Construction Safety & Health Research: A Social Network Analysis Primer

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  CPWR--The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Description:
  In 2017, CPWR approached Visible Network Labs to conduct a Social Network Analysis (SNA) of the partners in the National Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction, also known as the Falls Campaign. In addition to wanting to better understand the network developed through the Falls Campaign, the pilot project was used to explore when and how construction safety and health researchers could use SNA to evaluate their research projects. In the case of the Falls Campaign, for example, the lead organizations (OSHA, NIOSH and CPWR) wanted to learn about the potential combined and interconnected partner networks and mechanisms that had been brought together to prevent falls. This desire to add a systems thinking lens to construction safety and health research requires new tools, theories, and methods. Researchers across sectors have responded to systemic questions by developing methods and approaches that can account for the interconnectedness of people, organizations, and other factors that may influence safety outcomes. SNA is one such method. While SNA is not a new method (it has deep roots in mathematics as a tool for solving complex problems), its application to the social sciences is more recent, especially as a method for gaining insights on how the data may be used to transform and improve practice. SNA includes several components - methods for collecting data to demonstrate the connection between objects, analysis that helps us understand what those data mean, and network mapping to visually illustrate the ties between the data. Derivatives of SNA include systems mapping, asset mapping, stakeholder mapping, and concept mapping. The uniqueness of SNA in comparison to these other methods is its emphasis on collecting data from members of a network to most accurately describe the nature, quality, and outcomes of the relationships. For this reason, SNA is most often done by collecting data from network members, however, if other data on the quality, nature, and outcomes of ties is already available, primary data collection is not required. This primer provides information to help you decide if SNA is right for your research project and key steps for conducting your own SNA. Throughout the primer, information from the Falls Campaign SNA is used to ground the content in a real-life example. A research brief of the study is included in Appendix A. While there are different SNA tools available to researchers, since the PARTNER tool (Program to Analyze, Record, and Track Networks to Enhance Relationships - www.partnertool.net) was used for the pilot project with the Falls Campaign, it is used to illustrate how an SNA tool can be applied to construction safety and health research. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Construction Industry Construction Workers Falls Information Dissemination Injury Prevention Intervention Partnership Safety Programs
• Series:
  CPWR - Center for Construction Research and Training Publications
• Publisher:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  51 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062969
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, 2020 Feb; :1-51
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  Construction safety & health research: a social network analysis primer
• End Date:
  20240831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:10edaae37ecfb3ad2b6adf5093089dbdc43ac2f3002ea0c818a092c65ad6753c76bf0ee88a9af29e962d500d7a23346d4dd4c0bb72cf25f8de2b783a4e707c1a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213228/cdc_213228_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.09 MB ]