Perceptions of safety at work: a framework for linking safety climate to safety performance, knowledge, and motivation

The Balance Between Safety and Productivity and its Relationship with Human Factors and Safety Awareness and Communication in Aircraft Manufacturing

Background

This paper presents the findings of a pilot research survey which assessed the degree of balance between safety and productivity, and its relationship with awareness and communication of human factors and safety rules in the aircraft manufacturing environment.

Methods

The study was carried out at two Australian aircraft manufacturing facilities where a Likert-scale questionnaire was administered to a representative sample. The research instrument included topics relevant to the safety and human factors training provided to the target workforce. The answers were processed in overall, and against demographic characteristics of the sample population.

Results

The workers were sufficiently aware of how human factors and safety rules influence their performance and acknowledged that supervisors had adequately communicated such topics. Safety and productivity seemed equally balanced across the sample. A preference for the former over the latter was associated with a higher awareness about human factors and safety rules, but not linked with safety communication. The size of the facility and the length and type of employment were occasionally correlated with responses to some communication and human factors topics and the equilibrium between productivity and safety.

Conclusion

Although human factors training had been provided and sufficient bidirectional communication was present across the sample, it seems that quality and complexity factors might have influenced the effects of those safety related practices on the safety–productivity balance for specific parts of the population studied. Customization of safety training and communication to specific characteristics of employees may be necessary to achieve the desired outcomes.

Safety Climate and Occupational Stress According to Occupational Accidents Experience and Employment Type in Shipbuilding Industry of Korea

Background

Safety climate and occupational stress are related with occupational accident. The present study tried to identify the differences in safety climate and occupational stress according to occupational accidents experience and employment type (e.g., direct workers and subcontract workers).

Methods

In this study, we conducted a survey using safety climate scale and Korean Occupational Stress Scale and classified the participants into four groups: direct workers working for accident-free departments, direct workers working for accident departments, subcontract workers working for accident-free departments, and subcontract workers working for accident departments for 2 years within the same workplace in the shipbuilding industry.

Results

The direct workers and subcontract workers showed diverse results in subscales of safety climate and occupational stress. This result is supported by existing studies; however, further study is necessary for more supporting evidence and elaborative methodological approach.

Conclusion

The necessity of management for safety climate and psychosocial factor such as occupational stress for both direct workers and subcontract workers as a whole is suggested by this study.

Making workplaces safer: The influence of organisational climate and individual differences on safety behaviour

Current work health and safety practices focus predominately on fostering a safety climate to promote safety behaviours and reduce workplace accidents. Despite the importance of safety climates in accident prevention, recent research has demonstrated that individual factors can also predict work safety behaviour. This study considered the importance of organisational climate together with individual characteristics including differences in personality, impulsiveness, and perceptions of safety within the workplace on safety behaviour. 203 participants consisting of 67 males and 136 females aged 18 to 71 years, completed an online questionnaire. Results revealed that safety behaviour was directly related to safety climate, and conscientiousness. In contrast, neuroticism, and impulsiveness were not significantly related to safety behaviour. The present study findings support previous findings in the literature regarding the importance of safety climate as well as the personality trait of conscientiousness in applying safety behaviours. However, the present study findings did not support previous research in relation to the personality trait of high neuroticism resulting in decreased safety behaviour, nor did not confirm an inverse relationship between high impulsivity and low safety behaviour as theoretical models would suggest. This new finding may warrant further research into the precursors for safety behaviour.

Can Leader-Member Exchange Contribute to Safety Performance in An Italian Warehouse?

Introduction: The research considers safety climate in a warehouse and wants to analyze the Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) role in respect to safety performance. Griffin and Neal’s safety model was adopted and Leader-Member Exchange was inserted as moderator in the relationships between safety climate and proximal antecedents (motivation and knowledge) of safety performance constructs (compliance and participation).

Materials and Methods: Survey data were collected from a sample of 133 full-time employees in an Italian warehouse. The statistical framework of Hayes (2013) was adopted for moderated mediation analysis.

Results: Proximal antecedents partially mediated the relationship between Safety climate and safety participation, but not safety compliance. Moreover, the results from the moderation analysis showed that the Leader–Member Exchange moderated the influence of safety climate on proximal antecedents and the mediation exist only at the higher level of LMX.

Conclusion: The study shows that the different aspects of leadership processes interact in explaining individual proficiency in safety practices.

Practical Implications: Organizations as warehouses should improve the quality of the relationship between a leader and a subordinate based upon the dimensions of respect, trust, and obligation for high level of safety performance.

