Assessing the Influence of Demographic Factors on Safety Climate in Construction Projects: Perspectives from Southern Africa

Abstract

Background: Although construction projects are high risk in nature and associated with elevated levels of high severity accidents, there has been little research on how to improve construction safety performance especially in developing countries. Many studies have shown that demographic factors can influence the safety climate in construction settings. This study contributes to existing research by evaluating the influence of demographic factors on safety climate in a construction project in Southern Africa which consisted of workers predominantly from South Africa and Zimbabwe. Methods: The study adopted a quantitative approach in evaluating demographic factors influencing safety climate among construction workers. A total of 206 respondents were selected for the study from a population of 1000 construction workers using stratified random sampling. A questionnaire consisting of questions covering management and supervisor commitment, worker involvement, risk tolerance, procedures compliance, prioritisation of safety, communication and competence safety climate dimensions was utilised to compute the overall safety climate. The other part of the questionnaire consisted of demographic questions about the respondents. A Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to conduct statistical inference: independent sample t-test and Analysis of Variance - ANOVA of the demographic factors and their influence on the safety climate. Results: Independent sample t-test: Gender had a significance level (p < 0.001), which is lower than 0.05. Therefore, hypothesis (H1) suggesting that significant differences in the perception of safety climate between gender groups is accepted. Marital status had a p-value (0.081), hence, hypothesis (H2) indicating a significant difference in the perception of safety climate between marital status groups is rejected. ANOVA: The p-values for level of education (0.350) and age group (0.091) are higher than the significance level of 0.05. Hence hypotheses H3 and H4, proposing that education and age differences significantly affect perceptions of the safety climate are rejected. Experience in company p value (0.019) is less than 0.05. Thus hypothesis H5 that more experienced employees have a better safety climate perception than newer employees is accepted. Conclusion: The study indicated that employee demographic characteristics namely age, marital status and education level did not significantly alter the safety climate. However, the other demographic factors, namely gender and work experience significantly influenced the climate, suggesting that these factors play a prominent role in shaping safety perceptions. The implication of this is that construction project managers may factor in demographic differences in the design and implementation of safety programmes.