Effect of Social Capital between Construction Supervisors and Workers on Workers’ Safety Behavior

This study aims to investigate the level of social capital between construction supervisors and workers and how this influences construction workers' safety behavior. To fulfill these research aims, a structural equation model (SEM) was constructed to explore the relationships among social capital (including the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions); safety competency; and safety behavior (i.e., safety compliance and safety participation), considering safety competency as a mediation variable. Data on these variables were collected via questionnaires answered by 535 construction workers who participated in 93 completed building projects in China. In regard to safety behavior, only the cognitive dimension, represented by shared language and shared goals, had a significant positive effect on safety behavior. The structural dimension, which includes network ties between supervisors and workers as well as the centralization of supervisors, had a significant negative effect on safety behavior. The relational dimension, characterized by mutual trust and reciprocity norms, had no direct or indirect effect on safety behavior. For the mediation effect, the cognitive dimension had an indirect, positive effect on this variable, considering safety competency as the mediation variable; the structural and the relational dimensions did not indirectly affect safety behavior. This paper provides a theoretical basis for construction supervisors to develop measures to improve workers' safety behavior from the perspective of relationships between people, and it points out the important role of safety competency in safety behavior. Unlike assumptions, the high level of the network has a negative effect on safety behavior, which should cause supervisors to pay attention to workplace safety management. In general, this study can inform management methods for improving workers' safety behavior and on-site safety conditions from the perspective of social capital.