Strategic alignment of project management with health, safety and environmental management

Abstract

Purpose

Project management generally covers many important areas such as cost, quality and time in different industrial settings, but it is deficient in relation to integration of health, safety and environmental risks. Poor knowledge of project managers about HSE management necessitates the studying on the mutual effects of HSE and project management. Hence, investigating the impact of project management on health monitoring programs, safety prevention monitoring, environmental monitoring plans and finally the effectiveness of professional health monitoring programs and determining their importance are main objectives of this research. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

A model based on structural equations was designed and developed. The constructs of this model are project management, health monitoring and safety prevention monitoring program. Based on the conceptual model, some questionnaires were prepared and distributed among the experts of strategic project management.

Findings

The results of applied structural modeling suggest that project management focuses on each aspect of HSE management, including health monitoring programs, safety prevention monitoring programs, environmental monitoring plans and effectiveness of professional health monitoring programs. HSE management can also be strengthened by empowering project management. Checking fire protection systems, using appropriate techniques to identify contamination and disposal of waste and incorporating techniques for brainstorming or other ideas creation in the group are the most important tasks in HSE-enabled project management frameworks.

Originality/value

Since there is still no strategic alignment model that includes components of project management and HSE management, a model for achieving this goal is vital. This paper elaborates this alignment based on literature and using a field study.

Citation

Ershadi, M.J., Edrisabadi, R. and Shakouri, A. (2020), "Strategic alignment of project management with health, safety and environmental management", Built Environment Project and Asset Management, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 78-93. https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-03-2019-0023