Author(s): Adnan Ali Enshassi, Rafiq Mohammed Choudhry, and Moheeb Abd- Abu Alqumboz
Article publication date: 2009-09-01
Vol. 27 No. 3 (yearly), pp. 139-155.
173
Keywords
Safety, productivity, construction, management.
Abstract
Safety in construction industry of Palestine still suffers from ignorance and lack of
supervision. This low consideration of safety importance caused escalation of accident rate in
construction projects. Also, construction productivity is not encouraging when low productivity is
causing delays in construction projects. The objective of this paper is to identify the productivity
factors that are most related to safety, and determine their relative importance as perceived by
contractors. A questionnaire survey, based on 28 identified productivity factors, grouped into 7 major
factor categories, was conducted. Responses from 61 personnel from contractors organizations
suggest that the following are the most important factors related to safety: ‘skillfulness of worker
improves safety’, ‘demonstrating daily activities to workers before start contributes to improving
safety’, ‘anticipated risks included in safety program in order to avoid accidents increases
productivity’, ‘accidents frustrate workers and create absenteeism which decrease productivity’, and
‘when foremen allocate tasks to workers, they consider safety measures’. The results also indicated
that ‘worker problems’ is the most important among productivity groups of factors followed by
‘safety program, ‘subcontractors, ‘inspection’, ‘personal protective equipment’, ‘factors improving
productivity’ and ‘local conditions’. Contractors are recommended to act strategically to protect
workers by continuously identifying, evaluating, and mitigating hazardous conditions, risky
activities, work locations and work condition on job site.