Safety attitudes and safety management: perspectives of managerial personnel and frontline workers in construction sites in China

Purpose This study employed a questionnaire survey to understand the safety attitudes, focusing on safety motivation and risk tolerance as well as safety management practices, including safety training and safety incentives, among construction site employees, including both managerial personnel and frontline workers. The objective was to explore the relationship between safety management practices and safety attitudes within both the managerial and frontline worker groups. Design/methodology/approach This study was conducted among 1,026 construction workers and 256 managerial personnel at 53 construction sites across 12 provinces in China. A t-test was used to compare the differences in safety-related scores between managerial personnel and frontline workers, and a structural equation model was used to explore the relationship between safety attitudes and safety management. Findings This study found that the scores of managerial personnel for safety motivation, safety training and safety incentives were significantly higher than construction workers, while their scores for risk tolerance were significantly lower than construction workers. Managerial personnel’s safety motivation has a significant positive impact on both safety training and safety incentives, while their risk tolerance has a significant negative impact on safety incentives. Safety training has a significant positive effect on construction workers’ safety motivation, whereas safety incentives have a significant negative impact on construction workers’ risk tolerance. Originality/value This study is one of the few that have investigated construction safety by conducting surveys targeting both site managerial personnel and frontline workers, employing an empirical approach to validate the role of safety management in transmitting safety attitudes from site managerial personnel to frontline workers.