Introduction
Background Information
In both developed and developing countries, health and safety has been a key challenge and concern in the construction industry. With inherent risks of accidents in the construction industry, there is a growing need for better policies to institute standard practices to foster better health and safety for employees and the public. According to Shibani, Saidani, and Alhajeri(2013), construction industries use different strategies to minimise the incident of accidents, but strategies such as compliance with regulation are not sufficient to guarantee health and safety performances in the industry. In Qatar, the construction sector is a vital domestic backbone; therefore, poor project operation and lack of building control can have negative impacts on the economy (Senouci, Al-Abbadi, and Eldin 2015). For example, due to the upcoming sports event that Qatar will be the primary host, the construction and building industry is set to invest more than $40 billion in infrastructure and other projects relating to the preparation of such important event (Senouci, Al-Abbadi, and Eldin 2015). Therefore, with the enormous investment of infrastructure projects, the state of Qatar’s economy will change as the projects will lead to the unprecedented rate of economic development and urban growth.
With Qatar preparing to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, the construction industry is set to initiate a number of construction activities, thus, it will be relevant for construction companies to promote safety and health programs in any construction that was taking place in the country. Such measures will help enforce workers’ safety and offer a competitive advantage for the construction companies. The purpose of this study will be to evaluate the safety and health innovation in Qatar’s construction industry, as contributory factors to competitive advantage in the industry. The proposal will focus on highlighting the research methodology to be used for this study and providing an overview of the case of health and safety innovation within the construction industry in Qatar.
Problem Statement
Although there has been a significant advancement in occupational health and safety innovation in Qatar over the years, injury rates in the building industry remain high. According to Al-Thani et al., (2014) in 2007 and 2008, the injury incidence and mortality rate from the construction industry in Qatar were 86.7% and 8.44% per 100,000 people who were working in various Qatar’s construction projects. Correspondingly, Al Jurf, Dawood, and Naji (2012) write that in the local Qatar construction industry, especially in the building construction activities, the rate of accidents is 4 to 5 workers per 100,000 construction staffs. Therefore, four to five workers are likely to be victims of common accidents on the construction site or within the construction projects. This has become a common phenomenon and new programs that will keep workers healthy and safe within the construction industry in Qatar are required.
In essence, initiating the safety and health policies within the Qatar construction industry will not only benefit the construction workers, but it will also give the construction companies a competitive advantage. When the construction companies ion Qatar gain a better understanding of the importance of promoting the safety and health aspects, this will allow the companies in the industry to deliver and sustain competitive advantage (Ramady 2012). To make the industry more competitive through safety and health policies, the Qatar construction companies will have to include managerial procedures and learn how to develop safety and healthy working processes. However, the aspect of competitive advantaget the Qatar’s construction industry is not as high as it should be because of lack of early identification of hazardous factors that lead to the health and safety problems in the building sector.
In addition, safety training has become a major issue in Qatar’s construction industry, where Qatar construction companies are reluctant on training and inducting the workers on safety measures that they should follow at the working station. This means that there are specific factors that Qatar’s construction industry needs to consider to develop health and safety programs that will create a competitive advantage for the companies in the building sector. Therefore, following the challenges facing Qatar, the aim of this study will be to evaluate the safety and health innovation in Qatar’s construction industry for competitive advantage.
Aims and Objective of the Study
The aim of this research will involve evaluating the innovation health and safety cases in the Qatar’s construction industry. Some of the major specific objectives that the research will use focus on include:
- To comprehensively research and review the safety and health innovationshat the Qatar’s construction industry have set in order to understand how the innovations are influencing competitive advantage within the industry.
- To review the drivers of health and safety innovation in construction projects in Qatar.
- To explore how the building industry stakeholders influence safety and health policies and procedures in Qatar’s construction industry, especially in the construction projects in different cities in Qatar.
- To provide strategies and suggestions on how the construction industry in Qatar can improve on safety and health innovations performance in its projects.
Scope of the Study
As mentioned above, the issue of health and safety innovation in the construction industry can be used as a concept that can give companies within the building sector a competitive advantage. Therefore, all the companies in the construction industry can adapt health and safety innovation strategies, which will ensure that there are further improvements in the construction business in Qatar. The scope of this research will aim at introducing methods that construction firms in Qatar can use to promote the health and safety innovations for competitive advantage. Competitiveness in the Qatar construction sector cannot be implemented without improving the health and safety measures.
The major limitation concerning the organisation considered for this study is that the Ramaco Trading & Contracting Company presents minor work related injuries. Lastly, the researcher plans to carry out the survey in a specific timeframe. As such, the researcher will probably need six to seven weeks to complete the study. The researcher will take about two weeks to frame the proposal, conduct the literature review, and data collection task. The researcher will take three of four weeks to write the final copy of this study, proofread, and check for the minor errors that may have occurred in the context of the whole process of this research.
