Modeling the effects of production pressure on safety performance in construction projects using system dynamics

A qualitative systematic review on the application of the normalization of deviance phenomenon within high-risk industries

INTRODUCTION

The concept of normalization of deviance describes the gradual acceptance of deviant observations and practices. It is founded upon the gradual desensitization to risk experienced by individuals or groups who recurrently deviate from standard operating procedures without encountering negative consequences. Since its inception, normalization of deviance has seen extensive, but segmented, application across numerous high-risk industrial contexts. The current paper describes a systematic review of the existing literature on the topic of normalization of deviance within high-risk industrial settings.

METHOD

Four major databases were searched in order to identify relevant academic literature, with 33 academic papers meeting all inclusion criteria. Directed content analysis was used to analyze the texts.

RESULTS

Based on the review, an initial conceptual framework was developed to encapsulate identified themes and their interactions; key themes linked to the normalization of deviance included risk normalization, production pressure, culture, and a lack of negative consequences.

CONCLUSIONS

While preliminary, the present framework offers relevant insights into the phenomenon that may help guide future analysis using primary data sources and aid in the development of intervention methods.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Normalization of deviance is an insidious phenomenon that has been noted in several high-profile disasters across a variety of industrial settings. A number of organizational factors allow for and/or propagate this process, and as such, the phenomenon should be considered as an aspect of safety evaluations and interventions.

Formation Mechanism and Dynamic Evolution Laws About Unsafe Behavior of New Generation of Construction Workers Based on China's Construction Industry: Application of Grounded Theory and System Dynamics

Construction workers' unsafe behavior is a major cause of safety accidents and injuries, therefore, a profound understanding of the formation process and evolution laws about construction workers' unsafe behavior is conducive to taking measures to prevent incidents. At present, the new generation of construction workers (NGCWs) born after 1980 are gradually becoming the main force at construction sites in China. Given that generational differences of construction workers can cause the discrepancies in their thoughts and attitudes when engaging in safety-related activities, this study aims to investigate the formation mechanism and dynamic evolution laws about NGCWs' unsafe behavior based on the context of China's construction industry. From the perspective of behavior motivation, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 NGCWs and 7 grassroots managers were conducted, and data analysis followed a three-step coding process based on grounded theory. Through continuous comparison, abstraction and analysis, the stimulus-organism-response theory was introduced and expanded to construct a three-stage formation mechanism model. On this basis, the causal diagram and stock flow diagram were developed based on system dynamics principles to reflect the dynamic feedback relationships of the factors in the static formation mechanism model, and simulation was carried out using Vensim PLE software. The results show that three types of internal needs and three types of external incentives stimulate corresponding motivations for NGCWs' unsafe behavior. Two types of individual factors, five types of situational factors and behavior result play an influencing role in the decision-making process of externalizing motivation into behavior. Under the synergistic effect of multiple factors, the level of unsafe behavior displays a downward trend, and the rate of decrease is slow first and then fast. Furthermore, among individual factors and situational factors, safety awareness and safety management system have the most significant effect on the level of unsafe behavior, while situational factors play a more obvious role. The findings can provide theoretical support and practical references to China's construction companies and government departments for the purpose of improving NGCWs' unsafe behavior.

Performance Prediction of Construction Projects Based on the Causes of Claims: A System Dynamics Approach

Conflict in human relations is unavoidable; therefore, it can occur in construction projects that are full of many human relationships. These conflicts can lead to claims if interlocutors do not agree. The main result of the claims is the delay and overrun of costs in construction projects. Additionally, poor management of claims affects the success of construction projects and their budget and schedule. Moreover, controlling claims ensures the successful completion of construction projects and minimizes delays and disputes. This study sought to improve the project performance by ranking the causes of claims and examining their impacts on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) using the combined AHP-TOPSIS (Analytic Hierarchy Process-Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method. Given that construction projects are constantly evolving and becoming more complex and have many linear and nonlinear relationships and structures, these projects can be considered as a kind of system dynamics. The system dynamics have been used for nearly four decades to analyze and improve the performance of construction projects. This study attempted to provide a model with a system dynamics approach to predict the performance of construction projects based on the reasons for the claim. In this model, the most important performance indicators, interactions between them, and the relationship of these indicators with the reasons for claiming were simulated. The results showed that delays are the most important reasons for making claims, and they have a great impact on the KPIs such as scheduling, sustainability, customer satisfaction, quality, and team satisfaction, respectively. In the modeling and simulation discussion in this study, the proposed model simulated the dependencies between the KPIs of construction projects and their changes over time and provides a better understanding of how performance indicators interact with each other. Additionally, it can be used as a basis for simulating different management policies to find the best solution to prevent and correct the negative effects of poor performance.

