Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Life is the mist precious thing in the world. The word “Safety First” is commonly noted in almost
every construction site. It reminds the workers of safety practice on every move during working hours.
Most of the accidents can be prevented. By following the safety rules and regulations, accident can be
substantially reduced. This means that workers are required to work with discipline and greater
awareness.

In this highly competitive world of today’s business, safety has often been compromised for
productivity. This can largely be observed in the construction industry. Although advance technology
has been introduced to this industry, it still lacks of proper application. Otherwise, an increase or
damage can supersede productivity.

A penny for prevention is worth a pound for curing. Damages caused by accidents are not only
costly, they also affect productivity. Therefore safety management becomes vital to the organization.
This study is intended to examine this phenomenon.

Background of the study

It is important to realize that the basic causes of accident are poor technique, faulty
management, and lack of attention (Bateman, King and Lewis 1996). Poor technique could result from
lack of knowledge and training while faulty equipment is mainly from insufficient maintenance. These
two basic causes are indicative of a lack of technology control. Lack of attention is depending on either
poor attitudes of employees or inadequate supervision of the management.

Discipline of worker is often to follow the rules and regulations. There are always numerous
safety rules in every construction site. In most instances, violation of safety rules does not automatically
lead to damage or injury. An example would be getting the job done in a hasty, careless and
unprofessional manner. More than often there was no regret in violating safety rules unless an accident
actually occurred.

Accidents during construction vary depending on the nature if the job, such as falling from
elevated levels, being hit by falling objects, collapse of unstable temporary structures, accidents while
operating equipment, electrocution, fires, etc. It is very difficult to quantify in money term when the
accident resulted in death or permanent disability.
Table 1.1 Work Related Accidents in Thailand
Table 1.2 Report of work related accidents in Thailand. Year 1995

Source: Compensation Fund Office

Data collected by National Safety Council
Table 1.3 Report of work related accidents in Thailand. Year 1996

Source: Compensation Fund Office

Data collected by National Safety Council

In Thailand, the trend of total number of accident in the workplace rises progressively and
alarmingly. Withholding moral and humanitarian arguments, the cost of those accidents is an
unproductive drain. Furthermore, today’s rapid changes in machine, materials, process and way of
working have multiplied the area of risk. Preventive strategy would certainly be a better option for
safety management.

Statement of the Problem

The major problem of this study is stated thus: How do the personal profile, work related factors
and technology related factors and work discipline influence the safety assessment of the building
construction in Bangkok and metropolitan area in 1998. Specifically it seeks to answer the following
questions.
1.) What is the distribution of the respondents in terms of age, sex, educational attainment, and
awareness of Laws, rules, and regulations?
 2.) What is the distribution incident of accidents in terms of safety level?
3.) What is the relationship between the incidence of accidents and personal profile, work
related factors, technology related factors, and the work discipline?
4.) What variables may be used to predict the safety assessment level?
5.) How will the result of the study be utilized to improve the safety management?

Scope of the Study

This study was focused on the determination of personal profile, work related factors,
technology related factors, and work discipline that influence the safety assessment of the workers in 10
building construction sites in Bangkok and the metropolitan area. The investigation period was during
March and June, 1998.
The dependent variable was safety assessment indicated by the incidence of accidents in the
workplace measured from number of accidents occurring in a period of 30 days regardless of degree of
damage they caused.
The independent variables were summarized in 4 groups’ namely personal profile, work related
factors, technology related factors, and work discipline. Personal profile consisted of age, sex, marital
status, educational attainment, awareness of safety rules and regulations. Second variable was work
related factors including nature of work, work experience, work attitude, and work environment. Third
variable was Technology related factors including construction and personal protective equipment, and
construction technique. The last variable in this investigation was work discipline which was measured
by the adherence to rules and regulations in the workplace.
The data obtained are mostly perceptions from the respondents and actual observations of the
researcher, except for data about age, sex, and educational attainment. The data including safety
knowledge, safety awareness, obedient to the rules, opinion on their job and their working environment
were drawn from the perception of the respondents. Site condition, availability of equipment and
facility, and construction technique were evaluated base on the researcher’s observation and
investigation. The accident records were obtained from the construction site offices.

Chapter II
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

This chapter presents a review of related literature, the definition of variable in this study, the
conceptual framework, the research hypotheses, and the operational definition of terms.

Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework expressed in terms of relationship between variables is shown in the
research paradigm diagram. The model was designed to process on two stages:
The first stage was done by surveying using questionnaire targeting candidates that are involved
in construction. The aim was to establish that safety measured from the incidence of accidents in the
work place, depends on personal profile, work related factors, work discipline, and technology related
factors.
 Based on the result of the first stage, the safety program was developed. The management plan
was implemented concurrently in two construction sites, to verify its effectiveness.

Research Hypotheses

The study hypothesized that:

1. The safety assessment is significantly related with personal profile, work related factors, work
discipline, and technology related factors.

2. The safety management assessment is predicted singly or in combination by personal profile,

work related factors, work discipline, and technology related factors.

Definition of Operational Terms

Personal Profile

Educational Attainment- means the highest level of education achieved by respondents.

Awareness of the laws, rules and regulations – refers to appreciation and obedience of the rules and
regulations of a person. Measurement will be made on the attention the person pays to the existing
rules in the work place.

Work Related Factors

Nature of work – refers to function or position or technical field of job a person work on such as
electrical, mechanical, welding, masonry, carpentry, painting, furnishing, machine operating, etc.

Work Experience – is indicated by the number of years a person has been working in a particular field or
position.

Work attitude – refers to the feeling s and beliefs that a person has towards one’s job monitoring on job
satisfaction, job stability, etc.

Work environment – in this study will give emphasis on the safety concern. The measurement will be
made both from the worker point of view and inspection from the researcher.

Work Discipline – refers to self-discipline, which is a personal action to follow the enforced safety rules
and regulations.

Technology Related Factors

Construction Equipment – includes any machinery, appliance, apparatus, or tool and any assembly of
components. In the construction context this includes hand tools, power machinery, cartridges and
cartridges tools, scaffolding, site vehicles and many other pieces of equipment. This is measured by
availability of the equipment.

Personal Protective Equipment – refers to personal equipment required by regulation or caution to

protect against risk, which cannot be avoided by other means. This is measured by the availability of the
equipment.

Construction Technique – refers to the application of the technical knowledge in construction

procedure. Measured by the adequacy of the technical staffs and engineers, construction sequent, and
information with plan.

Safety Assessment – is measured by the number of accident during a month period. The degree of each
incident, with classification varies from no damage, to permanent disability, all the way to death.
 Chapter III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the research design, the population and sample, the data gathering
instrument, the data gathering procedure, the data processing and statistical treatment applied in
analyzing the data.

Research Design

Stage I

The study is a descriptive research using normative survey method with the workers as the unit
of analysis. It attempts to investigate the factors affecting the safety of the workers in 10 building
construction sites in Bangkok and metropolitan area.

Stage II

From the finding of the first stage of the investigation, the action research was conducted to
develop safety training program and safety management plan. This safety management plan was
implemented concurrently to 2 selected construction sites in order to verify the effectiveness of the
implementation.

Population and Sample

The population of this study will include architects, engineers, foreman, technicians, equipment
operators, skilled workers, and unskilled labors in 10 building construction sites in Bangkok and
metropolitan area. The sample were draw from 10 selected building construction sites, using random
sampling with 20 respondents from each construction site as shown in table 3.1.
Data Gathering Instruments

Questionnaire, checklist and documentary analysis will be used to collect essential data.

This questionnaire consisted of 2 parts. The first part contained their personal details and safety
awareness. Personal detail includes sex, age, marital status, educational attainment, field of work, and
experience in the field of construction. Safety awareness includes safety knowledge, awareness of safety
rules and regulations work discipline, work attitude and work environment. All categories were checklist
using Likert 5 scale from one to five respectively: strongly disagree, disagree, no comment, agree, and
strongly agree.

The second part of the questionnaire contained the safety inspection, observed by the
researcher. The safety inspection included site condition, equipment and facility, and construction
technique. The score given for these categories for each construction site were checked by the
researcher following the list.

The incidence of accidents recorded from each construction office during 30 days period. The
accidents were classified into five level of damage namely: without damage, only property damage,
minor injury involve, over three days hospitalization injury, and permanent disability or death. Most of
the data gathered were perception, except those facts from personal profile.

Data Gathering Process

The questionnaire was completed by respondents in 10 selected building construction sites.

The surveyor inspected the site environment, equipment, facilities and construction technique.
 The accident records were collected from the construction offices.

Statistical Treatment

Pearson Product Moment of Correlation and Multiple Regression were the statistical tools used
to determine how personal profile, work related factors, work discipline, and technology related factors
could influence the safety assessment of the workers in 10 building construction sites.

