Articles
| Open Access |
DOI: Effects of Occupational Accidents on the Job Performance of Construction Firm Workers
Afia Agyemang-Beniako , Technical Operations Department, Food and Drug Authority, Kumasi Ghana. Sabastian Samuel Kwesi , Department of Public Health Education, University of Education Winneba, Winneba Ghana. Nicholas Kojo Njada , Department of Public Health Education, University of Education Winneba, Winneba Ghana Claudia Andoh Mensah , Technical Operations Department, Ghana Standards Authority, Kumasi GhanaAbstract
Study background: Incidents of accidents at construction sites are higher in developing countries than in developed countries. The construction industry comprises several people with different backgrounds and different tasks performed by them. This study examined the effect of the occupational accidents on job performance of a construction firm.
Materials and methods: Structured questionnaires enclosing questions on demographic characteristics, general knowledge of safety and legalities, accident occurrence, safety management systems were administered to 110 workers of the construction firm. Computed data were subjected to some statistical analyses such as Chi-square and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (r) and visualised in tables, graph and scatter plot.
Results: The results of the study revealed that males dominated with 84.5 % while females were estimatedly 15 %. Majority (40%) possessed secondary school qualification whereas 6 % had no formal education. It was revealed that, a higher knowledge of safety legalities whereas low records of accidents were recorded among the construction workers of the firm indicating a good safety management system. The result established a weak negative correlation (r= -0.164) between accident and job performance (labor productivity) and a statistically not significant association between the accident occurrence and absenteeism as (χ2 = 0.4291, p > 0.512) and a significant association between nature of accident and absenteeism (χ2 =6.7360, p < 0.009).
Conclusion and recommendation: The study concludes that a good safety management system and a positive employee attitude would reduce absenteeism, and occupational accidents and further increase labor productivity as demonstrated in the conceptual framework.
Keywords
References
Adebola, J. O. (2014) 'Knowledge , Attitude and Compliance with Occupational Health and Safety Practices among Pipeline Products and Marketing Company ( PPMC ) Staff in Lagos', 2(8), pp. 158–173.
Akyuz, E. and Celik, M. (2014) 'Utilisation of cognitive map in modelling human error in marine accident analysis and prevention', SAFETY SCIENCE. Elsevier Ltd, 70, pp. 19–28. doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2014.05.004.
Alhajeri, M. H. (2014) 'Health and safety in the construction industry : challenges and solutions in the UAE'.
Arachchige, A. W. and Ranasinghe, M. (2015) 'STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF ACCIDENTS ON CONSTRUCTION'.
Arunkumar, K. and Gunasekaran, J. M. E. (2018) 'Causes and Effects of Accidents on Construction Site', 8(6), pp. 18102–18110.
Bhosale, C. D. and Biswas, A. P. (2015) 'Absenteeism in Construction Industry : Causes , Correlation and Remedies', International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Technology, 3(6), pp. 215–218.
Bowen, P., Cattell, K., Distiller, G. and Edwards, P.J. (2008), Job satisfaction of South African quantity surveyors: an empirical study. Construction Management and Economics, 26, pp. 765-780.
Cooney, J. P. and Cooney, J. P. (2016) 'THE SCHOOL OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Health and Safety in the Construction Industry : A Review of Procurement, Monitoring , Cost Effectiveness and Strategy.
Dumrak, J. et al. (2013) 'Factors associated with the severity of construction accidents: The case of South Australia', Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building, 13(4), pp. 32–49. doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3620.
Dwomoh, G., Owusu, E. E. and Addo, M. (2013) 'Impact of occupational health and safety policies on employees ' performance in the Ghana ' s timber industry : Evidence from Lumber and Logs Limited', 1(12), pp. 1–14.
Forde, C., MacKenzie, R. and Robinson, A. (2008) 'Help wanted? Employers' use of temporary agencies in the UK construction industry', Employee Relations, 30(6), pp. 679–698. doi: 10.1108/01425450810910055.
Goodman, P. S. and Atkin, R. S. (1984) 'Effects of Absenteeism on Individuals and Organizations', Absenteeism, pp. 276–321.
Granson A.G (2014) 'assessing the effectiveness of health and safety practices at Anglogold Ashanti Company Limited,Obuasi mine'.
Gulhan, B., Ilhan, M. N. and Civil, E. F. (2012) 'Original Article Occupational accidents and affecting factors of metal industry in a factory in Ankara, 10(July 2011).
Gyekye, S. A. and Salminen, S. (2009) 'Educational status and organizational safety climate: Does educational attainment influence workers' perceptions of workplace safety?, Safety Science, 47(1), pp. 20–28. doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2007.12.007.
