Inertia and change: lean construction and health and safety work on construction sites

Marianne Forman

Construction Management and Economics, 2013, vol. 31, issue 6, 647-660

Abstract: Lean construction has been articulated as a concept that can solve health and safety (H&S) problems at construction sites. The question is whether it is that simple. Lean construction and H&S work can be perceived as two different societal change programmes. The focus in this article is on how organizations implement the change programmes and what new forms of practice they stabilize as a result of the implementation process. In particular, the stabilization of new routines for coupling production planning and H&S work are investigated. Applied theories lie within the areas of change processes in organizations, H&S and construction management. The method was based on three qualitative case studies. Three major Danish contractors were involved in the investigation, and for each contractor a construction project was studied on site over a six-month period. Contractors are project-based companies and it seemed that the change programmes and the stabilized new practices that relate production planning and H&S work at construction sites were dependent on the relationship between the functional departments at the company and the construction project, the organizational location of the key actors that drive the change programmes, the 'softness' of the concepts that are implemented and the perception of H&S.

Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01446193.2013.765953 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:31:y:2013:i:6:p:647-660

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCME20

DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2013.765953

Access Statistics for this article

Construction Management and Economics is currently edited by Will Hughes

More articles in Construction Management and Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().