Unintended Consequences of Productivity Improvement Strategies on Safety Behaviour of Construction Labourers; A Step toward the Integration of Safety and Productivity

The construction industry is facing constant pressure to improve its poor safety record and low productivity rate. A significant amount of research has been undertaken to identify the best practices to enhance productivity and safety. Nevertheless, the mainstream research in the field of construction focuses on one of these issues rather than implementing a holistic approach to resolve them. Consequently, the interactions between productivity and safety cannot be fully understood. Recent studies have demonstrated that management strategies and practices for improving labour productivity can trigger a series of unintended consequences that affect safety performance in construction projects. However, the behavioural aspects of these unintended consequences have yet to be investigated. This research addresses the gap by measuring the impacts of seven management strategies for improving labour productivity on the safety behaviour of construction labourers. A total of 191 construction labourers participated in a survey designed based on the Management Strategy Assessment Index (MSAI). The results show that the implemented management strategies for improving labour productivity have a greater impact on shaping safety compliance (SC) behaviours than safety participation (SP) behaviours of labourers. This study took a further step by breaking down the management strategies to their constitutive practices and measuring their impacts on SC and SP, and labour productivity. This paper provides further insight into the complex relationship between the productivity and safety behaviour of construction labourers. The findings can help project managers to improve labour productivity without harming their safety unintentionally.

Exploring Technical Decision-Making Risks in Construction Megaprojects Using Grounded Theory and System Dynamics

Technical decision-makings (TDMs) are a vital part of the decision-makings in construction megaprojects, facing high risks brought by technical complexity, dynamic environment, and subject cognition. Identifying technical decision-making risks (TDMRs) and exploring their interactions are important in megaproject management. Due to the high complexity of TDMs in megaprojects, TDMRs are complex and diverse. However, there is a lack of research on exploring the systematic TDMRs in megaprojects. To address this gap in knowledge, this paper aims to better understand the dynamic complexity of TDMRs in megaprojects by identifying the risks and exploring their interactions from a dynamic and systematic perspective. Grounded theory (GT) and system dynamics (SD) were adopted for this research. First, the GT was used to identify TDMRs in megaprojects and create a conceptual model depicting the relationships among TDMRs. Then, an SD model characterizing the causal structure of the TDMRs system in megaprojects is developed in both qualitative and quantitative manners. The developed model involves interrelationships among environmental risks, decision-making process risks, and decision-making execution process risks. After the validation of the model, a model simulation is conducted to predict the dynamic evolution process of the TDMRs. As a result, a multilayer risk list consisting of 42 index layer risk indicators, 13 field layer risk indicators, and 3 standard layer risk indicators is identified. The SD modeling results show that these multilevel TDMRs interact dynamically and have intricate influences on the total risk level of TDMs in megaprojects. The results of this study could be useful for decision-makers to identify and mitigate TDMRs in megaprojects.

Factors Influencing Safety on Construction Projects (fSCPs): Types and Categories

Due to the fact of activity, environment and work dynamics, the construction industry is characterised by high accident rates. Different initiatives have emerged to reduce these figures, which focus on using new methodologies and technologies for safety management. Therefore, it is essential to know the key factors and their influence on safety in construction projects (fSCPs) to focus efforts on these elements. Through a systematic literature review, based on PRISMA methodology, this article identifies, describes and categorises 100 factors that affect construction safety. It thus contributes by providing a comprehensive general framework, unifying previous studies focused on specific geographic areas or case studies with factors not considered or insufficiently disaggregated, along with an absence of classifications focused on understanding where and how factors affect the different dimensions of construction projects. The 100 factors identified are described and categorised according to the dimensions and aspects of the project in which these have an impact, along with identifying whether they are shaping or immediate factors or originating influences for the generation of accidents. These factors, their description and classification are a key contribution to improving the systematic creation of safety and generating training and awareness materials to fully develop a safety culture in organisations.

An analysis of occupational accidents involving national and international construction workers in Spain using the association rule technique

Worker safety awareness on construction sites is a major concern due to the hazardous work conditions. Additionally, globalization is increasing the cultural diversity of the workforce and this influences workers' attitudes, beliefs and behaviour. The growing number of migrant workers in this sector has become a distinctive feature of the industry's labour market. The objective of this article is to analyse occupational accidents that occurred on Spanish construction sites while taking into consideration the nationality of the workers. Due to the large number of accidents and attributes associated with them, the use of association rules is proposed. Overall, results evince similar behaviour, although interesting differences can be observed regarding the occupation of workers. In addition, the results are in accordance with previous studies carried out in other countries. The analysis of these accidents will serve to establish initiatives that provide safer work environments.

Influencing Factors, Mechanism and Prevention of Construction Workers' Unsafe Behaviors: A Systematic Literature Review

Unsafe behaviors of construction workers are one of the main causes of accidents at construction sites. The research on unsafe behaviors of workers helps to reduce the incidence of accidents and has attracted much attention. However, a systematic literature review in this field is still lacking, which hinders stakeholders' comprehensive understanding of the unsafe behaviors of construction workers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to address this research gap based on retrieved literature from the Web of Science. First, the study conducted a descriptive analysis of the year, quantity, publishing organization, and keywords of the literature. In addition, three research topics were identified and discussed, including the influencing factors of construction workers' unsafe behaviors, the formation mechanism of unsafe behaviors, and the pre-control methods of unsafe behaviors. Moreover, a research framework was proposed and future research directions were also suggested. The research findings promote stakeholders' understanding of the influencing factors, formation mechanism, and pre-control methods of construction workers' unsafe behaviors, and lead to future research directions in the studied field.