Carol K.H. Hon

Determining Safety Climate Factors in the Repair, Maintenance, Minor Alteration, and Addition Sector of Hong Kong

The accident record of the repair, maintenance, minor alteration, and addition (RMAA) sector has been alarmingly high; however, research in the RMAA sector remains limited. Unsafe behavior is considered one of the key causes of accidents. Thus, the organizational factors that influence individual safety behavior at work continue to be the focus of many studies. The safety climate, which reflects the true priority of safety in an organization, has drawn much attention. Safety climate measurement helps to identify areas for safety improvement. The current study aims to identify safety climate factors in the RMAA sector. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the RMAA sector in Hong Kong. Data were randomly split into the calibration and the validation samples. The RMAA safety climate factors were determined by exploratory factor analysis on the calibration sample. Three safety climate factors of the RMAA works were identified: (1) management commitment to occupational health and safety (OHS) and employee involvement, (2) application of safety rules and work practices, and; (3) responsibility for health and safety. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then conducted on the validation sample. The CFA model showed satisfactory goodness of fit, reliability, and validity. The suggested RMAA safety climate factors can be utilized by construction industry practitioners in developed economies to measure the safety climate of their RMAA projects, thereby enhancing the safety of RMAA works.

Empirical Study to Investigate the Difficulties of Implementing Safety Practices in the Repair and Maintenance Sector in Hong Kong

Repair, maintenance, minor alteration, and addition work (RMAA) has become more and more important in developed societies, but its safety performance is alarming. For example, RMAA projects accounted for 53.2% of the total construction market and the percentage of RMAA accidents to all construction accidents in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) increased considerably in 2007. The RMAA sector has a huge potential for safety improvement. This study aims to explore and evaluate the difficulties of implementing safety practices in RMAA work. The mixed methods approach was adopted, and semistructured interviews and a two-round Delphi survey were conducted for the data collection. Major difficulties were identified, including limited safety resources for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), difficulty in changing the mindset of RMAA workers, and difficulty in performing safety supervision. These obstacles for implementing safety practices in the RMAA sector, if successfully removed, could significantly improve the safety performance of the RMAA sector and the construction industry as a whole.

Strategies for Improving Safety and Health of Ethnic Minority Construction Workers

AbstractThe construction industries of developed countries are faced with an aging workforce and a shortage of recruits. It is common for migrant workers/ethnic minorities (EMs) who are already part of the society to join the construction industry. With increasing involvement of EMs in the construction industry, effective strategies for improving their safety and health are urgently needed. The existing body of knowledge is mainly derived from research conducted in English-speaking countries with Western cultures. Research on safety of migrant/EM construction workers in multidialect Asian countries with Eastern cultures has been lacking. This study aimed to identify various strategies for improving the safety and health of EM construction workers from the Asian perspective. Twenty-two face-to-face semistructured interviews were performed with safety professionals in Hong Kong followed by two rounds of Delphi survey with 18 safety experts to verify the interview findings and rank the relative importance of...

Improving Safety Communication of Ethnic Minorities in the Construction Industry of Hong Kong

The construction workforce in Hong Kong is experiencing a severe ageing problem and labour shortage. One initiative to enhance the supply of manpower is to assist ethnic minorities joining the industry. It is foreseeable that the percentage of ethnic minorities in the construction workforce will keep increasing. Statistics show that ethnic minorities were nearly 30% more likely to have work-related injuries than local workers in some developed countries. However, official statistics on the safety of ethnic minorities are not available in Hong Kong. A search in newspaper archive revealed that ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong are subjected to higher fatality rate than local workers, just as is the case in many developed countries. This reflects that the safety of ethnic minorities has not received the attention it rightly deserves. Safety communication has been one of the key factors leading to accidents. Safety communication barriers of ethnic minorities impede them from receiving safety training and acquiring safety information effectively. Research towards improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong becomes more urgent. This paper will provides an initial report on a research project which focuses on improving the safety communication of ethnic minorities in the construction industry of Hong Kong. Quantitative and qualitative research methods including Social Network Analysis (SNA) applied in conducting the research are first discussed. Preliminary statistics of construction accidents related to ethnic minorities in Hong Kong are then presented.

