ASSESSMENT THE SAFETY POLICY MANAGEMENT FOR BUILDING CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES IN JORDAN

In Jordan the building construction industry is considered to be one of the most signifi cant industries in terms of contributing to economy, and also in terms of its impact on health and safety of the working people. Construction industry is so important for both sides the socially and economically. At the same time, the construction industry, is also known to be the most hazardous. There for it is essential to investigate and assess the factors effecting safety policy of building construction companies in Jordan, and identifying the level of attention in applying the safety related factors. This research identifi es seven of these factors that have the greatest impact to arise. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was presented into 64 question. The questionnaire survey was distributed to 179 (1st, 2nd and 3rd degree) companies which provided by Jordanian construction contractors association. Statistical analysis was carried out to 145 responding companies by employing the (SPSS) program. Data related to safety policy management were analyzed and discussed in details.


INTRODUCTION
The building construction industry considers important sector of Jordan economy, especially regarding its potential employment opportunities. But incidents, accidents, fatalities and injuries continue to happen unrestricted on the construction sites at constantly with high rates. The construction industry tends to have a low understanding and ignorance for the benefi ts of long term safety practices, whilst the project managements often gives little attention to health and safety, resulting in more costs. Construction projects are characterized by many unique and exceptional factors, such as exposure to weather conditions, frequent rotations of work team, high proportions of temporary workers and unskilled. Construction sites, unlike other production and manufacture facilities, undergo changes in topology, topography and work conditions such temperature and wind throughout the projects duration. These features and characteristics make managing building construction project site safety process more diffi cult than managing safety and health in manufacturing factories or plants. This study is created in associate with the research carried by Mohamed [1] and the objectives are set to fulfi ll; First Evaluating the current status of factors effecting safety policy of building construction companies in Jordan, and identifying the level of attention in applying the safety related factors. Second Determining the factors affecting the improvement of safety management.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Various literatures related to the projects are reviewed. Some researchers in many countries have identifi ed several leading occupational health and safety risk assessment methods and models. None among the existing studies has been done to investigate extensively the safety policy management system for building construction companies in Jordan. El-Mashaleh, et al. [2] examine safety management in the Jordanian construction industry. The study collects data from general construction contractors. It reveals several factors of poor safety management. Among these are lack of safety training, rare safety meetings, rare safety inspections, safety protection measures are missing, workers hesitate to use safety equipment, high rates of labor turnover and noncompliance with safety rules and legislation. Senouci, et al. [3] identify safety issues in Qatari jobsites, and to use risk management techniques to minimize the impacts of the risk factors. The risk assessment was addressed through safety questionnaires to rank the risk factors in order to guide the application of risk management. As a conclusion, the practice of safety risk management must be enhanced in the Qatari construction industry. More training, seminars, and workshops should be conducted by construction companies to familiarize employees about the concept of safety risk management. Al Haadir [4] aiming into identifying the critical factors affecting the successful implementation of safety programs among construction companies in Saudi Arabia. Using AHP analysis technique and Pareto principle, the cumulative average AHP weights of critical safety factors suggested seven critical factors that can account for 80% of the successful implementation of safety programs in construction companies. These factors are: (1) management support; (2) clear and reasonable objectives; (3) Personal attitude; (4) teamwork; (5) effective enforcement; (6) safety training; and (7) suitable supervision. Zolfagharian et al. [5] revealed that the difference was not signifi cant in frequency and severity of accidents between developed and developing countries that were studied in this research. They also found that there was a lack or shortage of safety forward trends and attitudes, as well as a lack of awareness of safety regulations, poor awareness of safety for project managers, and lack of knowledge about hazards with the most construction risk in projects sites. El-Nagar et al. [6] fi rst, identify the main factors that can be considered as safety performance indicators for the construction projects in Egypt. Second, they develop a safety performance index for the Egyptian construction projects. