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The training effect can be enhanced when trainees/learners interact with real-world environments and construct personal knowledge from those direct experiences. Leveraging such experiential learning strategies for occupational training has been widely discussed due to its effectiveness. The construction industry has also been focusing on experiential safety training to address the limitations in conventional classroom-based training, such as passive learning and limited interaction with actual physical hazards. Recently, government organizations and construction companies have started to operate safety training facilities, where trainees can physically experience the negative consequences of unsafe behaviors (without actual injuries). Although the effect of experiential safety training at those facilities has been anecdotally noted, no study has empirically investigated its effectiveness in enhancing trainees’ risk perception toward unsafe behaviors. To this end, this study examined the effectiveness of experiential safety training in enhancing construction managers’ risk perception toward workers’ unsafe behaviors and their intention to stop workers from working in dangerous situations. The results, based on answers to survey questions showing scene images of unsafe behavior related to the risk of a fall, show that construction managers who participated in experiential safety training perceived a higher risk regarding workers’ unsafe behaviors in less obviously risky situations, and exhibited a stronger intention to immediately stop workers from working in subtly unsafe conditions. This study contributes empirical evidence about the effectiveness of experiential safety training at safety training centers, thereby promoting the wide adoption of experiential safety training and advancing safety engineering and management strategies in the construction industry.
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The Association between Risk Perception and the Risk-Taking Behaviors of Construction Workers
The majority of human-factor models in construction safety assume that risk-taking behaviors, failure to perceive hazards, or misinterpreting the associated risks of hazards are the main contributing factors in accident occurrences. However, the findings for the link between risk-taking behaviors and risk perception are inconsistent. To address this knowledge gap, the current study focuses on measuring the association between risk perception and the risk-taking behaviors of construction workers. To achieve this objective, 27 undergraduate students from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with at least 1 year of experience in the construction industry were recruited to participate in an experiment. To measure risk perception, the subjects were asked to assess the risk—in terms of likelihood and severity—associated with various scenario statements related to fall hazards. Subsequently, subjects performed the balloon analogue risk task (BART), a computerized decision-making simulation, to test the subjects’ risk-taking behaviors. The results of a correlational analysis showed that there is a significant negative association between an individual’s risk perception of fall hazards and his/her risk-taking behaviors. Additionally, differences in the risk-taking behaviors of subjects evaluated against their risk-perception scores were examined using a permutation simulation analysis. The results showed that there is a moderately significant difference in the risk-taking behaviors of subjects with low and high fall-risk perception. The research findings provide empirical evidence that people with lower risk perception tend to engage in more risk-taking behaviors. Furthermore, this study is one of the first attempts at using BART in the assessment of risk taking in construction safety and paves the way for a better understanding the human factors that contribute to construction accidents.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1824238
- PAR ID:
- 10091749
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Construction Research Congress 2018
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 433 to 442
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481288.042
