Factors influencing health and safety performance at construction sites in Ghana: the perspective of building artisans

Abstract

The construction industry is considered one of the most hazardous industries, and implementing a safety program is regarded as one of the most effective approaches to improving safety performance. However, any safety program’s success depends on specific factors for satisfactory outcomes. Identifying factors influencing safety performance from a worker’s perspective is key to improving safety management. This study determined the critical factors contributing to the construction industry’s safety performance by building construction artisans in Ghana. Through a literature review, 55 factors influencing safety performance were selected from previous studies and evaluated by the building construction. An exploratory factor analysis was used for dimension reduction, and seven components clustering the 55 factors were revealed. The results showed that management support and commitment toward safety performance was the most influential component. The findings of this study can be utilized to enhance health and safety performance in the building construction industry.

KEYWORDS:

• construction artisans
• safety factors
• exploratory factor analysis
• management support
• management structure
• project nature

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all respondents in this study for making the work possible. The authors are also grateful to the research assistants who assisted with data collection – Samson Asare, Lincoln Hoggar, Norbert Doku, Millicent Kutana, Sitsofe Dzah and Bright Lartevi – for administrating the study questionnaire.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.