Safety climate and safety behaviors in the construction industry: The importance of co-workers commitment to safety

BACKGROUND

There is growing empirical evidence that as safety climate improves work site safety practice improve. Safety climate is often measured by asking workers about their perceptions of management commitment to safety. However, it is less common to include perceptions of their co-workers commitment to safety. While the involvement of management in safety is essential, working with co-workers who value and prioritize safety may be just as important.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate a concept of safety climate that focuses on top management, supervisors and co-workers commitment to safety, which is relatively new and untested in the United States construction industry.

METHODS

Survey data was collected from a cohort of 300 unionized construction workers in the United States. The significance of direct and indirect (mediation) effects among safety climate and safety behavior factors were evaluated via structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

Results indicated that safety climate was associated with safety behaviors on the job. More specifically, perceptions of co-workers commitment to safety was a mediator between both management commitment to safety climate factors and safety behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

These results support workplace health and safety interventions that build and sustain safety climate and a commitment to safety amongst work teams.

The Importance of Team Health Climate for Health-Related Outcomes of White-Collar Workers

Occupational health researchers and practitioners have mainly focused on the individual and organizational levels, whereas the team level has been largely neglected. In this study, we define team health climate as employees’ shared perceptions of the extent to which their team is concerned, cares, and communicates about health issues. Based on climate, signaling, and social exchange theories, we examined a multilevel model of team health climate and its relationships with five well-established health-related outcomes (i.e., subjective general health, psychosomatic complaints, mental health, work ability, and presenteeism). Results of multilevel analyses of data provided by 6,449 employees in 621 teams of a large organization showed that team health climate is positively related to subjective general health, mental health, and work ability, and negatively related to presenteeism, above and beyond the effects of team size, age, job tenure, job demands, job control, and employees’ individual perceptions of health climate. Moreover, additional analyses showed that a positive team health climate buffered the negative relationship between employee age and work ability. Implications for future research on team health climate and suggestions for occupational health interventions in teams are discussed.

The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Safety Climate and Individual Safety Behavior on Construction Sites

Unsafe acts contribute dominantly to construction accidents, and increasing safety behavior is essential to reduce accidents. Previous research conceptualized safety behavior as an interaction between proximal individual differences (safety knowledge and safety motivation) and distal contextual factors (leadership and safety climate). However, relatively little empirical research has examined this conceptualization in the construction sector. Given the cultural background of the sample, this study makes a slight modification to the conceptualization and views transformational leadership as an antecedent of safety climate. Accordingly, this study establishes a multiple mediator model showing the mechanisms through which transformational leadership translates into safety behavior. The multiple mediator model is estimated by the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, using individual questionnaire responses from a random sample of construction personnel based in Hong Kong. As hypothesized, transformational leadership has a significant impact on safety climate which is mediated by safety-specific leader–member exchange (LMX), and safety climate in turn impacts safety behavior through safety knowledge. The results suggest that future safety climate interventions should be more effective if supervisors exhibit transformational leadership, encourage construction personnel to voice safety concerns without fear of retaliation, and repeatedly remind them about safety on the job.

Multilevel Safety Climate and Safety Performance in the Construction Industry: Development and Validation of a Top-Down Mechanism

The character of construction projects exposes front-line workers to dangers and accidents. Safety climate has been confirmed to be a predictor of safety performance in the construction industry. This study aims to explore the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between multilevel safety climate and safety performance. An integrated model was developed to study how particular safety climate factors of one level affect those of other levels, and then affect safety performance from the top down. A questionnaire survey was administered on six construction sites in Vietnam. A total of 1030 valid questionnaires were collected from this survey. Approximately half of the data were used to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the remaining data were submitted to structural equation modeling (SEM). Top management commitment (TMC) and supervisors’ expectation (SE) were identified as factors to represent organizational safety climate (OSC) and supervisor safety climate (SSC), respectively, and coworkers’ caring and communication (CCC) and coworkers’ role models (CRM) were identified as factors to denote coworker safety climate (CSC). SEM results show that OSC factor is positively related to SSC factor and CSC factors significantly. SSC factor could partially mediate the relationship between OSC factor and CSC factors, as well as the relationship between OSC factor and safety performance. CSC factors partially mediate the relationship between OSC factor and safety performance, and the relationship between SSC factor and safety performance. The findings imply that a positive safety culture should be established both at the organizational level and the group level. Efforts from all top management, supervisors, and coworkers should be provided to improve safety performance in the construction industry.