Literature Review
As Boeglin, Saleh, Llodra, and Racine (2013) illustrate, following the announcement that Qatar will be the host of FIFA World Cup in the coming years; there will be a significant increase in projects in the construction and infrastructure industry. In a study examining the “Impact of Corporate Strength/Weaknesses on Project Management Competencies”, Isik, Arditi, Dikmen, and Birgonul (2009) argue that health and safety innovations in the construction industry aim at reducing the number of accidents that happens in a project as well as the effects of the accident on the cost of the construction project. Lingard and Rowlinson (2005) contend that when construction companies implement innovative health and safety policies within the sites, such measures reduce accidents, speed up the construction programs, and allow the contractors to design and build buildings that are safe for use.
Similarly, Stracke (2012) speculates that safety and health innovations in the construction industry increases transparency and it gives workers in the site an idea of some of the safety and health risks that may happen within the construction tasks. Camarinha-Matos, Pereira, and Ribeiro (2010) suggest that safety and health innovations are becoming prominent features that should be taken into account in the construction industry. At the same time, the study by Camarinha-Matos, Pereira, and Ribeiro (2010) assert that safety and health innovation such as technological innovation assist contractors to formulate and express the relationship between the risk factors and overall risk measures. This move helps the contractors become aware of safety information needed within the construction activities.
In a recent research, Rawlinson and Farrell (2010) argue that the government, learning’s institution, and the construction industry inform safety and health innovation within the construction industry. For example, in the UK, the government innovation for safety and health in the construction site was introduced in the 1990s, where the constructing teams across were the major springboard of innovative safety and health programs within the industry (Rawlinson and Farrell 2010). Further, Loosemore (2014) posits that in the construction industry, unions play an important part in facilitating safety and health innovations. In this case, it is noted that innovation within the construction industry is created through the scrutiny of unions’ management practices, especially in the field of occupational health and safety (Loosemore 2014). In addition, VäYrynen, HäKkinen, and Niskanen (2015) propose that through the different tools and involvement of joint ventures in the construction industry, safety, and health issues have gained recognition in the construction workplaces. Therefore, the current safety and health innovative programs such as technology and safety training in the construction industry are determined by specific factors that are integrated together for promoting safety and health in the sites.
Kamar, Lop, Salleh, Mamter, and Suhaimi (2014) affirm that to improve the safety and health innovation in the construction industry, all the stakeholders including the organisation should play their part. Their research outlined that for the building organisations to improve and maintain innovative occupational health and safety programs, the companies within the industry should retain the construction policy, measure performance, and implement planning activities set to improve safety and good innovations (Kamar, et al. 2014). A study by Maraqa and Mohamed (2013) confirmed that to standardise the health and safety innovation within the construction industry, the leadership and management should play their responsibilities. Along the same argument, Zulkefli, Ulang, and Baharum (2014) reveal that as it has become part of the construction leaders to improve safety and health innovation within the industry, motivating workers in terms of worksite safety is a fundamental responsibility of the managers and leaders in the construction unit. For example, in the Abu Dhabi Emirates, the leaders in the construction industry provide the tools to implement safety and health policies, making the workers at the site get motivated and commit to improving safety in the workstation (Maraqa and Mohamed 2013).
From these researches, it is apparent that the success of construction industry is based on different factors, with the industry stakeholders playing a significant role. The commitment, coordination, communication, and stakeholder’s involvement are the major elements that can be used as part of safety improvement techniques. In this essence, the contractors and sub-contractors will have to play different roles under the mentioned management functions (Maraqa and Mohamed 2013). Thus, for construction industry to propel efficiently, the industry structure, planning activities within the industry, workers, employers’ responsibilities, and government policies will need to be considered as the primary determinant that will sustain safety and health in the worksite.
Research Methods
For this study, the research has an opportunity of using different methods to collect data. However, as the study aims at presenting findings that are valid and reliable, mail-in written questionnaire will be the appropriate method to be used for this survey. Mail questionnaire method will be employed for this study since it saves time and is cost effective (Karami 2007). Moreover, the method reduces biasing errors, allows wide circulation of the sample, and sanctions the respondents to be careful with the information they are providing to the research (Brown 2008).
To distribute the mail-in written questionnaire, the research will review the key construction companies in Qatar so that the research can select the staffs who will be used in this study. For example, the research will consider the accessibility of Ramaco Trading & Contracting Company, as one of the major construction company in the Qatar building industry (“Ramarco: About Us” 2016). For the research to reach out to the administration group, marketing people, safety manager, and production manager at any construction company in Qatar, the mail written questionnaire will be considered for this matter. Using the mail survey, the research will get preferable answers, and if in any case, the research wants to consult the respondent’s, mail questionnaire will be of great benefit for that matter.
