**1. Introduction**

Generally, literature on risk management ascertain that all key project stakeholders (clients, designers, sub-contractors, contractors, and statutory authorities) should be involved in considering safety systematically, stage by stage at the outset of the project [1]. In fact, many health and safety risks arise due to lack of risk management from initiation of project to the completion of construction projects [2, 3]. This underscores the fact that, health and safety risk in construction project originates upstream from the building process itself and is connected to processes such as planning, scheduling, design, tendering and construction.

In view of the redistributive impact of poor safety performance, all stakeholders involved in different stages of construction project should be accountable for safety risk management [4]. In a similar vein, Charles et al. [5] and Zhang et al. [6] also emphasised the importance of developing communication networks throughout the construction process and well-articulated responsibilities for the stakeholders involved in the project. Furthermore, in its 1992 code of practice, on 'Safety and Health in Construction', the International Labour Organisation (ILO) outlined the responsibilities of health and safety among different groups in construction project. The ILO [7] advised that national laws of different countries should include responsibilities of health and safety risk to clients and designers (engineers, architects and quantity surveyor) in construction projects.

Several studies have been conducted on project stakeholders' influence on health and safety risk management. Some of the authors have focused on safety responsibility among designers during the design phase [8–11] while others focused on the role of clients on health and safety management [12–16]. They maintain that clients have a major role in project implementation, and therefore, they should push for the safety requirements. Furthermore, Well and Hawkins [17] have focused on safety in the procurement phase. They argue that addressing the issue of construction safety in the design and procurement phase could have a substantial impact on reducing injuries and costs associated with safety-related delays in projects.

Notably, all these studies have focused on individual stakeholder and their roles with emphasis on their individual viewpoints on risk management. Consequently, there has not been much study focused on the mechanisms on how these stakeholders can co-operate as a team to influence health and safety risk management in a systems thinking model. It is not known how project stakeholders would interact, communicate, deal with risk information, let alone on their roles, liabilities and responsibilities which influence health and safety risk management. This study therefore explores the influence of multi-stakeholders such as clients, design teams and contractors on health and safety risk management in construction projects in Tanzania using systems thinking model. The aim is to develop holistic understanding of multi-stakeholders' influence on health and safety risk management.

## **2. Theoretical framework**

#### **2.1 The concept of stakeholders**

A stakeholder is a relatively recent term coined originally for the corporate sector. Freeman [18] defined a stakeholder as a person or an entity that can affect or is affected by the accomplishment of an organisational or project purpose. Mitchell et al. [19] classified stakeholders into definitive stakeholders, expectant stakeholders and latent stakeholders based on their power, legitimacy and the urgency of their claim on the organization. Clarkson [20] classified stakeholders into primary stakeholders, on whom a corporation depends for its survival, and secondary stakeholders, as those who are not essential but have influence on or are influenced by the corporation. Both Leung and Olomolaiye [21] and Olander and Landin [22] categorise stakeholders as either internal (clients, consultants or contractors) or external (external public or external private parties) to a project. Internal stakeholders are those involved in the decision-making process, whereas external stakeholders are most often affected by the potential outcome of the project, either directly or indirectly as stakeholders. Here, stakeholders are considered as those whose performances play an important role in determining a project's success. These stakeholders include project clients, project management consultants (architects, engineers and quantity surveyors) and project contractors, sub-contractors, workers and regulators and legislators in the legal system. The strong cooperation

**57**

*Holistic View on Multi-Stakeholders' Influence on Health and Safety Risk Management…*

temporary organisation of stakeholders pursuing an aim together.

of stakeholders is necessary for project success, since a project can be considered a

Risk is regarded as the measure of probability (likelihood) and consequences of not achieving the defined goal [23]. Therefore, risk event has two primary components, that is a probability/likelihood of occurrence of an event and impact of the event—amount at stake. In that regard, risk is considered as a function of likelihood and impact [24]. Risk in this research means the possibility of suffering harm or loss, a factor, a cause of element involved in certain danger and its severity in individual or enterprises in informal construction sector. The sources (hazards) of health and safety risks on construction sites are identified as: nature and physical layout of the work space, location and weather, equipment and hazardous materials, human behaviour and attitude, leadership, and safety culture of the organisation. Risk management is defined as 'a systematic way of looking at areas of risk and consciously determining how each should be treated. It is a management tool that aims at identifying sources of risk and uncertainty, determining their impact and developing appropriate management responses' [23]. The overall goal of risk management is to maximise the opportunities and minimise the negative consequences of risk threats in a project [25]. Therefore, as a process, RM should be cyclic and dynamic in nature and is important to be established early in a project and continually addressed throughout the project lifecycle, and it should be proactive rather than reactive, involving all stakeholders in the project. Generally, risk management involves process in risk identification, risk analysis and risk response [23, 24].

Senge [26] describes a system as a perceived whole, whose elements belong together because they affect each other over time and operate towards a common purpose. It focuses on holistic perspective emphasising the interplay between the systems and their elements in determining their respective functions. The interaction between the system's elements can be complex with simultaneous mutual influences rather than the linear cause and effect chain relationship [27]. The elements in the system may be tightly and strongly linked and change in response to each other,

Construction projects are complex systems involving multiple and mutual components. Thus, construction projects consist of many interacting stakeholders such as clients, contactors, consultants and workers with different management objectives and functions that contribute to the whole. Thus, each stakeholder in a project has specific roles to play to achieve a collective project goal. However, the roles of the stakeholders are quite interrelated and insufficient performance of one of them directly affects the project's goal achievement no matter how well other stakeholders perform their roles. To understand this type of relationship, a systems thinking approach needs to be employed. Reed [28] opines that the systems thinking model gives leaders a deeper understanding of the roles or behaviour of the parts that make up a system. Therefore, in dealing with a complex and dynamic social system, systems thinking becomes crucial to synthesise a problem by seeing things in terms of patterns and relationships. Therefore, the evolution of a systems model for this study is an approach to develop a holistic understanding of multi-stakeholders' influence on health and safety risk management in building construction projects. A system is the concept where one level can be appropriately regarded as nested within another level. The levels are characterised by emergent properties that are

therefore, indicating strong interdependence of the system's components.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85607*

**2.2 Health and safety risk management**

**2.3 The concept of systems thinking**

of stakeholders is necessary for project success, since a project can be considered a temporary organisation of stakeholders pursuing an aim together.
