Empirical Study on Enhancing Safety Culture and Behavior in Thailand's Construction Industry Through Safety Interventions

In the construction industry, accidents are undesirable events that can occur in projects of any scale. These accidents have a significant impact and are events that can result from unforeseen circumstances or a lack of adequate control. As a result, they can lead to damage to assets or disruption of the project site. An incident, on the other hand, is an adverse event that occurs but does not affect the project's outcome. However, most accidents or incidents can be anticipated, and methods can be devised to prevent or mitigate the risk [1].

According to the Workers' Compensation Fund [2], construction is the riskiest industry in Thailand. Between 2019 and 2023, residential building construction recorded the greatest incidence of work-related injuries or illnesses, affecting 14,593 employees annually, followed by commercial and industrial construction sectors, which reported 11,104 cases annually. The rising volume of construction activities and the growing emphasis on safety. As Thailand continues to urbanize and expand its infrastructure, the implementation of robust safety measures and management strategies becomes essential for protecting construction workers [3].

Safety is therefore critically important and necessary in the construction industry, with increasing attention being paid to safety at every stage, from design and bidding through to construction, including operation. During the construction phase, During the execution stage, unsafe worker behavior is recognized as a major cause of accidents [4]. As a result, workers’ adherence to safety practices plays a critical role in minimizing accident occurrences [5].

Over the past three decades, researchers have explored numerous dimensions of risks to workers, including risk perception, risk identification, and risk decision-making [6] as well as strategies for understanding and preventing workplace accidents [7]. Previously, accidents were primarily viewed from a technical perspective. However, in more recent years, the importance of culture and organizational factors has been recognized as a crucial additional perspective in accident prevention [8]. This shift highlights the importance of considering complex and diverse methods for reducing workplace accidents [9].

Safety culture fundamentally shapes organizational safety outcomes by requiring active engagement from all organizational members, particularly executives. Effective safety cultures are reinforced through ongoing training, education, resource provision, and comprehensive management commitment [10, 11]. Consequently, safety culture becomes integral to organizational management, significantly influencing safety behaviors and overall performance. To optimize worker efficiency and reduce accident risks, organizational strategies must account for environmental, engineering, and regulatory factors, establishing workplaces that prioritize worker safety.

Research demonstrates that safety behaviors within organizations result from combined personal and collective safety practices, with the effectiveness of safety interventions varying based on their focus on individual attitudes and behaviors versus organizational safety culture [12, 13]. Nevertheless, existing literature has primarily examined broad safety management systems without clearly differentiating between specific intervention practices or evaluating their distinct impacts on worker behavior and organizational safety culture.

To address this gap, the present study uniquely assesses the effectiveness of safety intervention practices categorized into four critical groups: organizational interventions, safety culture interventions, attitude and belief interventions, and behavioral interventions. Unlike prior research, this study explicitly differentiates and evaluates these interventions, providing comprehensive insights into their distinct impacts on enhancing safety culture and worker behavior within the context of Thailand’s construction industry. By synthesizing best practices from these intervention strategies, this research contributes innovative, practical guidelines for improving safety behavior and culture, filling critical gaps in knowledge concerning targeted safety interventions in construction projects.

This study collected data on safety intervention strategies and overall safety outcomes, including safety behavior and safety culture, through a structured questionnaire distributed to Thai construction contractors. The sample included firms operating in Bangkok and neighboring provinces, all of which are officially registered with the national business registration authority.

During the initial stage of questionnaire development, a pilot test was conducted with ten building contractors' project managers. Based on the feedback from the respondents, the questionnaire was revised. Following the pilot test, the questionnaire was divided into four parts: Part One includes an introduction with questions related to the profile of the respondents; Part Two focuses on Project Information; Part Three requires respondents to score the frequency of performing variables on intervention practices in their projects (see Table 1); and Part Four asks respondents to specify the safety performance level for each of the two variables on Safety Behavior and the three variables on Safety Culture related to their project, as shown in Table 2.

