CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by espace@Curtin sustainability Article The Influence of Social Capitalism on Construction Safety Behaviors: An Exploratory Megaproject Case Study Xiuyu Wu 1, Heap-Yih Chong 2, Ge Wang 3,* ID and Shuquan Li 1 1 School of Management Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Finance & Economics, Tianjin 300222, China;
[email protected] (X.W);
[email protected] (S.L) 2 School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University, Perth WA 6845, Australia;
[email protected] 3 College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +86-027-8728-4349 Received: 30 July 2018; Accepted: 28 August 2018; Published: 30 August 2018 Abstract: Health and safety issues are critical factors influencing the sustainable development of mega construction projects. The impact of social capitalism on health and safety activities has been widely discussed in sustainability domains; nevertheless, its influence towards workers’ safety behaviors in mega construction projects remains largely unknown. To address this research gap, the current study aims to determine the influence of social capitalism on safety behaviors from a two-fold perspective between project managers and construction workers. An exploratory case study was adopted from a mega construction project in Tianjin, China. The results reveal that (a) the social network between project managers and construction workers manifests itself as close communication and contact, trust and emotional identification, common language, vision, and values; (b) project managers’ management behaviors show stronger influences on construction workers’ safety compliance behaviors, while their leadership behaviors show stronger influences on construction workers’ safety participation behaviors; and (c) the practice of social capitalism promotes enforcement of commands and compulsory norms and plays a positive regulatory role on safety behaviors.