Hanna, A.S., Chang, C.-K., Lackney, J.A. and Sullivan, K.T. (2007) Impact of overmanning on mechanical and sheet metal labor productivity. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Hinze, J. & Wilson, G. 2000, 'Moving towards a zero injury objective', Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 126 (5), 399-03
Hopkins, B. (2014), "Explaining variations in absence rates: temporary and agency workers in the food manufacturing sector", Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 24
Hsu, Y.L., Li, W.C., Chen, K.W., 2010. Structuring critical success factors of airline safety management system using hybrid model.
Idoro, G. I. (2008) 'Health and safety management efforts as correlates of performance in the Nigerian construction industry', Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 14(4), pp. 277–285. doi: 10.3846/1392-3730.2008.14.27.
International Labour Organization (2015) 'Global Trends on Occupational Accidents and Diseases', World Day for Safety and Health At Work, (April), pp. 1–7. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/legacy/english/osh/en/story_content/external_files/fs_st_1-ILO_5_en.pdf.
Ismail, Z., Doostdar, S. and Harun, Z. (2012) 'Factors influencing the implementation of a safety management system for construction sites', Safety Science. Elsevier Ltd, 50(3), pp. 418–423. doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2011.10.001.
Kwesi, S. S., Dartey E., Kuffour R. A., Osei-Bonsu R., Beniako A. A. (2024). Occupational Health and Safety Practices among Small-Scale Mining Worker in Ghana. European Journal of Science, Innovation and Technology, 4(2), 26-39.
Liao, C. et al. (2014) 'Work values, work attitude and job performance of green energy industry employees in Taiwan', (August). doi: 10.5897/AJBM11.1449.
Lim, A. (2012). OHS management system: Three benefits for construction enterprise. http://www.artipot.com/ article-tags/ohs-management system.
Meswani HR.Safety and occupational Health: challenges and opportunities in emerging economies. Indian J Occup Environ Med 2008;3-9
Mohammad I. F. Ghasemi, O. Kalatpour, and A. Moghimbeigi, Applied Ergonomics, vol. 58, pp. 35-47, 2017/01/01/ (2017).
Nosheen N, Vikram M (2002). Knowledge, attitude and practices of healthcare workers regarding needle stick.
Okoye, P. et al. (2016) 'Building Construction Workers' Health and Safety Knowledge and Compliance on Site Survey of housing conditions and improvement strategies in Okpoko peri-urban settlement of View project', Journal of Safety Engineering, 2016(1), pp. 17–26. doi: 10.5923/j.safety.20160501.03.
Puplampu, B. B. and Quartey, H. S. (2012) 'Key Issues on Occupational Health and Safety Practices in Ghana : A Review', 3(19), pp. 151–156.
P. Bust, A. Finneran, R. Hartley and A. Gibb, "Health and safety knowledge in complex networked organisations: Training the chain," Proc. CIB W099 Achieving Sustainable Construction Health and Safety, Lund, Sweden, pp.50-61, 2-3 June, 2014.
Pidgeon, N. F. (2011). Safety attitude and risk management in organizations. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology 1991; 22: 129–140.
Pollitt, D. (2011). Corus forges new approach to safety and health. Human resource management international digest. Vol.19 No.l pp.7-9.
Proceedings of the International Construction Research Conference of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (COBRA), Leeds Metropolitan University Leeds, 2004.
R.Y. Sunindijo and P.X.W. Zou, "An integrated framework for strategic safety management in construction and engineering," Proc. CIB W099 Achieving Sustainable Construction Health and Safety, Lund, Sweden, pp.63-742-3 June, 2014.
Shikdar, A. A., & Sawaqed, N. M. (2003). Worker productivity, and occupational health and safety issues in selected industries. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 45, 563-572. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0360-8352(03)00074-3
Strutt, J.E., Sharp, J.V., Terry, E., Miles, R., 2006. Capability maturity models for offshore organisational management. Environ. Int.
Takala J (2011). Introductory Report: Decent and Safe Work. Offshore industry warned over not good enough safety statistics. http://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/statistics/hsr1011.pdf
W. C. Wang, J. J. Liu, and S. C. Chou, "Simulation-based safety evaluation model integrated with network schedule," May 2006.
Widaningsih, L., Susanti, I. and Chandra, T. (2018) 'The Attitude of Construction Workers toward the Implementation of Occupational Health and Safety ( OHS )'. doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/306/1/012075.
Zhou, Q., Fang, D., and Wang, X. (2008). "A method to identify strategies for the improvement of human safety behavior by considering safety climate and personal experience." Safety Science, 46, 1406-1419.
Article Statistics
Copyright License
Copyright (c) 2025 Afia Agyemang-Beniako, Sabastian Samuel Kwesi, Nicholas Kojo Njada , Claudia Andoh Mensah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain the copyright of their manuscripts, and all Open Access articles are disseminated under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC-BY), which licenses unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is appropriately cited. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations.