Critical Success Factors of Safety Program Implementation in Construction Projects in Iraq

Mohanad Kamil Buniya*, Idris Othman, Riza Yosia Sunindijo, Ghanim Kashwani, Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail, Maxwell Fordjour Antwi-Afari, Heng Li

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The construction sector is recognized as one of the most dangerous industries in the world. The situation is worsening in Iraq, as a result of a lack of attention to safety in the building industry and the poor implementation of safety programs. This research aims to identify the critical safety factors (CSFs) of safety program implementation in the Iraqi construction industry. The CSFs were first identified from a review of literature before being verified by construction practitioners, using semi-structured interviews. A questionnaire, based on the verified CSFs, was distributed to construction practitioners in Iraq. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to analyze the quantitative data, and the results show that the CSFs can be categorized into four constructs: worker involvement, safety prevention and control system, safety arrangement, and management commitment. Following that, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was executed to establish the connection between safety program implementation and overall project success. The result confirms that safety program implementation has a significant, positive impact on project success. This article contributes to knowledge and practice by identifying the CSFs for implementing safety programs in the Iraqi construction industry. The successful implementation of a safety program not only improves safety performance, but also helps to meet other project goals.
Original languageEnglish
Article number8469
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume18
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Funding: The authors would like to express their utmost gratitude to the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia for supporting this research, with the FRGS grant, and the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia. The authors also express their appreciation to the Ministry of Electricity, Baghdad, Iraq. The authors would also like to express their sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Education, Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), the Research Management Centre (RMC) and Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics (RFTI) for providing the financial support. This paper is financed by the Trans Disciplinary Research (TDR) grant under Cost Centre No. Q.K130000.3556.07G00 and also UTM RFTI Research Consolidation Fund.

Keywords

  • Construction
  • Critical success factors
  • Iraq
  • PLS-SEM
  • Safety program

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