Identifying and Assessing Health and Safety Program Implementation Barriers in the Construction Industry: A Case of Saudi Arabia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper is very well-written.  Thank you for the opportunity to review this important work.   The following are my comments for consideration in the revision:

1. Figure 3 is too far from the first mention.

2. The introduction of the 4 hypotheses is not clear because they are termed assumptions, and then later on refereed to as hypotheses.

3. There are some missing references, since the authors are creating some of their work on the basis of safety climate, safety culture, and discussing root causes.  Suggest consideration of the following literature:

-   Abdelhamid, T. S., and Everett, J. G. (2000).  “Identifying Root Causes of Construction Accidents”.  Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, 126(1), 52-60.

-  Howell, G. A., Ballard, G., Abdelhamid, T. S., and Mitropoulos, P. (2002).  “Working near the edge: a new approach to construction safety”.   Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference for Lean Construction, 6-8 August 2002, Gramado, Brazil, 49-60.

-  Mohamed, S. (2002).  Safety Climate in Construction Site Environments. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management.  128(5).

 

 

- Mitropoulos, P., Abdelhamid, T. S., and Howell, G. A. (2005).  “Systems Model of Construction Accident Causation”.  Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, 131(7), 816-825.

 

 

- Trinh, M. T. , Feng, Y., and Mohamed, S. (2019).  Framework for Measuring Resilient Safety Culture in Vietnam’s Construction Environment. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 145(2)

4. There is a mention of Iraqi industry ( page 11 line 318).  Please explain.

5. Please connect the discussion to the results section - to the PLS-SEM.  It is unclear how the discussion is related or built on the results except qualitatively.   There is no discussion of implied importance based on the PLS-SEM for the different respective factors under each of the four main factors.   In fact, most of the discussion could have been written through logical reasoning of the original Figure 1.  

6. Where are the questions asked to the participants?  Who were the participants - demographically?  Is there any connection between their experiences/expertise and their responses and therefore the obtained results?  What if the survey is administered to another group in a different country? 

 

 

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Tha paper is well written however the results are not new and do not add too much information to the existing knowledge.

Tha papr as no conclusions only a final summary

references should be up to dated

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Reviewer 3 Report

This article was well written and very informative. The authors did a great job with providing background research on the safety issues occurring in the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. The authors also did a great job on their statistical analysis of the results from the survey. The information presented in this article could benefit the construction industry within that region.

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Reviewer 4 Report

This research explored the barriers of safety programs in Saudi Arabian construction industry. The topic is interesting, while the authors should further improve the quality of this paper. There are several comments as follows:

(1) The authors should rewrite the Section of Introduction because the logic and structure of the current status are not clear. The originality and objective of this paper should be given clearly here.

(2) The hypothetical model in Figure 1 is problematic because the authors did not give corresponding explanation on these four factors in the text. The table 1 is not consistent with Figure 1. How these 12 barriers are selected? Furthermore, these barriers are common in construction safety literature, if there are unique factors in Saudi Arabia?

(3) Please give detailed information on the data collection, and the demographic information of the participants.

(4) finally, the core concepts are not consistent throughout the paper. For instance, the constructs in table 1, table2, table 3 and section of Discussion are different.

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Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors respond to the reviewers' questions. however tha work still as minimum interest

Author Response

Thank you very much for reviewing our manuscript.  

The theoretical and practical ramifications of this study are extensive. One of the key factors in Saudi Arabia's inability to advance in the delivery of construction projects may be the country's refusal to accept reform, which leads to the implementation of projects using a similar methodology. Stakeholders, especially those who directly affect the construction process, must've been motivated to use new philosophies if these changes are to be implemented. The results of this study suggest that, in order to overcome the barriers to safety programme implementation in the Saudi Arabian construction industry, a framework and road map should be developed. As a result, through lectures, seminars, and conferences, stakeholders must be made aware of how embracing new ideas would help the project succeed. In addition, it allays the client's worries and dispels their misunderstanding of the increased price of virtual computers. However, this study significantly advances knowledge in the following areas, all of which have considerable ramifications for the building industry:

• It offers a list of implementation hurdles for safety programmes, along with information about how to weigh them and how to get over them so that safety programmes can be implemented.
• It aids clients, consultants, and contractors in analysing and removing implementation barriers for safety programmes to enhance the reliability and planning of construction projects.
• It presents systematic evidence that could help Saudi Arabia and other developing countries adopt safety programmes by getting over current obstacles.
• Developed countries have been the primary study's principal subject, which is the implementation of safety programs. Implementing safety measures programmes in underdeveloped countries has received little attention from researchers, particularly in Saudi Arabia's building sector. The adoption of safety programmes and the Saudi Arabian construction sector can thus be successfully linked thanks to this study. Consequently, it established a strong platform for dealing with the use of safety programme implementation in enhancing the viability of regional building initiatives and closing research gaps.
• Policymakers can use this study's tool to help create safety programmes that are implemented fairly. The goal of this study is to investigate the barriers to the implementation of safety programmes in the construction industry by introducing the partial least squares (PLS-SEM) prediction technique. In light of this, this approach has the potential to revolutionise construction projects.
• This study's conclusions can assist with the establishment of a safety programme in Saudi Arabian construction projects. The knowledge objectives for creating a safety programme are based on our findings. So, By developing and putting into practise the required techniques, all stakeholders may concentrate on the project's objectives in terms of cost, time, and output. project's impact is ultimately positive when it has a high level of sustainability. In adidtion, 

  Adoption of safety programmes is significantly hampered by the recommended prioritisation strategy, mainly in the building sector. To identify the difficulties in implementing safety programmes, this study followed the suggested methodology. Because of this study, the theoretical and practical aspects of safety programmes are now closer together. As close as we can tell, however , the adoption of safety programmes in the Saudi Arabian construction industry is not the subject of any scholarly investigation looking at the impact of removing obstacles to their deployment. In order to install safety programmes in the construction sector, this study first empirically analyses the key impediments to safety programme deployment. This finding opens the door for more investigation into the difficulties safety programmes in undeveloped countries confront, particularly in the area of structural engineering. The academic parts of this study provide a conceptual basis for deciding the safety programme barriers that may have been appropriately used in Saudi Arabia. With the help of the special PLS-SEM, the four safety programme barriers in the Saudi Arabian construction industry were compared. In order to assist representatives who are interns in adopting safety programmes impartially, this study offers a method.

Reviewer 4 Report

The authors have made some revisions, while the current version is still far from my expectation. The constructs used in this paper are still very imprudent and inconsistent. The hypothetical development is so simple that the readers cannot know why only four types of constructs are explored. Each construct is not explained in detail.

Author Response

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