INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON SAFETY AND PROJECT PERFORMANCE - Dissertation Example

It is a fact that there has over time, developed a lot of debate concerning the influence of safety culture in the construction industry of Saudi Arabia. According to Williamsen (2013), safety culture provides the project leader with the courage to follow through all the decisions that he has made because without it, then his decisions will most likely not be taken seriously by his subordinates, and will, in fact, become meaningless. It has been found that in the Saudi construction industry, there has developed a need for the integration of conservative Saudi safety culture into the design of the building being constructed (Zou, Redman & Windon, 2008).

It is a fact that many project leaders in Saudi Arabia in the past have been unsuccessful because they have failed to consider the importance of culture in this society when making decisions concerning safety and project performance, especially when these decisions were needed the most (DeJoy, Gershon & Schaffer, 2004). In this industry, every project leader should be conscious of the situations involving safety of their workers and this enables them to ensure that the safety of those who work in the construction site is ensured; they have to consider the best safety solutions that are culturally acceptable (Nelson, 1996; Simon & Frazee, 2005).

They have to study the cultural needs exceptionally well and understand them so that their decisions concerning the project can be correct and well informed and this is likely to ensure that safety standards and the project performance are of the high. The purpose for this research is to explore how Saudi safety culture has come to influence the safety and performance of construction projects in the country. The study is based on the construction industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and seeks to explore the impact of this culture on the safety of employees as well as on project performance.

The current aspects of safety culture and safety policies that have been adopted by the construction industry in Saudi Arabia, as well as the factors that influence implementation of safety culture in construction companies will also be examined. Among the cultural factors that are going to be explored in this research include the religious recommendations on safety, the economic considerations, as well as the willingness of the construction companies to ensure the safety of their employees. The research would be helpful in determining the degree to which culture influences safety and performance of construction projects.

Background According to Carrillo (2012) the failure of those taking on projects in Saudi Arabia to understand the importance of safety culture means that they will likely make decisions that are unacceptable, and these might end up jeopardizing the entire project. Moreover, individuals in the construction industry have to consider the fact that the safety culture of the Saudi Arabia is prescribed not only on the Holy Quran but also on the Sunnah. They therefore need to conduct investigations in order to come up with as much information about it as they can to ensure that all the construction projects that they undertake are in compatibility with the Sunnah (Chileshe & Dzisi, 2012).

They should be extremely careful when attempting to stop those old practices which might be detrimental to the project, but part of the local culture, because the adoption of new ones leads to the immense failure of the safety standards as well as the project