The Duality and Paradoxical Tensions of Quality and Safety: Managing Error in Construction Projects

Drawing on insights from organizational theory, in this article, we examine the paradoxical tensions that reside between quality and safety and impact construction organizations and their projects. Rather than adopting the dualistic, reductionist, and ineffective either/or framing of quality and safety, we suggest confronting them as a duality. The corollary is balancing the competing demands of quality and safety, thus putting managers in a position to optimally reduce rework and improve project safety at the same time. Managers also need to focus on balancing the paradoxical tensions of error prevention and error management that can influence a project's performance. However, the offsetting of these tensions has been overlooked in practice. In this article, we proffer that if construction organizations are to make headway to improve quality and safety simultaneously, then managers should espouse ambidexterity, move from the tyranny of quality or safety to genius of quality and safety and, thus, synergize these two competing demands while managing the paradoxical tensions of error prevention and error management.

Automated summary

This article examines the paradoxical tensions between quality and safety in construction organizations and projects, proposing a dualistic approach to balance these competing demands. Managers are advised to adopt ambidexterity in order to optimize both quality and safety, while managing the tensions of error prevention and error management.