Project Owners’ Motivation for Delivering Green Building Projects

Project owners play a vital role in delivering green building projects in the building sector. However, their motivation for effective delivery of green building projects is currently unknown due to limited studies on the subject. Therefore, this study investigated project owners’ motivation for delivering green building projects by surveying 150 Green Star Accredited Professionals (GSAPs), who are the representatives of project owners’ interests in delivering green building projects in the Australian building sector. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and thereafter confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), findings revealed that project owners’ drivers of motivation for delivering green building projects can be classified into internal (INT) and external (EXT) motivation factors. The internal ones comprise improved quality of life, pro-environmental altruism, enhanced reputation, and persuasive influence, while the external ones comprise market appeal and financial and nonfinancial incentives provided by the government. The INT is more important than the EXT, but both are complementary of one another in driving the delivery of green building projects. The hypotheses that significant differences exist between public and private owners’ motivation, and commercial and noncommercial owners’ motivation for delivering green building projects are rejected. Thus, the theoretical position that INT and EXT complement rather than undermine one another is supported in this study. Furthermore, the comparison of this study with related studies in the United States indicates that the motivations for delivering green building projects are geographically different. In summary, this study has derived the factors of project owners’ motivation for delivering green building projects. Project owners can rely on either or both of the factors combined for successful delivery of their own projects. The government can use the factors to identify appropriate policies to enact and implement to increase project owners’ motivation for delivering green building projects in the building sector.

Safety Management in Repair, Maintenance, Minor Alteration, and Addition Works: Knowledge Management Perspective

Safety of repair, maintenance, alteration, and addition (RMAA) works have long been neglected because RMAAworks are often minute and only last for a short period of time. With rising importance of the RMAA sector in many developed societies, safety of RMAA works has begun to draw attention. Many RMAA contracting companies are small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that do not have comprehensive safety management systems. Existing safety legislation and regulations for new construction sites are not fully applicable to RMAAworks. Instead of relying on explicit and well-established safety systems, tacit safety knowledge plays an extremely important role in RMAA projects. To improve safety of RMAAworks, safety knowledge should be better managed. However, safety knowledge is difficult to capture in RMAA works. This study aims to examine safety management practices of RMAA contracting companies to see how safety knowledge of RMAA projects is managed. Findings show that RMAA contracting companies undertaking large-scale RMAA projects have more initiatives of safety management. Safety management of small-scale RMAA works relies heavily on the motivation of site supervisors and self-regulation of workers. Better tacit knowledge management improves safety performance. To enhance safety capability of RMAA contracting companies, a knowledge sharing culture should be cultivated. The government should provide assistance to SMEs to implement proper safety management practices in small-sized projects. Potentials of applying computer software technology in RMAA projects to capture, store, and retrieve safety information should be explored. Employees should be motivated to share safety knowledge by giving proper recognition to those who are willing to share.

Effect of Motivation and Owner Commitment on the Delivery Performance of Green Building Projects

The delivery of green building projects is often more difficult than non-green building projects thereby resulting in low project performance. In order to overcome the difficulties and improve the delivery performance of green building projects, there is need to explore the perceived relationship between motivation and owner commitment (OC) based on the self-determination theory (SDT) of motivation. However no previous research has empirically tested this relationship in the context of green building delivery performance. Therefore this study evaluated this relationship using survey data from 150 project owners of green building projects in the Australian building sector. Data obtained was analyzed using both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis of eight hypotheses (H1-H8). The SEM results reveal that OC has direct positive relationship with traditional delivery performance (TDP). Additionally, only the internal motivation (INT) of project owners has direct positive relationship with sustainability delivery performance (SDP), and this relationship is partially mediated by OC. The external motivation (EXT) has no direct positive relationship with OC, and neither TDP nor SDP. The study concludes that OC helps to improve the TDP of green building projects, while the INT of project owners is required to increase their commitment (OC) towards improving the SDP of green building projects. In addition, the EXT of project owners is not effective to increase their commitment (OC), as well as not contributing to improve TDP and SDP of green building projects. Theoretically, the application of SDT of motivation helps to contribute to the knowledge of how to improve the delivery performance of green building projects in the field of construction management and engineering. Practically, this study will help project owners to contribute to improve the delivery performance of green building projects. This study also provides the direction in which policies for encouraging the development of green building projects and associated practices should take in both Australia and the US henceforth.