Formulation and Validation of Action

This survey revealed the variables significantly influence workers’ safety that can be used as a
guide to formulate a safety management program. However, additional knowledge from referable
sources is essential in order to validate the design of a safety program. Some basic strategies in the field
of organizational behavior and human resource management were recommended.

After the result indicated that discipline of workers should be improved, an experimental
operation plan was recommended to 2 construction sites. Adopted in this plan, are a typical
construction safety rules and regulations. The accident data collected during the third month after the
plan was in operation was used in the analysis.
 Chapter IV

PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

This chapter presents the analysis and interpretation of data on the basis of the research
questions and problems set forth in this study.

I. Profile of the Respondents

This study investigated the profile of the workers in 10 building construction sites in Bangkok
and metropolitan area conducted during March and June, 1998. It included their sex, age, marital status,
educational attainment and awareness of safety rules and regulations.

Table 4.1 shows the distributions of the respondents in terms of sex. As shown, 139 out of 200
or 69.5 are male while the remaining 61 persons or 30.5 are female. This simply indicates as expected,
that there are more male workers than female workers in the building construction sites.

Figure 4.1 Distribution

of Respondents by sex

Female
31%
Male
69%
 The data in table 4.2 show the majority of the respondents’ age range between 26 and 30 years
old. The rest are as follows: 64 construction workers or 32% of the respondents were younger than 26
years old. 76 workers or 38 % of the respondents were older than 31 years old. Only 1 worker or 0.5% of
the respondents is older than 60 years old. Construction workers often need to move from one project
to another. As they get older, they tend to settle for a more stationary job.
 The distribution of the respondents by marital status is shown in table 4.3. Married workers are
124 out of 200 or 62.0%, while the single workers are 71 out of 200 or 35.5%, and 5 workers or 2.5% are
divorced or separated. It was also found that most of the married couples work together in the same
construction site.

Table 4.4 shows the distribution of the workers educational attainment. 96 out of 200 or 48% of
the workers received only primary school education. The rest as follows: no education 2.5%, secondary
school graduates 10.5%, certificate level graduates 3%, Diploma holders 16.5%, Bachelor degree holders
17.5 %, and only one worker with the higher-educational degree or 0.5%
 There is no established method to measure the degree of awareness of rules and regulations
the workers have there in working mind. Table 4.5 shows the level of awareness of rules and
regulations. The average mean score of 3.75 indicates that awareness of the rules and regulations are on
the positive side with standard deviation of 0.88. The mean score as high as 4.00 for the statement that
safety is their top concern indicates an acceptable awareness to the rules and regulations in their work
place although lower degree of acceptance for them on working with personal protective equipment.
II. Work Related Factors

Nature of work. Nature of work may be clearly identified by the field of work or the position the workers
occupied. Table 4.6 shows the distribution of the respondent positions. The data shown that from the
total number of 200 respondents, there were 20 certified engineers or 10% of the total, 32 foremen or
16%, 23 carpenters or 11.5%, 20 masons or 10%, 11 concrete reinforcing steel bar workers or 5.5%, 4
plumber or 2%, 1 electrician or 0.5%, 15 unskilled labors or 17.5%, and 54 other position in construction
site or 27%.
Work Experience. Work experience is the length of time a worker has been working in particular field.
The outcome from this survey indicated scatter result. Table 4.7 indicate that 90 out of 200 respondents
or 45% have over 5 years of work experience while 65% have been working for at least 3 years. 13% are
the new workers with experience less than a year. The average mean score of this category is 4.29.
Work Attitude. In this study, the work attitudes on safety measured by monitoring the respondent
perception on their job. Table 4.8 shows the perception that reflects the work attitude of the workers.
The average mean score of 3.41 with standard deviation 0.84 indicates good safety consideration in
working attitude upon safety consideration. 67.5%of the respondent would rather trade off their work
effectiveness for safety reason. As for accepting the company rules, the result shows 69.5%.

Work Environment. The survey indicates the respondent opinion on their construction site environment.
The average mean score of 3.63 reflects the worker believes that their work place is reasonably safe.
The standard deviation is 0.99 which indicates homogeneity of data. Furthermore, the respondents
agree that the access in their workplace is safe enough. The lowest score is on the question asking if
safety inspections are normally done.
III. Worker Discipline

Work discipline was inversely questioned on the questionnaires in order to reveal the truth with
lesser hesitation. For discipline workers, score lower than 3.00 is expected. Table 4.10 indicates
moderate degree of the respondent discipline. The highest score is on the acceptance that most workers
in their work place omit to wear the safety equipment while the lowest one on that they are
uncomfortable to wear the safety equipment.
IV. Technology Related Factors

Construction Equipment and Personal Protective Equipment

The check lists were checked by the surveyor on 9 categories believed to affect safety. They are:

 Availability of Safety Equipment

 Equipment are well maintained
 Equipment operators are well trained
 Equipment are suitable for their purpose
 Shelter is provided against falling objects
 Fence is provided against falling off
 Ladders and scaffolds are properly installed
 Adequacy of facilities
 The score awarded by the researcher based upon his judgment for each category. Among 10
construction sites investigated, the top 2 sites qualified only in 3 out of the 8 categories listed. Most of
the sites are found to satisfy only 2 categories.

