An assessment of the influence of contextual environment on health and safety practices in the Nigerian construction industry

Umeokafor, Nnedinma (2015) An assessment of the influence of contextual environment on health and safety practices in the Nigerian construction industry. In: CIB WO99 International Health and Safety Conference; 09 - 11 Sept 2015, Londonderry, NI.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a survey that appraised the influence of contextual factors on health and safety (H&S) practices in the Nigerian construction industry. This is on the grounds that understanding the environment that construction contractors operate in will help in improving the H&S record of the industry. Some key contextual factors were identified through literature review and questionnaires were distributed to construction practitioners to identify the contextual factors that influence H&S practices in their organisations. The respondents were also asked to score their perceptions on the extent that these factors influence H&S practices in their organisations. The responses of the survey were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The respondents (43.5%) opine that accidents are predestined. The respondents also rank the impact of inadequate H&S regulatory system to be the highest contextual factor that influences H&S practices with relative importance index (RII) of 0.80. This is followed by inadequate governmental attention on H&S with RII of 0.77. Strategies towards improving H&S should be based on contextual issues; yet, this area remains under-examined if not unexamined in Nigeria.

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