Researched Argument

Construction safety is dependent on the behavior of the construction workers and the

support from the upper management of a construction company. Even though building an

adequate safety culture around the construction workers and upper management should be set as

a standard in construction safety, many construction companies do not execute it this way. In

fact, they do quite the opposite, leading to inadequate results. This causes discouragement and

prevents workers from exceeding their full potential. If construction workers feel unsafe in the

workplace, then it will lead to a lack of participation in training courses, a lack of

underrepresentation of injuries and fatalities, and suicide.

Training courses are designed for the betterment of the construction workers,

construction companies, and the project at hand. The quality of work and productivity is reliant

on the construction workers themselves, which is why at construction sites they can be low at

times because the opportunity to undergo extra training courses is not always taken by the

construction workers (Johari, et al., 2019). This also causes a major shortage of skilled workers,

making the work environment unsafe. The challenge is attracting workers to take part in these

training courses. The reasons for not taking the opportunity to undergo these trainings were that

the workers were not made aware, they feared stagnation in employment status, they feared the

status quo, they feared losing their jobs, and they were not able to access training facilities

(Johari, et al., 2019). The upper management of these construction companies are at fault here. In

these situations, they are not supporting their construction workers since they are not

implementing solutions to facilitate change for the betterment of everyone, causing them to not

perform as well if they did. It is also a grave problem when there is no relationship between the

upper management of a construction company and the construction company. As said before, the
upper management and the construction workers must work together to construct an ideal safety

culture at the workplace. This type of interaction is vital, especially considering the work

environment that they are is one of the most dangerous in the world.

Construction companies must report all injuries and fatalities that occur to construction

workers every year. The number of injuries and fatalities of construction workers is relatively

high; however, the rate of underreporting from construction workers is also very high (Moore, et

al., 2015). The reported high rate of injuries is inaccurate and even higher than previously

thought. This indicates that these construction workers are working in extremely unsafe

conditions. The poorer the safety climate, the higher number of underreportings. Reasons for not

reporting injuries were that some injuries were too small to report, injuries like these come with

the job, home treatments were sufficient in dealing with the pain, that they were afraid of losing

their jobs, they were afraid of falling behind in work, and they could not afford missing work

(Moore, et al., 2015). This not only shows the unsafe environment these workers are performing

in, but also the lack of empathy from the upper management. These construction companies care

more about production and profit, and less about the safety of the work environment and the

well-being of their own construction workers, hurting the workers and themselves.

When the well-being of the workers is not being taken care of or goes unnoticed, then

even worse consequences come about. The worse consequence being that a high number of male

construction workers commit suicide due to work (Milner, A., et al., 2017). These were men of

all ages and all work experiences, who later were diagnosed with some type of mental disorder.

They struggled and suffered every day, leaving them with what they thought was their only

choice. The main reasons for committing suicide were transient working experiences, workplace

injury, colleagues, and financial issues (Milner, A., et al., 2017). This further confirms the
extremely unsafe and stressful conditions of these construction sites, especially being in an

environment where they do not feel comfortable enough to address and share these major

problems with their upper management. The upper management is responsible for enforcing and

implementing effective safety programs, whereas in these circumstances, for example, it did not

uphold its requirements and duties, and, as a result, everyone involved was negatively affected.

The disconnection between the construction workers, the upper management, safety, and

production is evident. The construction industry as a whole must be made aware of this and

prioritize safety so that situations like these no longer occur, and that the cultural norms of

construction site safety can improve.

It is the responsibility of the upper management of a construction company to implement

good safety measures at a construction site, so that the workers can perform better and safely.

The stronger the relationship between the upper management and the construction workers are,

the stronger the safety climate will be, since both play a major role in it. Once the upper

management provides less support and commitment, the construction workers and the company

overall collapse.
 References

Johari, S., & Jha, K. N. (2019). Challenges of attracting construction workers to Skill
Development and training programmes. Vol. 1, no. 1. Engineering, Construction and
Architectural Management. Retrieved June 25, 2022, from
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ECAM-02-2019-0108/full/html
Milner, A., Maheen, H., Currier, D., & LaMontagne, A. D. (2017, June 19). Male suicide among
construction workers in Australia: A qualitative analysis of the major stressors
precipitating death. BMC public health. Retrieved June 24, 2022, from
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28629352/
Moore, J. T., Cigularov, K. P., Sampson, J. M., Rosecrance , J. C., & Chen, P. Y. (2015, January
8). Construction workers' reasons for not reporting work-related injuries: An exploratory
study. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics: JOSE. Retrieved June
24, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23498712/