Safety Culture in The Construction Industry: A Proposed Enhanced Safety Management Program

The construction industry faces persistent challenges in workplace safety, with safety compliance being a key determinant of accident prevention. This study investigates the relationships among positive leadership, job competence, safety participation, and safety compliance behavior to identify actionable strategies for enhancing safety performance. Data were collected from 249 respondents across two major construction companies, CSCO (Phils) and SM Development Corporation, using structured surveys and analyzed through Pearson correlation and multiple regression methods. The findings revealed that positive leadership significantly influences safety compliance behavior, accounting for 22.8% of its variation, while safety participation emerged as a stronger predictor, explaining 33.6% of the variance. Conversely, job competence showed limited direct impact, suggesting a disconnect between technical proficiency and compliance adherence. The study highlights the importance of integrating leadership development with targeted safety training to address gaps in emergency preparedness and proactive safety engagement. Recommendations include fostering a safety-oriented culture through participative leadership, recognition programs, and leveraging technology for training and hazard reporting. The research provides a comprehensive framework for reducing workplace accidents and enhancing employee well-being by aligning leadership, participation, and competency strategies. These findings underscore the critical need for collaborative efforts among stakeholders to build safer, more efficient construction environments. Keywords: Positive leadership, safety compliance, job competence, safety participation, construction safety.