3.3 Model analysis

The research uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as the primary analytical method to investigate the relationships among safety intervention practices, safety behavior and culture within the context of Thai building contractors. SEM's capability to analyze multiple dependent and independent variables concurrently greatly improves our understanding of the suggested interconnectedness of the hypothesized model [45, 46]. This analytical approach is essential for comprehending the complex interactions between variables, particularly how independent variables might interact with each other before influencing a dependent variable, thereby uncovering the multifaceted factors impacting safety within construction settings.

The use of AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structures) version 23 is vital for conducting a thorough examination of the proposed constructs. AMOS's graphical interface and ability to manage complex model structures make it an excellent tool for analyzing the intricate relationships at play in this study. Using AMOS enables the explicit modeling of latent factors, which are concepts inferred from measured variables. Additionally, AMOS facilitates the evaluation of the dataset, aiming to confirm the hypothesized correlation structure by using 'goodness of fit' measures [47]. These measures are instrumental in assessing how well the empirical data align with the proposed theoretical framework, thereby validating the structural assumptions underlying the research.

3.4 Profile of the sample

Data collection targeted building contractors primarily located in Bangkok and surrounding provinces. Out of 300 companies contacted, 98 responded, resulting in a response rate of 32.7%.

The demographic analysis revealed that a significant proportion of respondents (75.5%) were aged between 30 and 39 years, with males comprising 80.6% of the sample. The majority of respondents held the position of Project Engineer (61.2%), while Site Engineers and Project Managers accounted for 17.3% and 16.3%, respectively.

Regarding work experience, over half of the participants (51%) reported having between 5 and 10 years of experience. Additionally, 25.5% had between 10 and 15 years of experience, and 21.4% reported less than 5 years of experience.

In terms of project size, 26.5% of respondents were involved in projects valued between 10 to 50 million baht, while 22.4% worked on projects ranging from 100 to 500 million baht.

5.1 Hypotheses results

Organizational intervention: The expected positive effect of organizational interventions on safety-culture interventions (H2: β = 0.986, p < 0.001) was supported. This finding aligns with longitudinal studies that show ongoing top management commitment to safety policies, resource allocation, and auditing practices leads to measurable enhancements in safety-culture indicators [34]. Similarly, Mearns and Yule [26] reported that transformational leadership focused on safety contributes to improvements in safety culture by strengthening safety communication and raising safety awareness among employees. Recent work by Wong et al. [17] further demonstrated that contractors equipped with mature safety‑management systems enjoy significantly lower accident rates. Collectively, these findings reinforce our conclusion that robust organizational frameworks are the primary catalyst for cultivating a resilient safety culture.

Safety culture intervention: The hypothesized positive paths from safety‑culture interventions to both safety‑behavior interventions (H4) and attitudes‑and‑belief interventions (H5) are strongly supported. Guldenmund [27] argued that a shared set of safety values is essential for lasting behavioral improvement. Subsequent empirical work reinforces this view: Asilian‑Mahabadi et al. [16] observed significant reductions in unsafe acts after culture‑focused programs were implemented, while Choudhry [40] showed that sites with proactive safety climates attain higher compliance and participation scores. Systems analyses by Iyer et al. [42] similarly demonstrate that cultural initiatives magnify the effectiveness of downstream behavioral controls. Collectively, these studies: and our own validation of H4 and H5: underscore safety culture interventions as the linchpin that transforms organizational intent into positive attitudes and consistent safe‑work practices.

Attitudes and belief intervention: The predicted positive influence of attitudes and belief interventions on safety behavior interventions (H6) was supported. This conclusion is affirmed by the empirical validation of H6, indicating that interventions targeting these psychological aspects positively impact safety behavior interventions. This finding aligns with [28], which suggests that attitudes toward safety, along with perceived behavioral controls, significantly predict individuals' intentions and behaviors concerning safety.

