Structural equation modelling of business sustainability for large building contractors with occupational safety and health management systems certification in Klang Valley Malaysia

Sue, Har (2024) Structural equation modelling of business sustainability for large building contractors with occupational safety and health management systems certification in Klang Valley Malaysia. PhD thesis, UTAR.

Preview

PDF Download (3924Kb) | Preview

Abstract

Despite many improvements in the prevention of fatalities in construction industry, the fatality rates in Malaysian construction industry continue at an unacceptable rate. Poor Safety Measure Practices, were the main cause of workers’ high fatality. These practices were, lack of Safety Rules & Procedures, Unsafe Working Conditions and Unsafe Acts. The purpose of this study is to investigate the aforesaid practices that cause the incidents, simultaneously on how these practices that will influence the safety performance, financial performance and company competitiveness. The objectives are to examine the relationship among safety rules & procedure, supportive environment, safe acts, adoption of Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS), safety performance, financial performance and company competitiveness of OHSMS Certified companies. Field survey was conducted using quota sampling, a self-administrated questionnaire at 33 project sites consisting of 401 respondents within the safety management team members in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The data analysis was carried out using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) SPSS Amos (V21) of IBM. The findings show that Safety Rules & Procedures, Safety Acts are positively related to Adoption of OHSMS, the adoption of OHSMS is positively related to Safety Performance, and Safety Performance are positively related to Financial Performance and Company Competitiveness. In addition, Company Competitiveness is found to mediate the effect of Safety Performance and Financial Performance. Consequently, this study proposes that an effective OHSMS assists the project to maintain an accident-free workplace and be able to negate inferior company image by the public and authorities. Top management and project managers need to re-think the current conservative approach to run the projects where safety issues are fully responsible by the safety team. Top management need to top-up resources to manage safety as like other functions of the business. Project managers need to manage safety besides the other functions of the organization such as production, maintenance, marketing, and finance to achieve business objectives.

Actions (login required)