The EU directive 92/57/EEC focuses on ensuring that health and safety-related matters are taken into consideration during every stage of construction-related work and has been introduced into the regulations of the member countries. In 2006, Sweden was tasked by the European Commission to clarify its implementation of the directive, including which management roles and responsibilities were to come into effect during both the planning and eventual execution of construction work—changes that ultimately were introduced into the national regulations in 2009. Focusing on the accident trends in the construction industry in the years immediately following these regulatory changes, we find that the new management roles and responsibilities had no apparent effect on the accident rates. Furthermore, we argue that there is a need to broaden the analysis regarding the implementation of the EU directive 92/57/EEC to also include nation-specific changes to health and safety management and policy. These qualitative studies should also include a dedicated focus on how changes to management structures and processes may affect the prevalence of occupational diseases specifically.

This report is a literature review of international research focusing on safety culture and safety management practices in the construction industry. More specifically, we discuss how the term “safety culture” can be understood in relation to the broader term “organizational culture” and that there is an intimate connection between the two. Furthermore, we conclude that much of the research takes a normative approach when studying safety culture in the sense of assuming that culture has a certain direction, i.e. that it aims at safety. It is less common that researchers take an interpretative perspective on safety culture where culture, in itself, is viewed as a complex phenomenon that cannot necessarily be controlled or managed in a certain direction. We argue that further studies in the field should also prioritize interpretative perspectives since it would contribute to a more nuanced view on safety culture, e.g., through qualitative methodological approaches such as ethnography. Finally, based on the results of previous research, we suggest a number of activities that can be introduced to the safety training park outside of Arlanda, Stockholm, as a way of strengthening their proactive safety work.

The Swedish construction industry has made major investments in recent years to raise awareness of the importance of working safely. Part of this effort is a safety park built by the Swedish Construction Federation and a number of construction companies, i.e. a facility where those who work in the industry are educated about safety and given the opportunity to jointly reflect on safety-related issues.

Our research group at Luleå University of Technology has followed the park's establishment with the aim of investigating how issues concerning safety culture can and has been integrated into the safety park's activities. The project has been described in three reports. The first is a survey of international research in the field of safety culture, safety work and safety training (see “Safety culture research in the construction industry”, Berglund et al, 2020). The second report presents a survey and characterization of the safety initiatives and safety cultures that exist in Swedish construction companies (see “Safety initiatives and safety culture in the Swedish construction industry”, Berglund et al, 2021). In this third report, which we call Results and recommendations, we present an overall analysis of the park's activities and conclude with a number of proposals for how the safety park can be further developed. 

In the report we can conclude that the safety park is in place and has been operating for just over three years. The park consists of a large number of stations or scenarios in which different situations and work moments are reflected. A visit to the park begins indoors with an introduction where the visiting company is given an initial description of the park's content and purpose, and a number of issues are introduced and discussed. After that, the visit continues outdoors by visiting a selection of stations that are designed according to the park’s educational principle of "see, hear, do and reflect". The choice of stations visited is made in consultation with the supervisor and with the visiting company. The day ends in the same way as it began, indoors, with reflections on lessons learned, and discussions about what the participants should take home to their own company. The park also serves as a display of current developments in the industry, not least in terms of new tools, equipment and materials, all with a focus on improved work environment and safety. The safety park is mainly visited by construction companies and construction students, but also by representatives from other industries. We have interviewed key individuals in the construction industry about the park and most of them testify that their visit was rewarding. Our report concludes with eleven development areas that we believe can help make the already good operations at the safety park even better.

1. Problematize prevailing safety cultures at more stations in the park.

2. The educational model is good and can be utilized in more stations.

3. All visits should have a clear and specific company profile.

4. All visitors should have a task to perform when returning to the company.

5. Stations must be up-to-date and reflect realistic situations.

6. The safety park should be a centre for learning, development and innovation.

7. The safety park can be a showroom for new technology and good equipment.

8. Gender issues should be integrated into the work of the security park.

9. The importance of management for safety culture should be emphasized more.

10.The safety park can become a resource for training foreign workers.

11. The safety park should follow up and document their experiences.

BACKGROUND: Despite numerous regulatory initiatives to improve health and safety in the construction industry, it still ranks as one of the most accident-prone industries worldwide. A dedicated focus on safety culture has been suggested as a complement to laws, regulations and management systems.

OBJECTIVE: This article explores safety culture research conducted in the construction industry, with the aim to provide insight into the specific themes that tend to be in focus as well as what theoretical and methodological approaches that tend to be favored.