The result from the researcher’s perception can be described in detail as follows:

 9 out of 10 selected sites were acceptable for the condition of the equipment.
 5 sites were acceptable for the fencing
 3 sites were satisfactory for shelter provision
 2 sites installed ladders and scaffolds properly
 Only one site has well trained equipment operator.

Table 4.11 shows the distribution of the availability of site equipment and facilities.
Construction Technique. The site construction technique was checked by the surveyor, and the result
tabulated in the table 4.12. Only one site was qualified for all 5 categories on the list. Most construction
sites only managed to earn 2 out of 5.

V. Safety Assessment

In this study, safety assessment is measured in terms of the incidence of accidents in the work
place during the period of 30 days. The higher the number of accidents occurred implied a lower safety
assessment.

The data in table 4.13 was collected from the respondents. It describes the degree of damage in
term of injury. 86% of the accidents involved no damage at all, 12% involved minor injury, and 1.5%
involved only property damage. Only 0.5% of the cases were as serious as permanent disability or death.
 The numbers of accidents, during the period of 30 days shows in the Table 4.14 were collected
from the site office report.

VI. Influence of Personal Profile, Work Related Factors, Work Discipline, and Technology Related Factors
on Safety Assessment.

The Relationship between Personal Profile and Safety

Sex, education attainment, and awareness of rules and regulations were the three variables
significantly correlated to incident of accidents in the building construction sites. The first variable
correlated with 0.05 significant level while the others two variables showed stronger significant level up
to 0.01. This can be explained that female has more tendencies to involve accident in the construction
site. The workers with higher education attainment and greater awareness of safety rules faced less
accident.
The Relationship between Work Related Factors and Safety

Work attitude and work environment were the two variables correlated the incident of
accidents with significant level. This finding verifies that better work attitude lead workers to approach a
hazardous situation more safely. As for work environment, the number of accident was less in sites with
better work environment. Therefore, it can be concluded that better work attitude and environment can
improve safety.

The Relationship between Work Discipline and Safety

The questionnaire in this topic were negatively questioned to reduce hesitation, a lower score
means better discipline. The positive correlation points out that adherence to the rules and regulations
can reduce the number of accident.

In Summary the variables significantly correlated safety are sex, educational attainment, awareness of
rules and regulations, work attitude, work environment, and work discipline.

Safety Management Program – A Trial Study

The findings in this survey, revealed that sex, educational attainment, awareness of rules and
regulations, work attitude, work environment, and work discipline were the variables significantly
influence safety. To develop safety program, it is necessary to focus on how to improve these six
mentioned factors. Sex is the only variable that workers that cannot improve. Management could
however assign male workers to the particular job. Other influencing variables can be improved by
taking extra actions in area listed as follows:

 Providing safety information to acknowledge all individual involved.

 All rules and regulations in the place are strictly applied in order to stimulate the awareness
upon safety.
 Providing safe environment by keeping the working area tidy and clean.
 Incentive and disciplinary action must be applied to reflect both appreciation and penalty.

The recommendations to improve those safety influencing factors are:

1. Safety Training Program

According to the basic principle of human resource development, training has always been used
as a tool to fill in the needs for perfection.

Safety training program must emphasize not only on passing down the safety rules but creating
an impact in trainees’ actual behavior.

2. Safety Management Plan

The target of the plan is to provide safe work environment for the people and surrounding.
 Providing the safe environment must be included in the management plan such as keeping the
passage clean and clear, shelter and rail provision and adequately provide and maintain the safety
equipment.

Chapter V

SUMMARY, CONLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the summary of findings, the corresponding conclusions and the
subsequent recommendations in the light problems set in the study.

Summary

This study focused on the determination of personal profile, work related factors, work
discipline, and technology related factors that influence the safety assessment of workers in 10 building
construction site in Bangkok and metropolitan area during March and June, 1998.

