Sustainable OSH Training for Safety Culture in Construction Industry: The Case of Izmir Province

Sustainable occupational health and safety training aims to reduce risks and establish a safety culture with a continuous and holistic learning approach. For this purpose, a pilot study was conducted in this research to determine the impact of construction sector employees on safety culture. Through this study, the Safety Culture Assessment Scale was developed, and its psychometric properties were validated. A face-to-face survey was administered to 200 technical personnel working on 20 residential construction projects in Izmir, Turkey. Utilizing the responses from these participants, the factor structure of the scale was derived through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Then, the reliability of the scale measured by Cronbach's alpha was evaluated together with factorial validity and criterion-related validity. The collected data were analyzed using correlation analyses, Independent Samples t-tests, and one-way Analysis of Variance to examine the relationships between demographic variables and the five basic safety culture factors. To determine the linear relationships between demographic variables and safety culture factors, correlation analyses revealed significant relationships among the five factors of the Safety Culture Assessment Scale. In particular, strong positive correlations (ranging from r = 0.581 to 0.718, all p < 0.001) were identified between management commitment, OHS training and communication, worker participation and awareness, and OHS reporting. These findings underscore the critical importance of implementing sustainable and targeted OHS training initiatives to enhance safety awareness, close risk perception gaps, and foster a positive safety culture within the construction industry.