Relationships among Safety Climate, Safety Behavior, and Safety Outcomes for Ethnic Minority Construction Workers

In many countries, it is common practice to attract and employ ethnic minority (EM) or migrant workers in the construction industry. This primarily occurs in order to alleviate the labor shortage caused by an aging workforce with a lack of new entrants. Statistics show that EM construction workers are more likely to have occupational fatal and nonfatal injuries than their local counterparts; however, the mechanism underlying accidents and injuries in this vulnerable population has been rarely examined. This study aims to investigate relationships among safety climate, safety behavior, and safety outcomes for EM construction workers. To this end, a theoretical research model was developed based on a comprehensive review of the current literature. In total, 289 valid questionnaires were collected face-to-face from 223 Nepalese construction workers and 56 Pakistani construction workers working on 15 construction sites in Hong Kong. Structural equation modelling was employed to validate the constructs and test the hypothesized model. Results show that there were significant positive relationships between safety climate and safety behaviors, and significant negative relationships between safety behaviors and safety outcomes for EM construction workers. This research contributes to the literature regarding EM workers by providing empirical evidence of the mechanisms by which safety climate affects safety behaviors and outcomes. It also provides insights in order to help the key stakeholders formulate safety strategies for EM workers in many areas where numerous EM workers are employed, such as in the U.S., the UK, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Middle East.

Investigating ethnic minorities' perceptions of safety climate in the construction industry

INTRODUCTION An increasing number of ethnic minorities (EMs) have been employed in the construction industry to alleviate severe labor shortages in many countries. Unfortunately, statistics show that EMs have higher fatal and non-fatal occupational injury rates than their local counterparts. However, EMs are often underrepresented in safety climate (SC) research as they are difficult to reach and gauge their perception. A positive relationship has been widely found between SC and safety performance. Understanding the safety perceptions of EMs helps to reduce injuries and improve their safety performance. METHOD Based on a sample of 320 EMs from 20 companies in the construction industry, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to identify the SC factors of EMs, and validate the extracted factors, respectively. Multivariate analysis of variance was undertaken to examine mean differences in perceptions of SC by personal characteristics. RESULTS Three SC factors for EMs encapsulating 16 variables were identified through EFA. The hypothesized CFA model for a three-factor structure derived from EFA showed a satisfactory goodness-of-fit, composite reliability, and construct validity. CONCLUSIONS Three SC factors were identified, namely: (a) safety management commitment, safety resources, and safety communication; (b) employees involvement and workmates influence; and (c) perception of safety rules, procedures and risks. The perceptions of SC differed significantly by nationality, marital status, the number of family members supported, and drinking habit. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This study reveals the perception of EMs toward SC. The findings highlight the areas for safety improvement and provide leading indicators for safety performance of EMs. The findings are also enlightening for countries with a number of EMs, such as the United Sates, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the Middle East.

Accidents of Electrical and Mechanical Works for Public Sector Projects in Hong Kong

A study on electrical and mechanical (E&M) works-related accidents for public sector projects provided the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the causes of accidents by analyzing the circumstances of all E&M works accidents. The research aims to examine accidents of E&M works which happened in public sector projects. A total of 421 E&M works-related accidents in the “Public Works Programme Construction Site Safety and Environmental Statistics” (PCSES) system were extracted for analysis. Two-step cluster analysis was conducted to classify the E&M accidents into different groups. The results identified three E&M accidents groups: (1) electricians with over 15 years of experience were prone to ‘fall of person from height’; (2) electricians with zero to five years of experience were prone to ‘slip, trip or fall on same level’; (3) air-conditioning workers with zero to five years of experience were prone to multiple types of accidents. Practical measures were recommended for each specific cluster group to avoid recurrence of similar accidents. The accident analysis would be vital for industry practitioners to enhance the safety performance of public sector projects. This study contributes to filling the knowledge gap of how and why E&M accidents occur and promulgating preventive measures for E&M accidents which have been under researched.