Managing Safety in Construction: are Standards the Way Forward?

Management standards have been landing on the construction industry as a whole in successive waves. First came the now conspicuous quality management standards (usually on one of the variations in the ISO 9000 series or national equivalents). Environmental standards were quick to follow, and some expect their application to become rapidly as omnipresent as that of quality management standards.

At this stage we should expect that a number of interests will quickly move towards the development of Occupational Safety & Health management standards. Several countries developed (or are developing) standards on their own. The International Organization for Standardisation has also been discussing the matter.

Having in mind the mixed feelings and application results emanating from the ISO 9000 standards, also starting to be felt around the ISO 14000 standards, this is the right moment to question and discuss the future for Occupational Safety & Health management.

This paper seeks to benefit from previous experience in quality and the environment to analyse the possible benefits and drawbacks of going ahead with standards for Occupational Safety & Health management.

It assumes a behavioural approach, considering that obviously different situations require different solutions. It develops the hypothesis that no panacea solution can be found for managing Occupational Safety & Health in the construction industry, implying that situational approaches are the most adequate