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 238 contractors and statistical analyses were carried out. The results also showed that some of the high impact factors (safety training and plan) were not to have the importance that deserve. Hasan & Jha [7] carried out some statistic on safety provisions were collected from 32 construction projects in India, which include both types of contracts, those with safety I/P provisions and those without them. The six factors extracted by carrying out factor analysis are: incentive distribution method, proper labor training, special attention to risky situations, role of safety committee and sub-contractors, specialized works and safety equipment. If taken care of, these attributes have the potential to improve the safety performance in construction projects. Aksorn & Hadikusumo [8] identifi ed and ranked in their study 16 Critical Success Factors for the implementation of safety programs based on their infl uence degree in the construction industry in Thailand. The important factors are: management support, teamwork, realistic and clear goals, effi cient enforcement plan, program evaluation, delegation of responsibility and authority, proper supervision, positive group norms, suffi cient resource allocation, and continuing employee participation. Nord et al. [9] collected data from a sample of Swedish manufacturing companies, to investigate factors like company size, safety culture, and different measures of fi nancial performance may be related to the quality of occupational health and safety management (OHSM) practices in companies. The statistical analysis was performed with ordinal regression analysis using generalized estimating equations. This study has found that company size, safety culture, and creditworthiness are associated with better, as well as worse, OHSM practices in companies. Chen et al. [10] examined the role of safety climate and individual resilience in safety performance and job stress in the Canadian construction industry. The research was based on 837 surveys collected in Ontario. Structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used to explore the impact of individual resilience and safety climate on physical safety outcomes and on psychological stress among construction workers. Results show that safety climate affects construction workers' safety performance and also indirectly affects their psychological stress. Sunindijoa [11] and Ozmec et al. [12] investigate managements for small companies in Australia and Denmark. They found that safety issues were rarely shared or communicated as a common issue within the companies. All contributors in the industry have important roles to play to change the customs and culture in the industry so that small construction companies are supported in their effort to improve their safety performance. Ayessaki & Smallwood [13] concluded that construction project managers in South Africa have a major role to play in terms of infl uencing worker performance through H&S interventionsduring the design, procurement, and construction processes, however, there is potential to enhance such infl uence. Recommendations include that CPMs should raise client awareness with respect to worker H&S and welfare facilities. Endroyo et al. [14] created the model of Pre-Construction Safety Planning of evaluation to the several medium high rise building projects in Indonesia. the results of research, are the model for evaluating the maturity of PCSP in radar diagram.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Achieving the objective of this research is maintained by designing a questionnaire establishing sample size, validity content, pilot study, reliability and analyzing and discussing the data which were collected by questionnaire using SPSS program. The questionnaire was designed in four stages, Initial questionnaire list, expert review, pilot questionnaire, and fi nal questionnaire list. Based on extensive literature review, the researchers have gathered 7 main factors effecting construction safety contain sub factors or elements to be included in the research questionnaire. The study will focus on the projects of building construction contracting companies (fi rst, second and third degree) and investigate the safety status when compare collected data. The questionnaire final form was fi nalized for utilize in the survey, comprised demographic information presented into 64 question see Table-5. The fi ve Likert scales which is the procedure that used in answering the questions in the questionnaires to obtain participant's preferences or degree of agreement with a statement or set of statements according to the importance of each item as shown in Table 1.
Category Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree  The selection of the research samples was based on selecting populations size from (1 st , 2 nd , and 3 rd degree) companies specialized in building which it provided by Jordanian construction contractors association, as shown in Table 2.
The size of the sample required from the target population was determine according to Israel [15];  Where; n the sample size. N the population size. e the desired accuracy level = 0.05. Over 179 questionnaire forms were distributed, 145 were responded, weight for each companies' specialist is shown in the following Table 3.

Statistical analysis
Qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were used to analyze the data; it was carried out by employing the (SPSS) programVersion 17.

Reliability analysis
Measures the consistency over time and over similar samples expectedly, a reliable instrument for a piece of research should produce same data from similar respondents over time; George and Mallery [16]. Cronbach's coeffi cient (α) was calculated to estimate the internal consistency of reliability of a measurement scale.  Cronbach's Alpha (α) > 0.9 0.9 -0.8 0.8 -0.7 0.7 -0.6 0.6 -0.5 (α) < 0.5 Table 4: Weight of sample size mally ranges between 0 and 1.0, the closer cronbach's alpha coeffi cient is to 1.0 the greater the internal consistency of the items in the scale, based upon the following Equation; Where; K the number of questions. ∑sd 2 the summation of standard variation square. sd 2 the square of total standard variation. The limitations of α where classifi ed in Table 4. The draft of the questionnaires was presented to eight expertise in academic and practical fi elds, to assess the clarity and comprehensiveness of each statement and how it is related to the elements that are need to be measured. Table 5 shows the values of reliability concerning the quality control factors in construction projects.The overall (questionnaire) reliability value was (0.919), and these values refl ect a good reliability indication.

