THESIS ABSTRACT

Assessment of Safety Culture in Selected Building Construction Projects of Kathmandu Valley

Assessment of Safety Culture in Selected Building Construction Projects of Kathmandu Valley

Student: Saru Chansi Shrestha

Supervisor: Er. Hari Mohan Shrestha

Submitted Date: February, 2024

Abstract

Safety generally refers to the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury. Safety Culture is the way by which safety is perceived, valued, and prioritized in an organization. Safety is considered an investment with a positive return in the sense that a safer workplace boosts employee morale. The objective of the research is to find major factors affecting safety culture, major obstacles in the implementation of safety culture on occupational safety performance, and possible remedial measures to overcome obstacles in the proper implementation of safety culture in building construction projects of Kathmandu Valley. For this study, 4 public buildings and 4 private high-rise buildings were taken into consideration. The questionnaire was prepared regarding the factors of safety culture, the obstacles in the implementation of safety culture, and measures to overcome the obstacles in the implementation of safety culture. A structured questionnaire was prepared and distributed to 48 respondents that comprised of Clients Engineer, Consultants Engineer, Contractor Engineer, and workers. All responses were obtained, which include 100% of the total respondents(considering the non responsive rate of respondents). The data were collected using a questionnaire survey, analyzed using RII and Spear-man correlation, SPSS, and MS Excel, and presented using graphs, tables, and pie charts. The findings of the study show that safety culture in the Construction Projects of Kathmandu is still poor. In this study, the major factors affecting safety culture are found to be leadership, communication, management commitment, work environment, and safety rules and procedures. Similarly, the obstacle in the implementation of safety culture is found to be a lack of leadership and commitment, ineffective safety communication, ignorance of safety rules, inadequate risk assessment, and lack of knowledge. Lastly, the measures to overcome the obstacle in the implementation of safety culture are found to be education and access to safety and health information, willingness to report safety and health concerns, safety action/working group activity, encouragement and participation, and clear, value-free, open and respectful communication.

Keywords

Safety Culture, Construction Projects, Work Environment, Management Commitment, Safety Rules