Understanding the Link Between Construction Safety & Productivity: An Active Learning simulation Exercise

Name
Professor
Course
Date
Understanding the Link between Construction Safety and Productivity
All along, there have been studies with attempts in finding out the positive relationship that exists between safety interventions and works productivity by utilizing prolonged cases of evaluation. For instance, productivity losses are prevalent with the violation of safety when compared with safety prevention (Hallowell 2). On the same note, safety management also impacts positively on productivity because injuries lead to the reduction of the achieved task to zero. Added to this, there is a decrement in the work output from the worker who has succumbed to injury, damage on the tools of work and the much time spent in the investigation of the cause of the accident. Based on this notion, such companies that experience several problems on safety matters tend to have low productivity rates.
Some theories are in place that supports the direct association between productivity and safety. One of these theories is the Distraction Theory that states that a laborer will experience higher levels of realizing the task before him or her in situations where the distraction from a familiar hazard is very rare. On the other hand, the achievement rate of the task is less likely in circumstances where there is more attention paid to distractions that are likely to come from the hazards (Hallowell 2). According to this theory, the aspect of production gets compromised in situations where distractions as a result of hazards are prevalent such that there is the need to mitigate the risks linked to safety with the objective of realizing improvement in both safety and production in a simultaneous manner.

On top of what appears to be a wider field of the literature that places an argument on the positive relation between safety and productivity, other literature, on the other hand, present a discussion on tradeoffs. Managers, for example, have a belief that there is still not an adequate time that can be utilized in the performance of work in a safe manner while also taking into consideration that work practices that exercise safety leads to the decrement in productivity (Hallowell 3). Likewise, the employees who exhibit higher levels of productivity in a company also experience a lot of accidents. For this reason, there is need to consider the aspects of productivity and safety as tradeoffs since the emphasis given on productivity results into the increment in the behaviors that are risky.
Excessive pressure schedules at workplaces are other contributing factors towards higher rates of injury within the workplaces. For example, most workers tend to ignore safety concerns with the intention of emerging as more productive since they fear to lose their job opportunities. Always, there is the quantity of productivity loss that happens when workers utilize the personal fall arrest system within the residential places (Hallowell 3). For example, well trained male volunteers, upon the institution of the system of fall protection, have incidences of reduced production. At the same time, there is quite a lot of time spent in the adjustment of the lanyard of the personal fall arrest where in this case, gives a translation of the decrement in the effective work and an eventual increment in the vital contributory work or the lost productivity in other words.
Finally, about the effects of the short duration and prolonged impacts on both safety and productivity, the aspects such as production quality and performance cost as well as the multifaceted programs are the major determinants in this scenario. In this regard, those companies that set plans as early as enough and also follows them, especially those touching on safety and productivity, are likely to achieve their targets.
Work Cited
Hallowell, Matthew. “Understanding The Link Between Construction Safety & Productivity: An Active Learning Simulation Exercise”. Safety, Health & Environmental Research 28.1 (2011): 1-21. Web.