Safety indicators: questioning the quantitative dominance

Safety indicators aim to provide information about the condition or state of safety within an organization. Typically, construction practitioners and researchers have focused on quantifying these indicators to provide precise measurement. It is argued that there has been a tendency to focus on the quantity, whilst ignoring qualitative indicators that can also provide valuable insights into the state of safety. Precise measurement has arguably been intensified by ‘borrowing’ leading indicators from the field of economics, which use quantitative frameworks. It is raised that the well-documented statistical limitations surrounding leading and lagging indicators should not be merely viewed as threats to reliability but should be considered as opportunities to further understand the state of safety through the development of appropriate qualitative indicators. A quantitative-only framework may be appropriate in the field of economics; however, this essay challenges the assumption that a similar approach can be implemented within the complex context of construction safety management. A call for researchers and practitioners to consider the qualitative indicators of safety; these can provide powerful insights into both why the state of safety is positive or negative, and how to help future accident prevention.