Does pain deteriorate working life expectancy in aging workers?

OBJECTIVES

Many aging workers wish to continue working as long as they can for a better life in the future. However, symptoms of pain are a key obstacle in the continuation of work among older workers. The impact of pain on work is understudied. Thus, we investigated the relationship between pain characteristics (total site and severity) and aging workers' working life expectancy scale (WoLES) in Korea.

METHODS

We included 1,979 participants (1,175 men and 804 women) from a well-established survey of a nationally representative population: the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. A self-questionnaire was used to assess pain characteristics and WoLES. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the lower-WoLES group were calculated using multiple logistic regression models.

RESULTS

Compared with the absence of pain, ORs and 95% CIs of the lower-WoLES group were increased, as follows: 1 pain site, 1.75 (1.20-2.55); 2 pain sites, 1.99 (1.32-3.03); 3 or more pain sites, 2.28 (1.51-3.42); mild pain, 1.74 (1.32-2.61); moderate pain, 2.02 (1.28-3.22); and severe pain, 2.12 (1.46-3.08). The statistical trend was significant in both total sites and severity of pain (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

There was a significant association between WoLES and both total pain sites and severity of pain, even after adjusting for potential confounding factors.

Can Civility Norms Boost Positive Effects of Management Commitment to Safety?

We proposed that civility norms would strengthen relationships between management commitment to safety and workers' safety motivation, safety behaviors, and injuries. Survey data were obtained from working adults in hazardous jobs-those for which physical labor is required and/or a realistic possibility of physical injury is present (N = 290). Results showed that management commitment positively related to workers' safety motivation, safety participation, and safety compliance, and negatively related to minor injuries. Furthermore, management commitment to safety displayed a stronger positive relationship with safety motivation and safety participation, and a stronger negative relationship with minor worker injuries when civility norms were high (versus low). The results confirm existing known relationships between management commitment to safety and worker safety motivation and behavior; furthermore, civility norms facilitate the relationships between management commitment to safety and various outcomes important to worker safety. In order to promote an optimally safe working environment, managers should demonstrate a commitment to worker safety and promote positive norms for interpersonal treatment between workers in their units.

Working Conditions and Mental Health of Nursing Staff in Nursing Homes

Nursing staff in nursing homes suffer from poor mental health, probably associated with stressful working conditions. Working conditions may distribute differently among nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses due to their different levels in the organizational hierarchy. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the association between working conditions and mental health among different nursing groups, and examine the potential moderating effect of job group on this association. Self-administered questionnaires were collected with 1,129 nursing staff in 15 for-profit non-unionized nursing homes. Working conditions included both physical and psychosocial domains. Multivariate linear regression modeling found that mental health was associated with different working conditions in different nursing groups: physical safety (β = 2.37, p < 0.05) and work-family conflict (β = -2.44, p < 0.01) in NAs; work-family conflict (β = -4.17, p < 0.01) in LPNs; and physical demands (β = 10.54, p < 0.05) in RNs. Job group did not moderate the association between working conditions and mental health. Future workplace interventions to improve mental health should reach to nursing staff at different levels and consider tailored working condition interventions in different nursing groups.

Validity Assessment of the Persian Version of the Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50): A Case Study in a Steel Company

BACKGROUND

The Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire-50 (NOSACQ-50) was developed by a team of Nordic occupational safety researchers based on safety climate and psychological theories. The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Persian version of NOSACQ-50 and assess the score of safety climate on a group of workers in a steel company in Iran.

METHODS

The Persian version of NOSACQ-50 was distributed among 661 employees of a steel company in Qazvin Province (Iran). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis were used to determine the dimensions of the questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach α coefficient. Pearson correlation test was applied to investigate the correlation between different dimensions.

RESULTS

The results of EFA showed that the Persian version of NOSACQ-50 consisted of six dimensions. The Cronbach α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.94. The mean score of safety climate in all dimensions was 2.89 (standard deviation 0.60).

CONCLUSION

The Persian version of NOSACQ-50 had a satisfactory validity for measuring safety climate in the studied Iranian population.

