A comparative study of management safety justice in Sub-Sahara Africa. (November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sharon, Jatau T.; Fidelis, Emuze A.; John, Smallwood J.
• Is Part Of: Safety science. Volume 155(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-11
• Subjects: Construction -- Developing Countries -- Just-culture -- Management -- Health and Safety -- Workers; Industrial accidents -- Periodicals; Accident Prevention -- Periodicals; Safety -- Periodicals; Travail -- Accidents -- Périodiques; 363.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105891
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0925-7535

Abstract

Highlights: Safety justice in construction must be improved. Mixed methods in construction related studies. NOSACQ-50 has shown wide acceptability in safety and health studies globally. Low levels of safety justice impact workers error reporting and job satisfaction. Nigeria and South Africa are strong contributors to the continent's GDP. Abstract: A 'just culture' in a high-risk work environment empowers workers to report unsafe acts because it always seeks to balance safety and accountability. It is a culture of trust and learning that guides management responses to accidents. The advantage of a just culture that is herein called management safety justice (MSJ) is a motivation to deploy it on construction sites. The purpose of the reported study was to measure MSJ in construction to explore ideas about restorative justice that limit unsafe acts. The data were collected from 276 construction professionals from Nigeria and South Africa in an explanatory-sequential mixed methods research. Both countries account for a major size of the gross domestic product (GDP) and construction activities in the region. MSJ was measured using the NOSACQ-50 instrument. With Cronbach Alpha of 0.85, the findings reveal that both countries scored low when assessed on the NOSACQ-50 with grand means of 2.73 (Nigeria) and 2.83 (South Africa). Further, the participants stated that workers who engage in safety deviance were outrightly removed from site suggesting that management may favour penalties as opposed to a just approach. In essence, the results show that the application of MSJ is limited on constructions sites in both countries. The limited MSJ may suggest poor job satisfaction levels and encourage workers to cover accidents and near misses. The study also identified a dearth in the MSJ literature, especially in construction-related studies and recommends a deliberate conversation among scholars until a model, which motivates error reporting in construction is realized.