Improving Construction Safety in Saudi Arabia Dissertation - 1

Improving Construction Safety in Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example However, based on a premise of sustained and continuous improvement, it is desirable to find ways and means for improving construction health and safety in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a nation that presents certain constraints. A laxity in implementation of commercial and contractual laws and a traditional approach to solving problems related to labour shortage by recruitment of fixed-term contract labour as cheaply as possible from underdeveloped nations rather than efforts aimed at creating a permanent pool of labour through permanent immigration characterise most GCC countries. This study concludes that it is possible to improve construction health and safety in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by effective enforcement of existing health and safety laws, enacting legislation for off-site health and safety for migrant workers, maintaining a fund for social security and improving regulation of commercial and contractual transactions. ... 3.1 Research Approach for the Dissertation Project 46 3.3 Design and Administration of the Survey 49 3.4 Sample Selection and Sample Size 52 3.5 Analysis of the Survey Data 53 4 Results 58 5 Analysis and Interpretation 78 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 86 Appendix A – Survey Questionnaire 88 Appendix B – Consent Form 105 Bibliography / References 107 List of Figures Figure 1: Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research 42 Figure 2: Suggested Research Process for Construction Management Research 43 Figure 3: The Research Process for Construction Research 45 (This page intentionally left blank) 1 Introduction It is rather unfortunate, but true, that the construction industry around the world had developed a reputation for being the industrial sector that presents higher statistics for industrial accidents, fatalities and deaths than any other (Coble, 2000, Pp. vii - viii). United States Department of Labour for the year 2006 indicated that construction fatalities represented about 21% of the total work force fatalities (Lambeck, 2009, Pp. 72 – 74). However, efforts directed towards continuous improvement in construction safety in many countries, including Japan, South Korea, China, etc. demonstrate that it is possible to reduce the incidence of occupational injury, serious accidents or deaths (Poon, 2008, Chapter 1). Statistics for construction industry accident frequency rates per million of men hour worked for Singapore suggest that with an accident frequency rate per million man hours of 3.5 for the construction sector in comparison to 1.9 for all other industries help to illustrate the notoriety of the construction sector (Poon, 2008, Chapter 1). However, results for Japan, Korea and Hong Kong demonstrate improvement with effort. Reports about the construction