The Role of Labour Inspectorates in Tackling the Psychosocial Risks at Work in Europe: Problems and Perspectives

Significant changes in the past year have taken place in the world of work that are bringing new challenges with regard to employee safety and health. These changes have led to emerging psychosocial risks (PSRs) at work. The risks are primarily linked to how work is designed, organized, and managed, and to the economic and social frame of work. These factors have increased the level of work-related stress and can lead to serious deterioration in mental and physical health. In tackling PSRs, the European labor inspectorates can have an important role by enforcing preventive and/or corrective interventions in the content and context of work. However, to improve working conditions, unilateral interventions in the context and content of work are insufficient and require adopting a common strategy to tackle PSRs, based on a holistic approach. The implementation of a common strategy by the European Labor Inspectorate for tackling PSRs is restricted by the lack of a common legislative frame with regard to PSR evaluation and management, the different levels of labor inspectors' training, and the different levels of employees' and employers' health and safety culture.

Contributing influences of work environment on sleep quantity and quality of nursing assistants in long-term care facilities: A cross-sectional study

The effect of shift work on nurses' sleep is well-studied, but there are other challenging aspects of health care work that might also affect the sleep of direct caregivers. This study examined the influence of the long-term care work environment on sleep quantity and quality of nursing assistants. A cross-sectional survey collected data from 650 nursing assistants in 15 long-term care facilities; 46% reported short sleep duration and 23% reported poor sleep quality. A simple additive index of the number of beneficial work features (up to 7) was constructed for analysis with Poisson regression. With each unit increase of beneficial work features, nursing assistants were 7% less likely to report short sleep duration and 17% less likely to report poor sleep quality. These results suggest that effective workplace interventions should address a variety of work stressors, not only work schedule arrangements, in order to improve nursing assistants' sleep health.

Daytime Sleepiness in Men During Early Fatherhood: Implications for Work Safety

This study measured the daytime sleepiness (DS) and work safety of fathers during the first 12 weeks of their babies' lives (i.e., early fatherhood). A questionnaire was developed using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Safety Behaviour at Work Scale, a self-reported sleep history, and a work-related incident history. Of the 221 participants, the vast majority reported they experienced less than 6 hours of interrupted sleep per night during the 12 weeks of the study, and an increasing frequency and severity of DS. The study also revealed an inverse correlation between ESS and Safety Behaviour at Work scores; fathers were 14% more likely to report a near-miss accident at work at 12 weeks. This study posits that antenatal classes and assessment of fathers' sleepiness at work by occupational health practitioners could assist fathers in reducing daytime sleepiness and mitigating the risk of workplace incidents.

Results of a community-based survey of construction safety climate for Hispanic workers

BACKGROUND

Hispanic construction workers experience high rates of occupational injury, likely influenced by individual, organizational, and social factors.

OBJECTIVES

To characterize the safety climate of Hispanic construction workers using worker, contractor, and supervisor perceptions of the workplace.

METHODS

We developed a 40-item interviewer-assisted survey with six safety climate dimensions and administered it in Spanish and English to construction workers, contractors, and supervisors. A safety climate model, comparing responses and assessing contributing factors was created based on survey responses.

RESULTS

While contractors and construction supervisors' (n = 128) scores were higher, all respondents shared a negative perception of safety climate. Construction workers had statistically significantly lower safety climate scores compared to supervisors and contractors (30·6 vs 46·5%, P<0·05). Safety climate scores were not associated with English language ability or years lived in the United States.

CONCLUSIONS

We found that Hispanic construction workers in this study experienced a poor safety climate. The Hispanic construction safety climate model we propose can serve as a framework to guide organizational safety interventions and evaluate safety climate improvements.

Safety management practices in small and medium enterprises in India

Background

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are often the main pillar of an economy. Minor accidents, ergonomics problems, old and outdated machinery, and lack of awareness have created a need for implementation of safety practices in SMEs. Implementation of healthy working conditions creates positive impacts on economic and social development.

Methods

In this study, a questionnaire was developed and administered to 30 randomly chosen SMEs in and around Mumbai, Maharashtra, and other states in India to evaluate safety practices implemented in their facilities. The study also looked into the barriers and drivers for technology innovation and suggestions were also received from the respondent SMEs for best practices on safety issues.

Results

In some SMEs, risks associated with safety issues were increased whereas risks were decreased in others. Safety management practices are inadequate in most SMEs. Market competitiveness, better efficiency, less risk, and stringent laws were found to be most significant drivers; and financial constraints, lack of awareness, resistance to change, and lack of training for employees were found to be main barriers.

Conclusion

Competition between SMEs was found to be major reason for implementation of safety practices in the SMEs. The major contribution of the study has been awareness building on safety issues in the SMEs that participated in the project.