Behavior intervention: The predicted positive impact of behavior interventions on Safety Behavior & Safety Culture (H8) is corroborated by the SEM results (β = 0.531, p = 0.026). These findings align with extensive literature showing that frontline programs—comprehensive safety training, rigorous PPE policies, regular inspections, and disciplined equipment maintenance—substantially reduce unsafe acts and incidents. Christian et al. [25] demonstrated that workers who receive systematic training and reliable PPE exhibit higher safety compliance and participation. Zaira and Hadikusumo [9] similarly reported that well‑structured training and PPE schemes foster a safety‑oriented culture among Thai construction crews, while Wong et al. [17] found that sites with strong inspection and maintenance regimes achieved lower accident rates and stronger safety climates. Collectively, these studies and our own data confirm that targeted behavioral interventions are indispensable for strengthening both safety culture and onsite behaviors.

Total effect: According to the SEM analysis, behavior intervention directly affects safety behavior and culture. However, organizational intervention has the greatest total effect (0.536), closely followed by behavior intervention (0.531). Safety culture intervention also plays a significant role (0.454), while attitudes and beliefs intervention have the smallest total effect (0.262). These results suggest that organizational strategies are crucial for improving safety behavior and culture. These findings are consistent with those of Zohar [24]. The study indicates that organizational interventions are more valuable compared to other interventions in promoting safety objectives, safety standards, safety policies, contracting strategies (including safety requirements and capabilities), and safety audits within the overall safety management system.

R-squared: It can thus be concluded that the SEM model analyzing the impact of safety interventions on safety behavior and safety culture has yielded significant insights into safety management within building construction companies. The analysis reveals that the four types of safety interventions, namely organizational intervention, safety culture intervention, attitudes and belief intervention, and behavior intervention, collectively account for 60% of the variance observed in safety behavior and safety culture among building contractors. This R-squared value of 0.6 indicates that a substantial portion of safety behavior and culture can be explained by these interventions.

5.2 Implications of the findings

The study indicates that organizational interventions don't directly impact safety culture and behavior. However, they can indirectly improve them through culture, attitude, and behavior interventions as mediators. The study highlights that organizational interventions are more valuable compared to other interventions, in terms of the total effect from the model. The analysis conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) reveals that organizational interventions positively influence safety culture interventions. This finding aligns with previous research by Neal and Griffin [30], which also confirmed the positive effects of safety culture interventions on attitudes and behaviors intervention.

Furthermore, the analysis strongly supports the expected beneficial outcomes of behavior interventions on both safety culture and behavior. The SEM findings clearly illustrate the immediate and positive contributions of behavioral interventions in enhancing the overall safety culture and behavior within projects. Behavioral interventions are more effective with targeted measures, including comprehensive safety training, the deployment of PPE initiatives, consistent maintenance of safety equipment, and regular safety audits. These strategies collectively emphasize the importance of a proactive approach to safety, reinforcing the thesis that well-designed behavioral interventions are instrumental in advancing safety culture and practices. This is further evidenced by the findings of Zaira and Hadikusumo [9].

Additionally, the study highlights that safety culture interventions play a vital role in shaping safety behaviors and attitudes. Interventions aimed at building a strong safety culture contribute to improved safety practices and increased safety awareness among employees [24, 30]. Similarly, attitudes and beliefs interventions positively influence safety behaviors by addressing the psychological aspects of safety, thus fostering a more safety-conscious workforce. These results emphasize the significance of adopting a multifaceted approach to safety interventions, integrating organizational, cultural, attitudinal, and behavioral strategies to effectively enhance safety performance within construction projects.

This study enriches safety management theory by presenting an integrated framework that links organizational, cultural, attitudinal, and behavioral interventions to safety culture and behavior in construction settings. The findings highlight the indirect influence of organizational strategies through mediating factors such as safety culture, attitudes, and behaviors. These results build on established models like the Theory of Planned Behavior and safety climate theory, showing that psychological and cultural components play a key role in translating organizational intent into practice. The study also offers a clearer understanding of the relative effectiveness of different intervention types, with organizational interventions showing the strongest overall impact. This insight provides a more layered perspective of how multiple safety initiatives interact, supporting a holistic strategy for improving safety performance across complex work environments.