The key findings from this study were: (1) Presence of Systematic Failure in SMS Contractors, irrespective of size and grouping, faced common difficulties in the implementation of the SMS revealing a systemic failure. These common difficulties were: Safety Training, Job Hazard Analysis and Working at Height; (2) Small Contractors can perform no worse than Large Contractors Four elements/sub-elements were found to be significantly related to the size or group of contractors : Incident/Accident investigation, Health Assurance Program, Protection Against Falling Objects and Mechanical/Manual Material Handling. A first glance showed that the performance of the small contractors was inferior to large contractors due to their size. However, a look at the underlying statistics for the above four items revealed that 31 % - 40 % of contractors who complied came from group A. This proved that small under resourced contractors can perform well with support from senior management staff. (3) Characteristics of Best Performers Good-performing contractors were generally found to possess the following characteristics: Presence of supportive senior management staff Presence of proactive frontline management staff Safety management was regarded as part of project management (4) Characteristics of Worst Performers Poor-performing contractors were generally found to possess the following characteristics: Passive attitude towards safety issues Lack of safety knowledge Lack of management commitment Low priority given to safety Only willing to meet the minimum statutory/contractual requirements with no extra works were voluntarily done.
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