Health and safety knowledge transfer and diffusion From the construction industry to the community as a Corporate social responsibility

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 i v 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.

Source: KNUST