Health and safety knowledge transfer and diffusion From the construction industry to the community as a Corporate social responsibility
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Date
2020-06
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KNUST
Abstract
Clear evidences have shown that poor state of health and safety cultural practices have
existed among Ghanaian citizenry. This has created much debate among government,
academics, religious bodies, opinion leaders and the media, thereby calling for
immediate action to improve the situation. Reports from some national institutions
like The National Statistical Service Report, (2016) and the Ghana National Fire
Service Incident Report, (2016) have pointed out the urgent need to improve the state
of Health and safety in the country. The reports have acknowledged that ignorance
and negligence rank high as causes of most health and safety problems reported in the
country. In recent years, awareness of Health and safety in the construction industry
has increased. Meanwhile, these construction companies operate in the communities
and are socially expected to go beyond the execution of their projects and engage in
corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a give back to society. However, contractors
complain about several factors that affect their ability to fulfil this expectation.
Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a framework for the transfer of health
and safety knowledge and its diffusion into Ghanaian communities by construction
companies as a corporate social responsibility. In order to facilitate the understanding
of the processes of transferring knowledge from a construction company to the
Ghanaian communities, two theories were integrated: innovation diffusion theory and
knowledge transfer and conversion theory. Through a questionnaire survey and
semistructured face-to-face interviews, both quantitative and qualitative data were
collected from road and building contractors of all classes across the country. The data
were analysed using chi-square test of independence, one sample t-test, cumulative
scale analysis and factor analysis for the quantitative data while thematic analysis was
used for the qualitative data. Findings from both the quantitative and qualitative
studies confirmed the improvement of health and safety knowledge in the Ghanaian
construction industry. The study found that road contractors are better performers in
Health and safety than building contractors. Furthermore, the study established that
the maturity of health and safety culture in the Ghanaian construction industry is at its
first stage of the health and safety culture maturity ladder. The study further found six
major challenges confronted by Ghanaian contractors engaged in corporate social
responsibility. Topmost among these are the view that Ghanaian contractors have of
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CSR as avoidable expense, the absence of a legal framework to guide CSR
implementation and lack of incorporation of CSR into the Vision and Mission
Statements of organisations. The study also identified five knowledge transfer
enablers and four barriers to knowledge transfer from the Ghanaian construction firms
to the communities. Six enablers were also found to be significant in diffusion of
knowledge in the Ghanaian communities by contractors with four associated barriers.
The findings from the study resulted in the development of stage by stage knowledge
transfer and diffusion framework for facilitating transfer of knowledge and its
subsequent diffusion from construction companies to the communities as a corporate
social responsibility to construction companies. The study contributed immensely to
the academia where it tests, extends and integrates innovation diffusion theory and
Nonaka and Takeuchi’s knowledge conversion and transfer theory to a new context
thereby helping to better explain external knowledge transfer and diffusion from the
construction company to the community. Practically, the dynamic factors in
integrating innovation decision processes, knowledge transfer and conversion
processes, knowledge transfer influencers and complexities and knowledge diffusion
influencers and complexities would assist researchers to understand external
knowledge transfer from the perspectives of construction companies to the
communities. Further, the framework proposed provides a practical step towards
actions and activities required to be institutionalised to enhance the transfer process.
Therefore, the findings of this study can be used as a practical guide for construction
companies to transfer knowledge from the industry to any community in which they
find themselves.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Construction Technology and Management,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi in partial
fulfilment of the requirement for the award degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT