The Role of the Big Five Personality Factors on Accident: A Case of Accidents in Construction Industries

Abstract

Limited research has been undertaken to explore how construction workers’ personality affects safety behavior. Most of the previous literature in the field of health and safety especially in the construction industry has been focusing on managerial, non-occupational accident,s or somewhat other aspect accident causation. Indeed, construction is known as one of the most dangerous industries globally, therefore, this study estimates the importance of personality traits in relation to risk behavior in the workplace. The objective is to review and identify which dimension of personality traits (big five models) are more effective on occupational accident to suggest a new model that is helpful in the construction industry in order to reduce the accident rate. The finding showed that neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness compare to the other personality traits are more effective on both occupational/non-occupational accidents, while, the effect of agreeableness and conscientiousness on improving safety performance was overwhelming. On the other hand, there is little evidence to show the meaningful and efficient connection between occupational accidents and extraversion. Extraversion and openness were appropriate only to affect non-occupational accidents. Finally, this research presents the appropriate model which is worthwhile to improve the safety performance in the construction industry.