2/15/24, 1:02 PM Proactive behavior-based safety management for construction safety improvement - ScienceDirect

Safety Science
Volume 75, June 2015, Pages 107-117

Proactive behavior-based safety management for

Show more

Share Cite

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.01.013
Get rights and content

Highlights

• The proactive behavior-based safety (PBBS) has been developed for construction
safety.

• PBBS makes automatic observation and quantification of location-based

• The Safety Index of the two project teams have increased by 36.07% and 44.70%
respectively.

• PBBS improves the construction safety performance and safety management

Abstract

Construction is one of the most hazardous industries due to its dynamic, temporary, and decentralized nature. The
Hong Kong Commissioner for Labor identifies worker behavior as the root cause of construction accidents. Behavior-
based safety (BBS) is one effective approach in managing employee safety issues. However, there is little research on
the application of BBS in the construction industry. This research proposes an extension of the BBS approach, proactive
behavior-based safety (PBBS), to improve construction safety. PBBS integrates the theory of BBS with the technology of
Proactive Construction Management System (PCMS). The innovations of PBBS are: (1) automatically monitoring
location-based behaviors; (2) quantitatively measuring safety performance; (3) investigating potential causes of unsafe
behaviors; and (4) improving the efficiency of safety management. A pilot study of a Hong Kong construction site
practicing PBBS was conducted. The experiment results showed that PBBS performed well on construction accident

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753515000144 1/6
2/15/24, 1:02 PM Proactive behavior-based safety management for construction safety improvement - ScienceDirect

prevention and the Safety Index (SI) of the two project teams, with increased improvements by 36.07% and 44.70%
respectively. It is concluded that PBBS is effective and adaptable to construction industry.

Introduction

Approximately 80% of all accidents on construction sites are caused by unsafe human behaviors, with the majority of
fatalities being due to workers falling from heights, striking against or being struck by moving objects, or being struck
specifically by moving vehicles (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Labour Department, 2012). In Hong Kong,
construction is ranked as the most dangerous industry, with 24 fatalities in 2012. That is 26.3% higher than the average
of the five previous years (HKSAR, Labour Department, 2013), thus indicating that the situation is deteriorating. In
recent years, with the introduction of 10 major projects by the HKSAR Government, the industry has experienced a
shortage of labor, which has forced many companies to employ people with insufficient relevant work experience. As a
result, ensuring the safety of the workforce is becoming increasingly more challenging and complex, and thus, it has
become more important to control and manage human behavior on construction sites. One effective method used to
modify unsafe behavior is behavior-based safety (BBS) (Chen and Tian, 2012). BBS has been widely used in many
industries in Europe and North America for over 20 years, including the petroleum industry (Zohar and Luria, 2003,
Fleming and Lardner, 2000, Ismail et al., 2012), the manufacturing industry (Ray et al., 1997, Chandler and
Huntebrinker, 2003), the nuclear power industry (Cox et al., 2004), the transport industry (Olson and Austin, 2001,
Glendon and Litherland, 2001), and occasionally, the construction industry (Zhang and Fang, 2013, Laitinen et al., 1999,
Lingard and Rowlinson, 1998).

Construction is quite different from other industries because of several unique characteristics, including complicated
construction processes, temporary organizational structure, changing work locations (Building, 1987), complex work
environments (Fang and Wu, 2013), and the characteristics of worker behaviors, which are not as standardized as those
in manufacturing factories (Geller, 2001a, Geller, 2001b). In addition, because of decentralization, construction workers
usually work on separate sites and must make their own decisions when facing specific problems (Olson and Austin,
2001). Thus, the construction industry needs a safety system that is capable of monitoring and dealing with novel,
variable, real-time risks and hazards. The four basic steps of the BBS approach are (1) identification, (2) observation, (3)
intervention, and (4) review (or follow-up observation) and monitoring (Ismail et al., 2012). However, on traditional
construction sites, individual observation, review and monitoring may consume many more hours of safety
management staff time than they do in other settings (such as a factory) because workers are likely to roam on job sites
and therefore be difficult to identify and track (Zhang and Fang, 2013).

This paper proposes an extension of BBS for construction called proactive behavior-based safety (PBBS), which combines
traditional BBS management with novel information technology called the Proactive Construction Management System
(PCMS), which was developed by the authors and the construction virtual prototyping laboratory (CVPL) of the Hong
Kong Polytechnic University. PBBS provides a qualitative (BBS management) and quantitative (PCMS location-based
behavior observation) way to improve construction safety. Similar to BBS, PBBS includes four well-defined steps. These
are (1) baseline observation, (2) safety training, (3) follow-up observation, and (4) feedback and reinforcement. Due to
advances in building information modeling (BIM) technology, virtual construction is now the norm for most large
construction projects (Zhang et al., 2013, Ding et al., 2011, Li et al., 2012). Simulating construction in virtual models
enables the project participants to find and fix the biggest problems before they start building (Li et al., 2012, Ding et
al., 2011). The Proactive Construction Management System (PCMS) proposes location-based virtual construction by
integrating the Virtual Construction Simulation System (VCS) (Li et al., 2003, Guo et al., 2013) with a real-time location
system (RTLS). Using PCMS technology, the real-time location-based behavior data from workers provide safety
supervisors automatic and immediate observations, which can decrease safety management costs and improve
management efficacy. Through PCMS, workers are provided real-time warnings when they are exposed to risky
situations and post real-time analyses when they may have behaved unsafely. PCMS can identify the location of

