A safety culture development model for the SMEs in the building and construction industry
Effective safety management is significantly associated with enormous cost reduction, efficiency improvement and returns on shareholders' values. While using a qualitative research method, this research evaluates the safety behaviours and practices of the SMEs in the South African building and construction industry. The motive of the study was to identify the major inhibitors and the integrated remedial safety culture development model that can be suggested. Due to the required hefty costs of investing in certain safety improvement measures, underdeveloped safety competencies and poor supervision by the enforcement authorities, some of the SMEs were found to consider safety management as merely peripheral to their core business cultures. Even for SMEs that strive to develop and nurture effective safety culture, findings revealed that as they change from one subcontract to another, the exposure to different safety requirements often limits the development and stabilisation of the SMEs' own internal safety cultures. After triangulating such findings with Flemings and Westrum's models, the paper enriches the existing construction safety culture theories by suggesting a new theory that the SMEs in the construction industry can emulate in the development and improvement of their safety cultures. The study is significant on the basis that it highlights how the development of a strong construction safety culture can enable the SMEs minimise accidents and incidents among their employees and the surrounding communities. This will impact on the SMEs' corporate reputation, cost reduction and the ability to operate more competitively and sustainably.