Framework for measuring resilience of safety management systems in Australian building repair and maintenance companies

Introduction: The complex and dynamic nature of building repair and maintenance (R&M) work tends to create safety risks for workers. Resilience engineering approach is identified as a complementary to conventional safety management techniques. Resilience of safety management systems is characterized by the capabilities to recover from, respond during, and prepare for unexpected situations. This research aims to conceptualize resilience of safety management systems in the building repair and maintenance context by introducing resilience engineering principles into the safety management system concept. Method: Data were collected from 145 professionals in building repair and maintenance companies in Australia. The structural equation modeling technique was utilized to analyze the collected data. Results: The results confirmed three dimensions (i.e., people resilience, place resilience, and system resilience) with 32 measurement items for assessing resilience of safety management systems. The results revealed that safety performance of building R&M companies was significantly affected by the interactions between people resilience and place resilience and the interactions between place resilience and system resilience. Conclusions: Theoretically, this study contributes to the safety management knowledge by theoretically and empirically supporting the development of concept, definition, and purpose of resilience for safety management systems. Practical Applications: Practically, this research proposes a framework for assessing the level of resilience of safety management systems that is characterized by employees’ capabilities, supportiveness of workplace, and supportiveness of management to recover from safety incidents, react during unexpected situations, and prepare for preventative actions before occurrence of undesirable events.