Understanding the Causation of Construction Workers’ Unsafe Behaviors Based on System Dynamics Modeling

Abstract

The unsafe behaviors of construction workers are often the immediate causes of construction accidents, but the underlying causation of such behaviors are not well understood. This research regards the management of construction safety as a system, and seeks to use system dynamics to demonstrate how the system influences construction workers in terms of unsafe behaviors. First, individual and environmental conditions that can lead to an unsafe behavior are identified through a holistic cognitive analysis and management conditions that affect such conditions are identified. Second, a system dynamics model for the causation of unsafe behaviors (SD-CUB) is developed to characterize the causal structure of the system. The SD-CUB model involves relationships among management, individuals, and environmental conditions that can eventually lead to workers' unsafe behaviors. Third, a variety of model tests are conducted to build the confidence of the SD-CUB model. A five-week survey and observation on a building construction project is conducted to demonstrate that the SD-CUB model generates correct patterns of behavior. The model tests also imply that safety and production can actually support each other, management conditions on supervisory level are effective on the improvement of workers' safety awareness, and preventive actions are more effective than reactive actions on the enhancement of safety performance. The SD-CUB model can also be used as a basis for simulation of various site scenarios to explore the best solution to prevent and correct unsafe behaviors, and by redesigning the causal structure, the leverage points and critical management strategies can be determined.

A system dynamics approach in modeling organizational tradeoffs in safety management

“…However, the causal relationships in the present model have been grounded in earlier system dynamics studies and most notably the work of Cooke (), which was based on the public inquiry of the Westray Mine incident. Further, many of the human and organization patterns of behavior have been based on earlier work on organizational archetypes as applied to system safety (Guo et al, ; Kontogiannis, ; Marais et al, ; Jiang e al., ). The present study contributes to the emerging trend of system dynamics modeling that takes into account the delays and nonlinear relationships between subsystems.…”

“…Finally, the third body of studies have developed quantitative models of systems, examined organizational tradeoffs, and looked into the evolution of risk over time (Bouloiz et al, ; Cooke, ; Lyneis & Madnick, ; Wang et al, ). In particular, David Cooke has been a leading figure in developing system dynamics models of mine safety and was followed by a number of recent studies in mine safety (Gang, Guo‐tong, & Tian‐bo, ; Jiang, Fang, & Zhang, ; Shin, Lee, Park, Moon, & Han, )…”

A Construction Safety Management System from Contractors’ Perspectives

“…Jiang et al (2014) adopted a system dynamics method and analyze the relationships between individual factors (e.g., safety awareness, safety knowledge, and attitude), environmental factors (e.g., hazards), management factors (e.g., communication, check, and training), and workers' unsafe behavior. Then he verified that preventive measurements are more effective to reduce workers' unsafe behavior than emergency measurements.…”

System Dynamics Modelling Process in Water Sector: a Review of Research Literature

“…As noted earlier, an SD model is able to explore the impact of feedback loops on the system (Rehan et al ., ). Furthermore, SD has demonstrated its superiority over other simulation tools in highlighting the feedback and complex interactions between different elements, where causes and effects are indiscernible (Jiang et al ., ). As a result, many researchers and practitioners in water sector have successfully adopted the SD approach, covering a wide variety of topic areas, which is growing rapidly.…”