2012/12/20 by Fred Sherratt, Peter Farrell, Rod Noble
Decision Sciences · Engineering · Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Business #Construction site safety #Documentation #Enforcement #Engineering #Engineering ethics #Hierarchy #Occupational Health and Safety Research #Political science #Public relations #Risk and Safety Analysis #Signage #Workforce #Workplace Violence and Bullying
paper · doi:10.1080/01446193.2012.747689
openalex publication_date 2012/12/20 · crossref created 2012/12/20 · crossref issued 2013/06/01 · crossref published 2013/06/01 · crossref published-print 2013/06/01 · crossref deposited 2019/07/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/08/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Developments in safety management on large UK construction sites have seen a paradigm shift from enforcement-based systems to safety-culture programmes, which seek to engage with the workforce to create fully cooperative and safety-conscious sites. Founded in social constructionism, recent research sought out the master discourses of safety on large UK construction sites through the examination of safety signage, talk around safety and safety documentation. Two of the most prominent discourses of safety on sites were found to be safety as enforcement and safety as engagement, reflecting the change in safety management strategies. These discourses were found to be interrelated in their constructions of safety, yet also varied in their associations with practice, responsibility, social interactions and the management hierarchy of the sites. These findings develop the current understanding of safety found on sites, with relation to the hierarchical structures of safety management and the discourses of enforcement and engagement in practice. The findings have significance for the safety practices of large UK contractors in developing and improving their safety-culture programmes, as well as suggesting potential new directions in the academic research of safety in construction.