Analysis of difference/similarity between construction project participants work health and safety (WHS) risk perceptions

This research aims to analyse the within- and between-group similarity/difference in WHS risk perceptions of construction project participants. This study employs Q-methodology with an innovative photographic data collection method to explore construction project participants' WHS risk perceptions. Specifically, a set of photos were selected to represent a range of commonly used construction methodologies/building systems. Participants invited from four professional groups were requested to 'sort' the set of photos according to their judgements of the likelihood and magnitude of WHS risks associated with constructing these different systems. This paper reports a preliminary analysis of the within- and between-group similarity/difference in WHS risk perceptions related to constructing different façade systems and roof systems. Nonparametric statistic methods, i.e. Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance (W) and Spearman's Rank Order Correlation (rs), were used to analyse the data. This study finds that professional groups' risk perceptions can be influenced by the different levels of complexity inherent in constructing different building elements. Professional groups share lower within-group and between-group similarities in the judgement of likelihood of risks than in the judgement of severity of risks.