Citation

Berglund L, Johansson J, Johansson M, Nygren M, Stenberg M. Heliyon 2023; 9(9): e18679.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18679

PMID

37681136

PMCID

PMC10480591

Abstract

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.

Language: en

Keywords

Safety management; Safety culture; Safety training