune 500 companies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 491-501, January.
    4. Spilman, M. A., 1988. "Gender differences in worksite health promotion activities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 525-535, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Raed Eldejany, 2017. "Work Health and Safety, Competitive Advantage, and Organisational Performance in Small Construction Firms: Research Proposal," Journal of Management and Sustainability, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 7(1), pages 11-18, March.
    2. Helen Lingard, 2002. "The effect of first aid training on Australian construction workers' occupational health and safety knowledge and motivation to avoid work-related injury or illness," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 263-273.
    3. Raed Eldejany, 2018. "Work Health and Safety in Small Business-A Pilot Study in the Australian Construction Industry," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 9(4), pages 103-109, July.
    4. Graeme D. Larsen & Jennifer Whyte, 2013. "Safe construction through design: perspectives from the site team," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 675-690, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2015. "Workplace health promotion and labour market performance of employees," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 170-189.
    2. Yin-Che Chen & Yun-Chu Chen & Hui-Chuang Chu, 2023. "Stages of organizational development and employee assistance programs in Taiwan," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Elona Begvarfaj & Emilio Greco & Arturo Armone Caruso & Simonetta Masieri & Andrea Ciofalo & Carmelita Velardita & Carlo Cavaliere, 2022. "Effects of the Silica Dust on the Nasal Mucosa of Ceramic Workers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-10, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:19:y:2001:i:2:p:217-226. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RCME20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.