Developing resilience for safety management systems in building repair and maintenance : a conceptual model

Due to the dynamic and complex nature of building repair and maintenance works, safety concerns of repair and maintenance have significantly increased in recent years. Safety management systems are widely accepted as a proactive approach of managing workplace safety. However, lack of resilience has been identified as a limitation of safety management systems considering the new challenges brought about by complex nature of sociotechnical systems. This paper aims to develop a conceptual model of developing resilience for safety management systems of building repair and maintenance companies. The conceptual model development was based on literature review, integration of relevant theories and logical reasoning. The conceptual model describes conceptualisation and development of the resilience for SMSs in the building R&M context. Based on the developed conceptual model, resilience for SMSs can be measured by three dimensions: people resilience, place resilience and system resilience. Organisational cognition improvement, mindfulness improvement, and organisational learning are identified as drivers for developing resilience for SMSs. Hypotheses were proposed to stimulate future empirical research. The conceptual model may provide a theoretical framework to guide future empirical studies that validate the new relationships and associations among concepts and constructs relative to the resilience for SMSs and further develop the theories and practices of safety management.