Correlation analysis of safety climate and construction productivity in South Korea

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between safety climate and productivity for actual construction projects. The safety climate of the case projects was analyzed using the Nordic occupational safety climate questionnaire for the participants of the projects, and the resources used for the main work were used to analyze productivity. Methods. Many researchers have concluded that if the safety climate in a construction business improves, the rate of human accidents decreases. A decrease in accidents or injuries means that the quality of labor is improved; productivity can be expected to increase as a result. However, some site engineers argue that there is a dilemma since management costs increase when the safety climate is improved. If quantitative analysis of the correlation between safety climate and construction productivity can be performed, the results may show that additional costs to improve the safety climate are offset by productivity gains. Conclusions. As a result of regression analysis, we concluded that there is a significant relationship between safety climate and productivity. In the future, our findings can be used as a reference for developing a construction productivity prediction model as influenced by the safety climate.

Keywords: Nordic occupational safety climate questionnaire; construction productivity; correlation; regression analysis; safety climate.