Impact significance of construction clients on designers' and contractors' health and safety (H&S) culture - an exploratory Delphi study

Designers and Contractors’ top management have been identified in many studies to be of great importance to health and safety performance and its continual improvement. Therefore developing strategies that support and motivate designers and contractor top management to implement health and safety elements would ensure a gradual and sustained improvement of health and safety in the construction industry. In order to determine the impact significance of clients/owners on designers and contractor top management, a Delphi study was conducted. Findings from the study where that client culture has critical impact significance on designers and contractors’ top management culture. Further findings were that implementation of health and safety elements by designers and contractors were ‘very likely to occur’ with clients influence. This paper reports on findings from an analysis of impact significance of clients on designers and contractors. It will underscore the point that has been made before using different methodologies that client health and safety culture is critical to designers and contractors’ health and safety culture. The paper argues that an improved client health and safety culture will result in an improved health safety culture of designers and contractors. Pursuing this strategy can result in prevention of many accidents and incident