Read a Good Construction Safety Book Lately?

7 Responses to “Read a Good Construction Safety Book Lately?”

1. Tariq Says:
   February 6th, 2004 at 3:58 pm

   Hi Hal,

   There are books on construction safety by both academics and practitioners. Every single book of the 6 I have read is primarily driven by OSHA rules and compliance procedures. Some do take the time to explain the science and research behind some of the safety rules. I am not saying this as a criticism but rather as a fact.

   If you are looking for current state of construction safety or new thinking about safety, I think you are better off reading papers.

   Can you tell me more about what you are looking for?

   Regards,

   Tariq

2. Hal Says:
   February 6th, 2004 at 5:21 pm

   Thanks Tariq,

   I’m looking for the best of the conventional wisdom. I’m trying to get a handle on the commonsense that drives the existing practices. My larger aim is to reconstruct theory and practice. I’m giving myself the year to do it. Want to join in?

3. Bob Wells Says:
   February 6th, 2004 at 5:39 pm

   Hal,

   I’ve been involved with some very effective safety leadership programs. As far as reading material goes, some of the safety trade magazines would be a good place to find bibliographies.

   What has intrigued me is the behavioral focus now predominant. I have observed risk taking activies that, when analyized for root cause, were truly the outcome of complex behaviors.

   I have found that risk versus reward behaviors are a large part of safety incidents. Safety incidents are the outcomes of the total of the risks taken times their probability. The reward is either achieving the project deliverable, or, and perhaps these result in the most deadly outcomes, the reward is recognition or advancement within the organizational unit.

   Refer to Stanley Milgram’s experiment about authority, and you can see that organizational politics can result in some weird behavior. http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm is one summary review.

   I think that Lean Construction produced safer projects because it alters the demand for risk; it places the rewards (project objectives) in a more achievable setting.

4. Hal Says:
   February 6th, 2004 at 6:21 pm

   Hi Bob,

   Thanks for your comments. The behaviorist view is pervasive not just in safety but also in general society. We’ve come to think that people do things for a reason — a payoff — when they might just be doing. One of my interests in the literature is to get at some of that.

   Very little progress, if any, has been made in the last 12 years. Accident and mortality rates are virtually unchanged. Yet, we keep doing the same things we did 12 years ago. Like the project world in general, I expect a major rethink is required to produce a breakthrough in performance. I’m giving myself one year for that.

5. Gary Says:
   February 7th, 2004 at 5:01 am

   Hal, I think there is a similarity. When we start any project we expect to succeed (make money as opposed to satisfying the Customer) and when we go to the work site each day, we don’t expect to get hurt. But now it’s worse. We expect not to get hurt because OSHA has legislated protection for us.

   Until Lean is adopted and responsibilty is moved to the individual worker to perform and also stay safe, we will continue to have injuries. But of course OSHA would never trust an individual’s well-being to the individual.

   gary

6. Tariq Says:
   February 17th, 2004 at 3:05 pm

   Hi Hal…Sorry I’m responding this late to your comment above…I thought you will be reposnding by email and wehn I didn’t hear from you I checked back here to find your comment…

   Anyway, of course I would like to join you…I will pass on anything I find that fits your goal..Did you read the Rasmussen paper in IGLC 10 by Howell et al?
   Go to:
   http://www.cpgec.ufrgs.br/norie/iglc10/

   Regards,

   Tariq

7. muhammed Says:
   September 1st, 2006 at 1:08 am

   I need notes for construction management.I am going to to take the city & guilds examination .please help me.my email address is ahmadhussein92@yahoo.co.uk

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