TAKORADI TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF BUILT AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

DEPARTMENT OF BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF WORK PRESSURE ON EMPLOYEE SAFETY

PERFORMANCE IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN THE SEKONDI
TAKORADI METROPOLIS

KOOMSON, JAMES

NOVEMBER, 2023

i
 CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND REOMMENDATIONS
5.0 INTRODUCTION
The complete study is reviewed in this chapter, along with the key conclusions. In order to improve
reader understanding of the study and boast a clearer understanding of the contributions the study
makes to the discussion on the safety climate in the construction industry and risk management
techniques related to work pressure and associated phenomena.

5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

The primary goal of the study was to look into the important influences of work pressure on
employee safety behavior in Ghana's construction sector. In order to gather information for this
study, respondents who worked as laborers, foremen, site engineers, project managers, or
consultants in the sampled construction firms were randomly chosen. The research was
successfully completed on time with the important findings listed below;

The research revealed that most construction sites are not well-organized, and work stations,
equipment, and other things are not set up in an orderly way. This puts worker safety in danger
since workers could get hurt if they accidentally trip over tools and materials. Additionally,
workers are more likely to experience animal and insect bites and stings, raising personal safety
risks. However, the majority of respondents believe that the illumination and noise levels at their
workstations are adequate. The study also revealed that although most employees believe they are
giving their all at work, they feel their efforts are not appreciated by their managers, who lead them
to believe they are not contributing enough. This frequently demotivates employees or increase
their situations of stress and anxiety. Also, the study founded that work pressure is a veritably
regular miracle in the construction assiduity of Ghana. This is often indeed more common among
the untrained sloggers and crafters also as heads. it had been also set up that work pressure
increases the rate of accident of personnel at work. also, the study founded that work pressure is
caused by some common factors in the assiduity. These substantially include work load, delayed
schedules, and a mismatch between hand chops and given tasks. The redundant workload was
founded to radiate from the use of many workers for systems so as to cut design cost and the
delayed inception of systems. Also, delayed task completion was founded to stem from lack of
applicable tools and outfit on point, work load, breakdown of outfit, detainments in appearance of
40
inputs, and request for revamping of preliminarily completed task. These increase the pressure on
workers and beget them to form miscalculations that lead to safety threat exposure. But the survey
indicated that most workers use a number of tactics to improve their capacity to boost performance
at work. The most common tactic is to put in more effort at work, occasionally while abusing drugs,
alcohol, or other stimulants or boost employee productivity. Additionally, workers occasionally
postpone the unfinished assignment then incorporate it into their plans for the next day. But doing
so raises the pressure more. Working additional hours is a third option. This aids the employees in
finishing their daily schedules so they may start the next day's schedules from scratch. Although,
there is risk when employee pressure increases and a propensity for risky behavior rises. Other
employees claimed they occasionally have to disregard outlined processes and adopt new tactics
based on their experience to complete tasks on time, contrary to what others have advised, they
Accept the delays and make the best of the situation.

The study also discovered that for workers on construction sites, deadlines can undermine safety
behavior and promote greater risk-taking behavior. For instance, when they discover they are
behind time or believe they have been assigned an excessive amount of labor, the majority of
Ghanaian construction workers do not use the appropriate equipment and materials for their work.
Additionally, relatively few construction employees adhere to the proper procedures designed to
ensure safe worker behaviors when they believe that will cause a delay in them doing their work
on time. Workers also disclosed that when workplace pressure increases, PPE utilization decreases.
As was already mentioned, employees turn to substance misuse to deal with stress at work or at
home. In addition, the majority of respondents said they are not as cautious Under pressure for
their own security as well as when they are not.

5.3 CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY

The study comes to the conclusion that the business is characterized by high rates of work pressure,
which helps to explain some of the industry's high accident and injury rates.

Furthermore, we conclude that job pressure in the construction industry in Sekondi Takoradi is
mainly caused by factors like overwork, delayed schedules, task-skill ratio inconsistent and
required rework, among others. These come from late inputs, lack of appropriate tools and
equipment for the planned task, mechanical failure and tools, limited staff assigned to specific

41
projects, delayed launch projects, etc. As a result, safe behavior is eroded and replaced by unsafe
behaviors as workers try to cope with work pressure in the industry and complete the work on time
as well as manage the work. Overcrowding and related problems. The study concluded that the
poor schedule delivery and the use of fewer workers needed for a project increases work pressure
in construction industry in Sekondi Takoradi leading to increase in accident rates due to lack of
safety in workers' behavior. Risky behavior of workers increases when work pressure is increasing
and the result is an increase in work-related accidents and injuries.

5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the above findings, the recommendations made by the survey respondents and the
literature reviewed, the study made the following recommendations;

Firstly, the safety environment of the construction industry can be improved by applying some
strategies to reduce work pressure of industrial workers. These may include commensurate
working hours to reduce overwork and allow workers to operate optimally without engaging in
malicious behavior. By using the right number of employees, construction companies can help
reduce pressure on workers and make them safer and more productive. This will help reduce work-
related injuries in the workplaces

Secondly, the study recommends that supervisors encourage workers by providing encouragement
for hard work and appreciation of workers' efforts. This will boost morale and ensure workers
work according to safety guidelines, especially if these incentives are relevant to worker’s security
behavior. We also recommend construction companies do a good job of starting projects on time
and provide the materials and equipment needed to improve worker performance. This will do a
lot to prevent the use of inappropriate tools and methods to get the job done which often lead to
accidents and injuries. In addition, it is also necessary for building companies to provide more
personal protective equipment and other safety improvements at the site for workers. Insect
repellents and medical kits are needed to reduce deaths or accidents by giving first aid.

Finally, the study recommends that rework and overtime plans be thoroughly reviewed with
workers and that safety behavior be ensured during these times because this raises work pressure
and risk-taking behavior among construction workers. Construction companies should develop

42
policies on substance abuse to prevent employees from using drugs, alcohol, and other substances
to increase their energy and productivity.

43