title: Ethnographic investigation into the management of onsite production pressures and its effect on safety performance on construction projects in developing countries: the case of large building projects in Ghana
Creators: name: Acheampong Twum, Bernard
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2025

description: Most construction project organisations often indicate safety is their number one priority 
because they want their workers to get home from work safely uninjured or unhurt. However, 
in terms of accidents, the construction sector is still noted to be one of the riskiest, particularly 
in developing countries where the rate of safety incidents are known to be high. Construction 
safety research indicates that production pressure, a widespread phenomenon in most 
construction projects, is a key contributing factor to these accidents on projects. However, our 
understanding of the managerial practices that unfold when construction projects are 
confronted with such pressures or their effect on safety performance is limited. Especially, 
empirical accounts on the management of production pressures at the project site level from a 
developing country context are rare. 
In response to calls for more research to explore the managerial practices used in managing 
production pressures on construction projects. An intensive four months of ethnographic-inspired fieldwork was mobilised, using moderate participant observations, semi-structured, 
informal interviews and project documents review on two large public sector building projects 
in Accra-Ghana. A practice institutional logics lens is developed to examine the tensions 
between production and safety during the production pressure periods. It was found that 
contract time management procedures for resolving progress delays were followed on the 
projects during the production pressure periods. Production logic was enacted, with two 
production management practices adopted to manage production pressure incidents. As a 
formal production management practice, production acceleration was used, while as an 
informal production management practice, productivity-based incentives were negotiated with 
workers to achieve a faster production rate. Strategic responses based on defiance and 
compromise were adopted on the projects respectively to cope with institutional complexity. The project teams' underlying rationale for the adopted practices and strategies was to recover 
the projects delayed progress to prevent cost and time overruns. However, the adopted 
managerial practices and strategies prioritised production over safety, which, it is argued, 
increased safety risks leading to accidents and near-misses on the projects. 
A reconciliatory logic was enacted following safety incidents on the second project, adopting 
a blended hybrid response. Consequently, safety and productivity goals were better integrated, 
resulting in a facilitative relationship. The study contributes to ethnographic insights into the 
complexities of, and inherent tensions between, safety and production in construction in this 
context. The insights from the study provide an understanding of how contract procedures for 
time management facilitate progress delay recovery, while at the same time impeding safety 
management during production pressure periods. The findings offer pragmatic
recommendations for policymakers, project clients and construction firms, which, when
implemented, can inform changes in contract drafting during the procurement process to 
improve health and safety performance.