METHODS: Searches in scientific databases were conducted twice. In a first attempt, searches resulted in 54 hits but only two articles fit the scope of the study. A revision of the search phrase resulted in 124 hits. Ultimately, 17 articles fit the scope of the study and were included. The content of the articles was analyzed and sorted thematically.

RESULTS: The results show that four themes are prevalent in the existing literature: 1) unique challenges entail a need for situated applications, 2) models developed to operationalize safety culture, 3) measuring safety culture, and 4) safety management and leadership as key factors.

CONCLUSION:Although research focusing on the construction industry has come to favor certain study designs and definitions of safety culture, further research may be enriched by broadening the theoretical and methodological perspectives. Specifically, researchers should conduct more in-depth qualitative studies that take the complexity of the industry into account, including the interpersonal relations between the actors involved.

The problem of occupational accidents in the construction industry has necessitated a focus on proactive measures such as safety management programs. An example of this is safety parks, i.e. facilities where employees and managers from different construction companies can participate in site-specific activities and train in safety-related matters in a realistic context. Two specific focus areas are often present within these types of safety management programs: hands-on safety training and safety culture development as being within the purview of management. The purpose of this article is to investigate the developers’ intentions with the park in relation to safety culture development. Twenty interviews were conducted with experts in the area of health and safety. Results indicate that the safety park can contribute as a mirror for the companies own operations, with new information and knowledge of how work can be performed with safety being prioritized, to developing communication regarding safety-related matters, and finally the stations at the park may initiate a translation process as to how the lessons learned at the park can be applied to the participants’ own workplaces. All in all, the activities at the park can be said to be normative in nature, i.e. the developers seemingly have a desire to steer the safety culture development in a certain direction. There is a need for further research focusing on the concept of safety culture in these types of programs and, more broadly, in relation to its intended industry-wide effects.

The purpose of this study is to anazlye accidents occurring in the Swedish construction industry focusing specifically on the situation in the individual trades. The article includes all occupational accidents with at least one day of absence from work that were reported to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency for the year of 2016. The results, focusing on accident cause, injured body parts, as well as accidents per weekday, month and age, show that although the trades share commonalities regarding occupational accidents a number of trade-specific problem areas stand out. With this in mind, conclusions are drawn regarding the situation in each respective trade and suggestions are made for future studies focusing on accidents in construction industry trades.

Design is a learning process and the use of prototyping activities for the sake of learning increases thedesign thinking, i.e. the dialogue and feedback on ideas. Hence, representations ranging from sketchesto different kind of models and animations are recommended to be used as prototypes to mediate userneeds and to support communication within the team. Low-fidelity prototyping enables rapidvisualisation of ideas, reframes failures into learning, generates perceptual progress and supportscreativity. In product design, different visualisation techniques are used to generate and communicateideas since thinking visually is seen as necessary for innovation.This paper describes the work of developing a course where you combine the task of workplace designwith traditional industrial design visualisation methods like sketching, model making and 3Dcomputer aids. By using the knowledge and experience from product design and incorporate it intoworkplace design, a process where all parties contribute in new ways could be achieved.In the course the students start by performing an individual investigation of the present research frontfor production visualisation by summarizing and analysing a number of scientific articles. A workplace design project was then performed where exploratory, explanatory and persuasive visualizingtechniques were implemented. Through a creative and constructive collaboration across disciplinaryboundaries, Industrial Production Environment and Industrial Design, we have created andimplemented a course in an area that has been lacking in our Master Program.

The purpose of this study was to carry out a broad survey and analysis of relevant research articles about "piece rate" wages and their effects on health and safety, which were published internationally until the fall of 2008. The aim was to summarize and describe the state of the art of the research in this field and if possible draw conclusions from the accumulated research results. A total of 75 research articles were examined extensively and 31 of these were found relevant and had sufficient quality to serve the purpose of this study. The findings of these relevant articles are summarized and analyzed in the survey. Since the late 1980s, there has been a change of research focus regarding previous termpiece rates and their effects on health and safety.next term More recent research shows a clear interest for previous termhealth,next term musculoskeletal injuries, physical workload, pains and occupational injuries. The previous interest in risk behavior, security and accidents is still there, but no longer dominates the research scene.Although research is still sparse and fragmented, much of the accumulated knowledge about the previous termeffects of piece ratenext term work tells us that previous termpiece ratesnext term in many situations have a negative previous termeffect on health and safety.next term The fact that 27 of the 31 studied articles found negative previous termeffects of piece ratesnext term on different aspects of previous termhealth and safetynext term does not prove causality, but together they give very strong support for the hypothesis that in most situations previous termpiece ratesnext term have negative previous termeffects on health and safety.next termIn order to achieve better knowledge about the previous termeffects of piece ratesnext term in branches where previous termpiece ratesnext term are regarded problematic, further research is needed and such research has to be designed to meet the specific questions that are to be answered.

BACKGROUND

The paper is a research review focusing on occupational safety in the construction industry.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose is to present research that highlights the areas of occupational safety and risks and to identify areas where research is lacking.

METHODS

326 articles from scientific journals, mainly covering the construction industry in Europe, Canada, USA, Australia and Japan have been studied. The findings are presented under 11 categories: accident statistics; individual factors; legislation and regulations; ethical considerations; risk management; leadership, management, organization; competence; safety design; cost-benefit calculations; programs and models; and technical solutions.

RESULTS

The research is dominated by initiatives from researchers and government authorities, while the construction industry only appears as the object for the research. There is a scarcity of research on integrated systems encompassing subcontractors, as well as a lack of research with sociological perspectives on accidents. Furthermore, only a few studies have applied a gender perspective on safety in construction, i.e. there is a need of further research in this particular area.

CONCLUSIONS

A range of initiatives have been taken to increase safety in the construction industry and the initiatives are mainly reported to be successful. There are some cultural differences, but basically researchers present similar results regardless of country.

Utmärkande för Luleå tekniska universitet (LTU) har länge varit närheten mellan studenterna och lärarna vilket har manifesterats genom klassrumsundervisning, lärartillgänglighet, mindre studiegrupper, koncentrerade campus etc. Undervisningsformerna har dock ändrats till att idag omfatta dels klassiska föreläsningar i stora studentgrupper, men också projektarbete i team där totalt sett 1/3 av all undervisning vid Luleå tekniska universitet sker i projektform. En fråga har ställts: Har Luleå tekniska universitet idag en gemensam pedagogisk idé för ingenjörsutbildningarna? I så fall är ytterligare en fråga hur denna pedagogiska idé tar sig uttryck i organisationen?Intervjuer med 40 aktiva lärare vid Luleå tekniska universitet har genomförts av projektgruppen (tillika författarna) varpå svaren har grupperats och analyserats i fjorton olika teman. Från dessa teman har sedan fyra hörnstenar i en definition av en pedagogisk idé aggregerats. Formuleringen av den pedagogiska idén lyder: Ett aktivt lärande för yrkeslivet – i branschnära projekt och med god vetenskaplig grund tränas förmågan att arbeta som ingenjör genom coachning från lärare i ett nära och öppet klimat. Idén har antagits av den tekniska fakultetsnämnden vid Luleå tekniska universitet och verifierats på institutionerna. Exempel på implementering och hur den pedagogiska idén aktivt verkar presenteras i artikeln.

Svensk byggindustri betraktas internationellt sett i många avseenden som ett föredöme och ett framgångsexempel när det gäller arbetsmiljö och arbetsförhållanden. Trots det är branschen fortfarande drabbad av en stor andel allvarliga arbetsplatsolyckor som i flera fall per år leder till att den drabbade omkommer. Huvudsyftet med denna studie är att belysa bakomliggande orsaker till allvarliga arbetsolyckor inom branschen.

Studien bygger i huvudsak på två genomförda enkätundersökningar. Den första enkätundersökningen, som genomfördes under hösten 2011 och våren 2012, vände sig till medarbetare inom svensk byggindustri som någon gång under åren 2005, 2007, 2009 eller 2011 råkat ut för en allvarlig arbetsolycka. Den andra enkätundersökningen genomfördes under hösten 2013 i syfte att nå en referensgrupp av byggnadsarbetare som inte råkat ut för allvarliga arbetsplatsolyckor. Enkätundersökningarna föregicks av intervjuer med branschrepresentanter som också varit delaktiga i utformandet av enkäterna. Det insamlade datamaterialet har bearbetats och analyserats med hjälp av statistikprogrammet SPSS. Därefter har en kompletterande litteraturstudie genomförts i syfte att, där det varit möjligt, också belysa studiens resultat i en internationell kontext och visa på möjliga vägar för en fortsatt utveckling mot säkrare arbetsplatser.

Studiens resultat ger en komplex bild av bakomliggande orsaker till allvarliga arbetsolyckor inom branschen. Personfaktorer som ålder och attityd och inställning till säkerhet påverkar riskerna liksom den säkerhetskultur som präglar arbetsplatsen. Det finns också ett klart samband mellan stress och allvarliga olycksfall. Arbetsledningen måste gå i bräschen och ge säkerhetsfrågorna högsta prioritet. Ett väl fungerande förebyggande arbete för hälsa och säkerhet är starkt kopplat till god planering av arbetet på arbetsplatsen i övrigt och olycksfallsriskerna.