Investigating the relationships between safety climate and safety performance indicators in retrofitting works

Abstract

Retrofitting works have become increasingly important in the construction industry as they play an effective role in providing solutions to maintain, upgrade or change the functions of existing or aged buildings. Very often, safety issues of retrofitting works are underestimated as such works are normally considered small projects/works, in which the accidents might not be reported in the short term. Therefore, qualitative indicators (i.e. safety climate and safety behaviour) have become significant contributors in evaluating the organisational safety performance. This article aimed to examine the relationship between the safety climate and safety performance in the retrofitting works context. The safety climate of retrofitting works was measured by adopting the NOSACQ-50 questionnaire, while the safety performance was examined by three indicators comprising safety compliance, safety participation, and occupational injuries. A total of 264 valid questionnaire responses were collected from the local retrofits work sites in Australia. PLS-SEM technique was used to examine the relationship and estimate the parameters of the structural model. The results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship (0.60) between safety climate and safety performance in retrofitting works.