The major problem of this study was: How do the personal profile, work related factors, work
discipline, and technology related factors influence the safety assessment of the workers in building
construction sites? Especially, it sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents?

2. What is the extent of the safety assessment in terms of the incidence of accidents in the work
place?

3. To what extent is safety assessment related by personal profile, work related factors, work
discipline, and technology related factors?

4. To what extent is the safety assessment predicted by personal profile, work related factors,
work discipline, and technology related factors?

The hypotheses of the study were:

1. The safety assessment is significantly related by personal profile, work related factors, work
discipline, and technology related factors.

2. The safety assessment is significantly predicted by personal profile, work related factors, work
discipline, and technology related factors.

The researcher Constructed Questionnaires was the main instrument used in gathering data.
Descriptive statistics was used in general description of the respondents. Main source of accident data
were obtained from the records of the construction offices. Site condition and facilities were checked by
the researcher.

Safety Assessment. The majority of accidents which occurred during the construction period of
30 days were accidents which cause no damage (74.8%). The average numbers of accident from all the
sites were 3.7 times per month.

The Related Factors to Safety Assessment. Considering the correlation coefficient, the variables
significantly correlated to safety assessment are: age, educational attainment, awareness of rules and
regulations, work attitude, work environment, and work discipline.

Conclusions

The following findings partially support the hypothesis posited in chapter II which states that:

1. The Safety assessment in building construction sites is significantly related to sex, educational
attainment, awareness of rules and regulations, work attitude, work environment, and work discipline.

2. The safety assessment is significantly predicated by construction equipment and personal

protective equipment, construction technique, educational attainment, and work environment.

Base on the variable found to influence safety, further research into developing strategies
toward accidents reduction are needed in the following fields:

1. Safety training program

2. Safety Management Plan

In this research only safety management program implementation experiment was conducted.
The result showed unanimously, that accident rates were tremendously reduced.

Recommendation

On the basis of the finding s and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are
set forth:

1. Safety Training Program. The finding based on Pearson Product Moment of Correlation indicated that
individual characteristic such as sex, education attainment; awareness, attitude, and discipline reflect
number of accident detected. Safety training program provided for employee should emphasize not only
how to improve specific knowledge on safe work procedure for each particular area that a trainee
needs. Therefore, the safety training program must influence trainees to take active safety measures
rather that just acknowledging safety rules and regulations.

A practical training program must be concise and cost effective. This will enable the company to
benefit on developing, even the short term employees. An example of training program that could be
finish in three days is as follow.

First day: Safety Orientation

1. General lecture targets safety knowledge such as safety rules and regulations, and improves
safe working attitude.

2. Pictures or video presentation on causes or accident and preventive measures.

Second and third days: Trainees would be grouped into their respective field of work such as mason,
carpenter, etc.

1. Brief safety working procedure and the use of safety protective equipment.

2. Hand on practice focusing on safety.

Professional safety teams who can transfer knowledge and experience correctly and effectively should
deliver the training.

2. Safety management plan. The management plan such as the one designed for this experiment gave
satisfactory result on accident reduction. The main focuses of the plan are:

1. Inform everyone in the work place about safety rules and regulations enforced.

2. Top management must show extra concern about safety policy. All level of management must
be encouraged to strictly adhere to follow the safety rules.

3. The plan must be kept active throughout the construction period. Safety must be inserted in
regular meeting agenda.

4. Providing incentive or punishment to convince employee to follow safety procedure.

3. Application to Technology and Equipment. Based on the finding that construction technique,
construction equipment, and safety facility are the predicators of safety assessment, the company
management ought to choose the best equipment with higher technology, and consider an appropriate
construction technique for their sites.

4. Further Studies. It is recommended that further studies can be considered on:

4.1 Training Program of the workers in building construction sites: Input to Safety
 4.2 Similar studies on safety assessment of workers considering other variables that are not
included in this study such as the incidence of accidents in the period of half year or one year, etc.

4.3 Comparison between the safety assessment in building construction sites in Bangkok and
other big provinces.

Questionnaires

Part 1
Part 2
Illustrated Pictures
 TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES
Ayala Blvd. corner San Marcelino St. Ermita, Manila
COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY

A DISSERTAION ENTITLED
Discipline of Workers and Technology Application in Building
Construction Site:
Inputs to Safety

By Thaworn Thirawetchayan

Presented by:
Gabrielle Keith M. Galvez
BT-CET 4B
14-003-108

Submitted to:

Prof. Edmundo Nicolas

Instructor