Data analysis for quality control factors
The values of means, standard deviations, relative importance and correlation coeffi cient was calculated following MacMillan [17] and relative importance index after Iyer & Jha [18]. 1. Mean; the mean value is the most common measure of central tendency.
Where; fi the number of respondents who answer the ith option. Xi the weight that assigned to ith option. n the total number of respondents. 2. Standard Deviation (SD) gives an idea of how close the entire set of data is to the mean value. Data sets with a small standard deviation have tightly grouped, precise data.
Where; xi the weight that assigned to i th option. the mean value. n the total number of respondents.
3. Relative Importance Index (RII) methods are used to determine the ranks of all safety factors.
Where; W the weight given to each factor by the respondents (ranging from 1 to 5). A the highest weight (i.e. 5 in this case). N the total number of respondents. 4. Correlation Coeffi cient (R) The linear correlation coeffi cient is a test that can be used to see if there is a linear relationship between two variables. The range of (R) is from (-1 to 1). If the (R)value is close to (-1), then the relationship is considered anti-correlated, or has a negative slope.
Where; xi the weight that assigned to i th option. the mean value of x-axis. the mean value of y-axis. All the statistical analysis data for factors effecting safety management system in building construction companies are presented in Table 6:  The classifi cations for mean values in the upcoming Tables will be based on the following criteria as suggested by researcher as shown in Table 7:

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Based on the analysis data shown in Table 6 the discussion of the results is carried out. The discussion of the output data analysis will focus on the construction contracting companies (fi rst, second and third degree) independently and investigate its safety status. The overall RII and Mean values of the seven factors affecting the safety management for the three degrees' construction companies are presented in Figures-1 & 2. Thestrong notifi cation that the seven factors affecting safety addressed by this investigation have refl ect a high degree of importance from the 1 st degree construction companies project management. The 2 nd degree construction companies project management provide a moderate concern about these factors. Whereas the project management of 3 rd degree construction companies have a weak degree of implication of these safety factors in their delay work.

Data analysis for the factors affecting safety procedure of 1 st degree companies
The Safety equipment and PPE was the most factors addressed as it ranked the fi rst while rewards and penalties was the lowest factor. Consequently, the 1 st degree companies are keen to provide all safety equipment on site. The following sub factors have a weak degree of recognized by the company's safety policy: the daily meetings in building site safety procedure. In company's safety policy procedure, the sub factors; modifi cation, reviewing and updating and following the OSHA or OHSAS standards. In reward and penalties, the sub factors; rewarding committed workers to safety policy with cash bonus and rewarding the company due to safety performance. Perhaps these procedures require a countless commitment and follow up and efforts.

Data analysis for the factors affecting safety procedure of 2 nd degree companies
Three factors have a weak degree of distinguished by the company's safety policy: rewards and penalties, practical safety measure and project environment. Consequently, these processes involve lot of funding, commitment, follow up and efforts. In addition to what revealed in section 5.1, the following sub factors have a weak degree reorganization by the company's safety policy: the layout and scheme for project and availability of safety offi cer in building site safety procedure. In company safety policy; the sub factors availability of specialized offi cer and overtime working hours. In workforce human factor the application of safety instructions on site. This refl ecting obvious neglect for the priority of safety in company policy.

Data analysis for the factors affecting safety procedure of 3 rd degree companies
All factors except the workforce human factor having weak degree ofi dentifi cation by the company's policy. This mean most 3 rd degree companies which represent 43% of total construction companies in Jordan working without any standardized or fi xed criteria for safety policy. The development of safety policy by these companies involves lot of support, obligation, observation and determinations.