On occupational safety management in construction alliance projects

Abstract

Construction work is one of the most hazardous industries worldwide. Accidents, incidents, injuries, occupational diseases, and illnesses at work represent a significant burden for various stakeholders, including society. Different project management approaches have been introduced to facilitate construction work and occupational safety (OS) in practice. This study focuses on OS in construction alliance projects. Alliances are an emerging new form of a project delivery method in construction. In construction alliance projects, the project stakeholders collaborate with mutual interest to achieve the best result for the entire project. Alliance projects are a relatively new mode of project deliveries in construction. A systematic literature review was conducted using Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed—to learn how OS has been acknowledged in alliance projects. The literature review shows the scarcity of research in this area. To in-depth the review, personal interviews were conducted at two large alliance projects in Finland. Interviews bring out the complex nature of OS management in alliances and highlight issues related to partner selection and site-specific OS management within alliances. This study deepens the very limited scientific knowledge of OS in alliance projects. By drawing together the existing knowledge on the topic, new insights are provided on developing OS management in alliance projects. In addition, several new arenas for novel empirical research in the field of OS in construction and the alliance context are proposed.

Keywords

• alliancing
• partner selection
• safety indicator
• safety management