Surprising Incentive: An Instrument for Promoting Safety Performance of Construction Employees

Background

In comparison with other industries, the construction industry still has a higher rate of fatal injuries, and thus, there is a need to apply new and innovative approaches for preventing accidents and promoting safe conditions at construction sites.

Methods

In this study, the effectiveness of a new incentive system—the surprising incentive system—was assessed. One year after the implementation of this new incentive system, behavioral changes of employees with respect to seven types of activities were observed.

Results

The results of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between the new incentive system and the safety performance of frontline employees. The new incentive system had a greater positive impact in the first 6 months since its implementation. In the long term, however, safety performance experienced a gradual reduction. Based on previous studies, all activities selected in this study are important indicators of the safety conditions at workplaces. However, there is a need for a comprehensive and simple-to-apply tool for assessing frontline employees' safety performance. Shortening the intervals between incentives is more effective in promoting safety performance.

Conclusion

The results of this study proved that the surprising incentive would improve the employees' safety performance just in the short term because the surprising value of the incentives dwindle over time. For this reason and to maintain the surprising value of the incentive system, the amount and types of incentives need to be evaluated and modified annually or biannually.

A structural equation modelling approach examining the pathways between safety climate, behaviour performance and workplace slipping

OBJECTIVE

Safety climate has previously been associated with increasing safe workplace behaviours and decreasing occupational injuries. This study seeks to understand the structural relationship between employees' perceptions of safety climate, performing a safety behaviour (ie, wearing slip-resistant shoes) and risk of slipping in the setting of limited-service restaurants.

METHODS

At baseline, we surveyed 349 employees at 30 restaurants for their perceptions of their safety training and management commitment to safety as well as demographic data. Safety performance was identified as wearing slip-resistant shoes, as measured by direct observation by the study team. We then prospectively collected participants' hours worked and number of slips weekly for the next 12 weeks. Using a confirmatory factor analysis, we modelled safety climate as a higher order factor composed of previously identified training and management commitment factors.

RESULTS

The 349 study participants experienced 1075 slips during the 12-week follow-up. Confirmatory factor analysis supported modelling safety climate as a higher order factor composed of safety training and management commitment. In a structural equation model, safety climate indirectly affected prospective risk of slipping through safety performance, but no direct relationship between safety climate and slips was evident.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that safety climate can reduce workplace slips through performance of a safety behaviour as well as suggesting a potential causal mechanism through which safety climate can reduce workplace injuries. Safety climate can be modelled as a higher order factor composed of safety training and management commitment.

The COMmunity of Practice And Safety Support (COMPASS) Total Worker Health™ study among home care workers: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Home care workers are a high-risk group for injury and illness. Their unique work structure presents challenges to delivering a program to enhance their health and safety. No randomized controlled trials have assessed the impact of a Total Worker Health™ program designed for their needs.

METHODS/DESIGN

The COMPASS (COMmunity of Practice And Safety Support) study is a cluster randomized trial being implemented among Oregon's unionized home care workers. Partnering with the Oregon Home Care Commission allowed recruiting 10 pairs of home care worker groups with 8 participants per group (n = 160) for balanced randomization of groups to intervention and control conditions. Physiologic and survey evaluation of all participants will be at enrollment, 6 months and 12 months. Primary outcomes are to increase health promoting (for example, healthy nutrition and regular physical activity) and health protecting (that is, safety) behaviors. In addition to assessing outcomes adjusted for the hierarchical design, mediation analyses will be used to deconstruct and confirm the program's theoretical underpinnings and intervention processes. Intervention groups will participate in a series of monthly 2-hour meetings designed as ritualized, scripted peer-led sessions to increase knowledge, practice skills and build support for healthy actions. Self-monitoring and individual and team level goals are included to augment change. Because generalizability, reach and achieving dissemination are priorities, following initial wave findings, a second wave of COMPASS groups will be recruited and enrolled with tailoring of the program to align with existing Home Care Commission educational offerings. Outcomes, process and mediation of those tailored groups will be compared with the original wave's findings.

DISCUSSION

The COMPASS trial will assess a novel program to enhance the safety and health of a vulnerable, rapidly expanding group of isolated caregivers, whose critical work allows independent living of frail seniors and the disabled.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02113371, first registered 11 March 2014.

Worksite safety climate, smoking, and the use of protective equipment by blue-collar building workers enrolled in the MassBUILT smoking cessation trial

OBJECTIVE

To assess potential contributors to high injury rates and smoking prevalence among construction workers, we investigated the association of safety climate with personal protective equipment use, and smoking behaviors.

METHODS

Logistic regression models estimated risk ratios for personal protective equipment use and smoking using data from participants in MassBUILT smoking cessation intervention (n = 1725).

RESULTS

Contractor safety climate was negatively associated with the use of dust masks (rate ratio [RR], 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 0.94), respirators (RR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.75 to 0.89), general equipment (RR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.95 to 1.00), and fall protection (RR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.91 to 0.98) and positively associated with current smoking (RR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.25) but not smoking cessation. Coworker safety climate was negatively associated with the use of dust masks (RR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.82 to 0.92), respirators (RR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.74 to 0.87), general equipment (RR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.94 to 0.98), fall (RR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.89 to 0.96), and hearing protection (RR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.83 to 0.93) but not smoking.

CONCLUSIONS

Worksite safety climate may be important for personal protective equipment use and smoking, but further research is needed.

Preventing injuries in workers: the role of management practices in decreasing injuries reporting

BACKGROUND

Researchers have found that management safety practices may predict occupational injuries and psychological distresses in the workplace. The present study examined the perception of management safety practices related to injuries reporting and its dimensions among workers of Isfahan Steel Company (ESCO).

METHODS

A self-administered anonymous survey was distributed to 189 workers. The survey included demographic factors, management safety perception, injuries reporting and its components (physical symptoms, psychological symptoms, and injuries). The data were analyzed by Multivariate and correlation techniques.

RESULTS

The results showed that: 1) there were significant correlations between management safety perception with injuries reporting and its two dimensions namely physical and psychological symptoms; 2) there was no significant relationship between management safety perception and injury; 3) in Multivariate analysis, management safety perception significantly predicted about 26%, 19%, and 28% of the variances of variables of injuries reporting, physical symptoms, and psychological symptoms respectively (P< 0.01).

CONCLUSION

Improving employees' perception of management safety practices can be important to prevent the development of job injuries and to promote workers' safety and well-being.

Knowledge management and safety compliance in a high-risk distributed organizational system

Background

In a safety perspective, efficient knowledge management is important for learning purposes and thus to prevent errors from occurring repeatedly. The relationship between knowledge exchange among employees and safety behavior may be of particular importance in distributed organizational systems where similar high-risk activities take place at several locations. This study develops and tests hypotheses concerning the relationship between knowledge exchange systems usage, knowledge exchange in the organizational system, and safety compliance.

Methods

The operational context of the study is petroleum drilling and well operations involving distributed high-risk activities. The hypotheses are tested by use of survey data collected from a large petroleum operator company and eight of its main contractors.

Results

The results show that safety compliance is influenced by use of knowledge exchange systems and degree of knowledge exchange in the organizational system, both within and between units. System usage is the most important predictor, and safety compliance seems to be more strongly related to knowledge exchange within units than knowledge exchange between units.

Conclusion

Overall, the study shows that knowledge management is central for safety behavior.

Safety culture assessment in petrochemical industry: a comparative study of two algerian plants

Background

To elucidate the relationship between safety culture maturity and safety performance of a particular company.

Methods

To identify the factors that contribute to a safety culture, a survey questionnaire was created based mainly on the studies of Fernández-Muñiz et al. The survey was randomly distributed to 1000 employees of two oil companies and realized a rate of valid answer of 51%. Minitab 16 software was used and diverse tests, including the descriptive statistical analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, mean analysis, and correlation, were used for the analysis of data. Ten factors were extracted using the analysis of factor to represent safety culture and safety performance.

Results

The results of this study showed that the managers' commitment, training, incentives, communication, and employee involvement are the priority domains on which it is necessary to stress the effort of improvement, where they had all the descriptive average values lower than 3.0 at the level of Company B. Furthermore, the results also showed that the safety culture influences the safety performance of the company. Therefore, Company A with a good safety culture (the descriptive average values more than 4.0), is more successful than Company B in terms of accident rates.

Conclusion

The comparison between the two petrochemical plants of the group Sonatrach confirms these results in which Company A, the managers of which are English and Norwegian, distinguishes itself by the maturity of their safety culture has significantly higher evaluations than the company B, who is constituted of Algerian staff, in terms of safety management practices and safety performance.

