A Cognitive Perspective on the Safety Communication Factors That Affect Worker Behavior

Abstract

Communication is vital for construction safety, but how it influences unsafe behavior in the workplace remains unclear. This study aims to explore the relationships between communication, cognitive failure, and unsafe behaviors in order to clarify those mechanics. We defined communication as management input, worker cognitive failure as process, and actual behaviors as management output. We collected data from three Chinese steel construction crews and utilized experience/behavior sampling and questionnaire surveys to collect project information. Bivariate statistical analyses were conducted to explain how communication affected unsafe behavior. The results showed that, rather than communication frequency, management communication style was significantly related to worker cognitive failure; specifically, communication style was related to perception of convenience and self-capacity, which could be upstream factors explaining unsafe behavior at the construction jobsite. This research provided statistical evidence supporting the hypothesized association among safety communication, cognitive failure, and behavior, bridging the missing gaps of previous research. Nonetheless, readers should interpret the results cautiously because of the limitations listed as follows. First, sample size is relatively small. In addition, crew turnover may mediate the relationship between communication and safe behaviors therefore, the impact of communication on cognitive failure can be blurred and a longitudinal study on specific crews working on the same job site could be used to evaluate it. Third, future research should focus on communication style, as it directly relates to the human cognitions that affect unsafe behavior at construction sites.

Factors Associated with Unsafe Behavior in Rotary Lathe Section of Wood Industry PT. IAW Tarakan

“…Communication of health and safety associate with unsafe behavior at work. The results of this study are in line with previous studies by Liau et al, 10 showing that rather than communication frequency, management communication style was significantly related to worker cognitive failure; specifically, communication style related to perception of convenience and self-capacity, which could be upstream factors explaining unsafe behavior at the construction jobsite.…”

Evaluating the Impacts of Health, Social Network and Capital on Craft Efficiency and Productivity: A Case Study of Construction Workers in China

“…Meanwhile, the relationship is estimated as not significant as shown in Table 5 , which reflects that the group and team communication would be more important than individual communication [ 134 ]. Furthermore, frequent occupational health and safety education training could strengthen health self-protection [ 135 ]. Therefore, the relationship between a 11 and a 1 should be added.…”

Effectiveness of occupational health and safety training

“…Improvement of behavior and health are ambitious objectives and the mere training is probably not enough to induce significant effects. There is evidence that shows the importance of management communication style and communication frequency on workers’ cognitive failure, in relation to perception of convenience (Liao et al , 2014).…”