A socio-technical systems analysis of OSH decision-making in the early stages of construction projects

The opportunity to improve the occupational safety and health of construction workers through decisions made upstream of the construction stage is understood to be significant. As a result, policy makers and OSH advisors advocate measures to integrate OSH considerations into the pre-construction activities of planning and design in construction projects. However, OSH guidelines often assume a degree of simplicity in the way that they ascribe responsibility for clients, designers and other stakeholders. This paper explores the ways in which construction projects comprise a complex network of tasks, requiring contributions from many specialists and the involvement of a complicated 'web' of inter-organizational relationships. The paper describes a socio-technical modelling approach that is being used to examine how decisions affecting OSH in the construction stage of projects are made during the planning and design stages. The research will test the oft-cited propositions that the earlier OSH is considered in the life of a project, the greater the opportunity to eliminate/reduce OSH risk at source. The modelling method is illustrated using data collected at a pilot study construction project in Melbourne. Australia.