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753515000144 2/6
2/15/24, 1:02 PM Proactive behavior-based safety management for construction safety improvement - ScienceDirect

workers, provide proactive warnings and monitor unsafe worker behaviors related to location as distinguished from
other unsafe behaviors that are not location related, such as electric shock and nonstandard operations. With respect to
the BBS approach, leader-based verbal coaching serves as safety training in formal and informal settings (Kines et al.,
2010), and causation analyses conducted through in-depth interviews are used to investigate the basic reasons for
workers’ unsafe behaviors (Olson and Austin, 2001). A Safety Index (SI) change trend chart is established and used to
evaluate safety behavior and change trends. By implementing the PBBS approach, workers and safety managers
become armed with objective data regarding potentially unsafe behaviors. Safety managers are better able to impress
upon workers just how unsafe their behaviors actually are and can thereby increase the uptake of safer behavior.

In this study, which focuses particularly on the construction industry, both conceptual and actual on-site trials of the
PBBS approach have been conducted. This paper describes the origins of PBBS, reports on the findings of these trials to
date, and examines the benefits and limitations of the PBBS approach.

Section snippets

Behavior-based safety

Behavior-based safety (BBS) is an effective method for accident prevention that has been widely applied in Europe and
North America since the 1980s. BBS became increasingly popular in industrial settings from then on and subsequently
throughout the world. There is a significant amount of literature on this approach, including multiple books on BBS
that have been published to explicate the principles and procedures involved in the implementation of the BBS process
(McSween, 1995, Geller, 2000, …

Proactive behavior-based safety

Considering the characteristics of construction projects discussed herein, the authors improved the traditional BBS
workflow and developed a dynamic and flexible four-step PBBS scheme, as shown in Fig. 4. This scheme is applied
during a 9-week intervention period to achieve construction safety improvement, and it includes (1) baseline
observation, (2) safety training, (3) follow-up observation and (4) feedback and reinforcement. The PBBS intervention is
conducted and cycled on the construction…

General situation of experimental construction

Pilot studies were conducted at the construction site of an on-going 34-story public housing project to validate the
effects of PBBS management in this study. The construction period was from October 2011 to March 2014 (29 months),
and the site was the Tung Tau Cottage Area East (TTCAE) in Hong Kong. This construction enterprise had a safety
production committee and one safety training center charged with safety education and training. Of the workers, 198
from 2 subcontractors showed interest in …

Discussion

PBBS management is developed based on BBS theory and by incorporating PCMS technology that is suitable for the
construction industry. Accordingly, it provides a novel way to achieve, to some extent, a persistent effect of
construction safety.…

Conclusion

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753515000144 3/6
2/15/24, 1:02 PM Proactive behavior-based safety management for construction safety improvement - ScienceDirect

As the construction industry is one of the most injury-prone industries worldwide in terms of its unique dynamic,
complex and decentralized nature, there is a great need to improve worker safety at construction sites. Theoretically
and practically, the behavior based approach has been studied and shown to achieve positive results in accident
prevention for more than 20 years. However, existing research in BBS has mainly been focused on post-mortem
analyses of isolated cases because of the lack…

Recommended articles

References (66)

I. Ajzen
The theory of planned behavior
Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. (1991)

A. Carbonari et al.
A proactive system for real-time safety management in construction sites
Autom.Constr. (2011)

D. Chen et al.
Behavior based safety for accidents prevention and positive study in China construction project
Procedia Eng. (2012)

R.M. Choudhry et al.

S. Cox et al.
Behavioural approaches to safety management within UK reactor plants
Saf. Sci. (2004)

D.M. DeJoy
Behavior change versus culture change: divergent approaches to managing workplace safety
Saf. Sci. (2005)

J.P. DePasquale et al.

L. Ding et al.
Study on safety control for Wuhan metro construction in complex environments
Int. J. Project Manage. (2011)

D. Fang et al.
Development of a safety culture interaction (SCI) model for construction projects
Saf. Sci. (2013)

R. Flin et al.
Measuring safety climate: identifying the common features

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753515000144 4/6
2/15/24, 1:02 PM Proactive behavior-based safety management for construction safety improvement - ScienceDirect

Saf. Sci. (2000)

View more references

Cited by (274)

Mixed reality-based active Hazard prevention system for heavy machinery operators
2024, Automation in Construction

Show abstract

Keypoints-based Heterogeneous Graph Convolutional Networks for construction

Show abstract

The impact of interventions on health, safety and environment in the process industry
2024, Heliyon

Show abstract

Digital technologies in construction: A systematic mapping review of evidence for improved occupational
health and safety
2023, Journal of Building Engineering

Show abstract

Individualized behavior-based safety-leadership training: A randomized controlled trial

Show abstract

Intervention and management of construction workers’ unsafe behavior: A simulation digital twin model
2023, Advanced Engineering Informatics

Show abstract

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753515000144 5/6
2/15/24, 1:02 PM Proactive behavior-based safety management for construction safety improvement - ScienceDirect

All content on this site: Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. For all open
access content, the Creative Commons licensing terms apply.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753515000144 6/6