Arrangement and Chapters
The research will be organised into five sections as follows:
Chapter 1: The research will outline information about the study, the nature of health and safety innovation in the construction industry in Qatar, define the problem, and state the objective of the study.
Chapter 2: In this section, the research will review the literature with the aim of understanding the aspect of safety and health innovation in Qatar construction sector. The review of the previous studies will be insightful to the research, as the nature of improvements in the construction industry will be analysed with the goal of showing how the improvement is making Qatar construction unit gain a competitive advantage.
Chapter 3: In this chapter, the research methodology that will be used for the study will be explained. The research will also propose the expected methodology for the survey based on its merit and the survey expected outcomes.
Chapter 4: In this chapter, the research will present the data, discuss the results, and analyse it based on previous literature and the collected data.
Chapter 5: This will be the final section for the study, where the research will present the summary, conclusion, and recommendations from the research work.
Bibliography
Al Jurf, N., Dawood, N., and Naji, K., 2012. New Methods for Health & Safety Training in the Qatar Building Construction Industry. Research Gate. pp. 1-10
Al-Thani, H., El-Menyar, A., Abdelrahman, H., Zarour, A., Consunji, R., Peralta, R., Asim, M., El-Hennawy, H., Parchani, A. and Latifi, R., 2014. Workplace-related traumatic injuries: insights from a rapidly developing Middle Eastern country. Journal of Environmental and Public Health, pp. 1-9
Boeglin, M. C., Saleh, R., Llodra, M., and Racine, G, P., 2013. Construction Qatar: Ensuring Health and Safety Standards in Construction Project. Delivering Expert Knowledge to Global Counsel. International Law Office. pp. 1-2
Brown, L. O. 2008. Market Research and Analysis. [Place of publication not identified], Wildside Press.
Camarinha-Matos, L., Pereira, P., & Ribeiro, L. (2010). Emerging trends in technological innovation: Berlin: Springer
Isik, Z., Arditi, D., Dikmen, I. and Birgonul, M.T., 2009. Impact of Corporate Strengths/Weaknesses on Project Management Competencies. International Journal of Project Management, 27(6), pp.629-637.
Kamar, I.M., Lop, N.S., Salleh, N.M., Mamter, S. and Suhaimi, H.A., 2014. Contractor’s Awareness on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Management Systems in Construction Industry. In E3S Web of Conferences3.pp. 1-6
Karami, A. 2007. Strategy formulation in entrepreneurial firms. Aldershot, England, Ashgate
Lingard, H., and Rowlinson, S. M. 2005. Occupational Health and Safety in Construction Project Management. London, Spon Press.
Loosemore, M. (2014). Innovation, Strategy, and Risk in Construction. New York, NY, Routledge, Taylor, & Francis Group.
Maraqa, M.A. and Mohamed, A.M.O., 2013. Key Drivers for Successful Safety Management System of Construction Activities in Abu Dhabi Emirate. International Journal of Advanced Fire, Explosive, Environment Safety and Disaster Management1(1), pp. 1-17.
RAMARCO: About Us, 2016. RAMACO Trading & Contracting Available at: http://ramaco-qatar.net/Aboutus.aspx [Accessed 30 Dec 2016]
Rawlinson, F. and Farrell, P., 2010. UK Construction Industry Site Health and Safety Management: An Examination of Promotional Web Material as an Indicator of Current Direction. Construction Innovation, 10(4), pp.435-446.
Ramady, M. A. 2012. The GCC economies: stepping up to future challenges. New York, Springer Science+Business Media.
Senouci, A., Al-Abbadi, I. and Eldin, N., 2015. Safety Improvement on Building Construction Sites in Qatar. Procedia Engineering, 123, pp.504-509.
Shibani, A., Saidani, M. and Alhajeri, M., 2013. Health and Safety Influence on the Construction Project Performance in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Journal of Civil Engineering and Construction Technology, 4(2), pp.32-44.
Stracke, C. M. 2012. The Future of Learning Innovations and Learning Quality How Do They Fit Together?Berlin Gito.
VäYrynen, S., HäKkinen, K., and Niskanen, T. 2015. Integrated Occupational Safety and Health Management: Solutions and Industrial Cases. Cham: Springer.
Zulkefli, F.A., Ulang, N.M. and Baharum, F., 2014. Construction Health and Safety: Effectiveness of Safety Incentive Programme. In SHS Web of Conferences11, pp. 1-6