Work-related road traffic injury: a multilevel systems protocol

Background

Although road traffic injury is reported as the leading cause of work-related death in Australia, it is not clear, due to limitations in previous methods used, just how large a burden it is. Many organisations are unaware of the extent of work-related road traffic injury and, importantly, what can be done to reduce the burden. The proposed research will (i) estimate the prevalence of work-related road traffic injury and (ii) identify the organisational determinants associated with work-related road traffic injury.

Methods and design

The current study is designed to enumerate the problem and identify the individual driver-level, the supervisor-level and organisational-level factors associated with work-related road traffic injury. The multilevel systems protocol will involve a series of cross-sectional surveys administered to drivers of fleet vehicles (n=1200), supervisors of the drivers (n=1200) and senior managers (n=300) within the same organisation.

Discussion

The novel use of the multilevel systems protocol is critical to be able to accurately assess the specific determinants of driving safety within each context of an organisation.

Results

The results are expected to highlight that reducing injury in the workplace requires more than just individual compliance with safety procedures. It will also establish, for the first time, an occupational translation taskforce to ensure that the research findings are adopted into work-place practice and thereby directly contribute to reductions in work-related road traffic injury.

The impact of workplace factors on filing of workers' compensation claims among nursing home workers

Background

Injuries reported to workers’ compensation (WC) system are often used to estimate incidence of health outcomes and evaluate interventions in musculoskeletal epidemiology studies. However, WC claims represent a relatively small subset of all musculoskeletal disorders among employed individuals, and perhaps not a representative subset. This study determined the influence of workplace and individual factors on filing of workers’ compensation claims by nursing home employees with back pain.

Methods

Surveys were conducted in 18 skilled nursing facilities in four U.S. states. Self-administered questionnaires obtained information on demographic characteristics, working environment, and health behaviors/status. Employees who reported low back pain at least once in four questionnaire surveys were included. WC claims from the same facilities were obtained from the employer’s workers compensation insurer and matched by employee name. The dichotomous dependent variable was filing of back-related worker’s compensation claim. Association with predictors of interest, including pain severity, physical job demand, job strain, social support, schedule control, and safety climate, was assessed using multivariate regression modeling. Individual characteristics were tested as potential confounders.

Results

Pain severity level was significantly associated with filing low-back related claims (odds ratio (OR) = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.18 – 1.87). Higher physical demands at work (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01 – 1.14) also increased the likelihood of claim filing. Higher job strain (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.73 – 0.94), social support at work (OR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.82 – 0.99), and education (OR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.71 – 0.89) decreased the likelihood of claim filing.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the WC system captured the most severe occupational injuries. Workplace factors had additional influence on workers’ decision to file claims, after adjusting for low back pain severity. Education was correlated with worker’s socioeconomic status; its influence on claim filing is difficult to interpret because of the possible mixed effects of working conditions, self-efficacy, and content knowledge.

An exploration of workplace social capital as an antecedent of occupational safety and health climate and outcomes in the Chinese education sector

PURPOSE

It is widely acknowledged that teachers are at greater risk of work-related health problems. At the same time, employee perceptions of different dimensions of organizational climate can influence their attitudes, performance, and well-being at work. This study applied and extended a safety climate model in the context of the education sector in Hong Kong. Apart from safety considerations alone, the study included occupational health considerations and social capital and tested their relationships with occupational safety and health (OSH) outcomes.

METHODS

Seven hundred and four Hong Kong teachers completed a range of questionnaires exploring social capital, OSH climate, OSH knowledge, OSH performance (compliance and participation), general health, and self-rated health complaints and injuries. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the relationships between predictive and outcome variables.

RESULTS

SEM analysis revealed a high level of goodness of fit, and the hypothesized model including social capital yielded a better fit than the original model. Social capital, OSH climate, and OSH performance were determinants of both positive and negative outcome variables. In addition, social capital not only significantly predicted general health directly, but also had a predictive effect on the OSH climate-behavior-outcome relationship.

CONCLUSIONS

This study makes a contribution to the workplace social capital and OSH climate literature by empirically assessing their relationship in the Chinese education sector.

Does a permissive workplace substance use climate affect employees who do not use alcohol and drugs at work? A U.S. national study

The goal of this study was to begin exploring the relations of multiple dimensions of workplace substance use climate (substance availability, workplace descriptive norms, and workplace injunctive norms) to perceived workplace safety, work strain, and employee morale among employees who do not use alcohol or drugs at work. Data were collected from a probability sample of employed adults in the United States (N=2,051) who do not engage in workplace alcohol or drug use. The results showed that all three dimensions of workplace substance use climate were negatively related to workplace safety, positively related to work strain, and negatively related to employee morale. These results suggest that a permissive substance use climate at work may have broader relevance for the majority of employees who do not use alcohol and drugs at work.

Predictors of hearing protection use in construction workers

OBJECTIVES

Although noise-induced hearing loss is completely preventable, it remains highly prevalent among construction workers. Hearing protection devices (HPDs) are commonly relied upon for exposure reduction in construction, but their use is complicated by intermittent and highly variable noise, inadequate industry support for hearing conservation, and lax regulatory enforcement.

METHODS

As part of an intervention study designed to promote HPD use in the construction industry, we enrolled a cohort of 268 construction workers from a variety of trades at eight sites and evaluated their use of HPDs at baseline. We measured HPD use with two instruments, a questionnaire survey and a validated combination of activity logs with simultaneous dosimetry measurements. With these measurements, we evaluated potential predictors of HPD use based on components of Pender's revised health promotion model (HPM) and safety climate factors.

RESULTS

Observed full-shift equivalent noise levels were above recommended limits, with a mean of 89.8 +/- 4.9 dBA, and workers spent an average of 32.4 +/- 18.6% of time in each shift above 85 dBA. We observed a bimodal distribution of HPD use from the activity card/dosimetry measures, with nearly 80% of workers reporting either almost never or almost always using HPDs. Fair agreement (kappa = 0.38) was found between the survey and activity card/dosimetry HPD use measures. Logistic regression models identified site, trade, education level, years in construction, percent of shift in high noise, and five HPM components as important predictors of HPD use at the individual level. Site safety climate factors were also predictors at the group level.

CONCLUSIONS

Full-shift equivalent noise levels on the construction sites assessed were well above the level at which HPDs are required, but usage rates were quite low. Understanding and predicting HPD use differs by methods used to assess use (survey versus activity card/dosimetry). Site, trade, and the belief that wearing HPD is not time consuming were the only predictors of HPD use common to both measures on an individual level. At the group level, perceived support for site safety and HPD use proved to be predictive of HPD use.

Association of occupation and safety practices with work-injury absence among public hospital employees in Latin America: a study from Costa Rica

BACKGROUND

Injury-related statistics in developing countries are rare.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the relationship between occupational and safety-related risk factors and absences from work during the preceding 6 months due to work-related injury among public hospital employees in Costa Rica.

METHODS

Data were used from a cross-sectional survey conducted in December 2000 among a stratified random sample of 1000 employees from 10 of the 29 public hospitals in Costa Rica. The questionnaire included sociodemographic data, occupational exposures, and organizational risk factors. A dichotomous variable was created to indicate work-injury absence. At-risk employees (n = 466) were classified as having had a work-injury absence if they reported having been absent for at least 1 day in the preceding 6 months because of a work-related injury. OR and 95% CI were calculated using unconditional logistic regression models.

RESULTS

There is a greater likelihood of injury-related absence in non-professional occupational positions (ie, auxiliary personnel (OR = 2.29) and general services employees (OR = 5.55)) than in professional positions, and in employees who show poor compliance with safety practices (OR = 2.03) and have high interference from their job task (OR = 3.79) compared with their counterparts.

CONCLUSIONS

Work-injury absence appears not only to be a function of work injury, but also a function of occupation and degree of compliance with safety practices.

Evaluating the organisational climate in Italian public healthcare institutions by means of a questionnaire

BACKGROUND

By means of the ICONAS project, the Healthcare Agency of an Italian Region developed, and used a standardised questionnaire to quantify the organisational climate. The aims of the project were (a) to investigate whether the healthcare institutions were interested in measuring climate, (b) to estimate the range of applicability and reliability of the instrument, (c) to analyse the dimensions of climate among healthcare personnel, (d) to assess the differences among employees with different contractual positions.

METHODS

The anonymous questionnaire containing 50 items, each with a scale from 1 to 10, was offered to the healthcare organisations, to be compiled during ad hoc meetings. The data were sent to the central project coordinator. The differences between highly specialised staff (mostly physicians) and other employees were assessed after descriptive statistical analysis of the single items. Both Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis were used.

RESULTS

Ten healthcare organisations agreed to participate. The questionnaire was completed by 8691 employees out of 13202. The mean value of organisational climate was 4.79 (range 1-10). There were significant differences among single items and between the 2 groups of employees. Multivariate methods showed: (a) one principal component explained > 40% of the variance, (b) 7 factors summarised the data.

CONCLUSION

Italian healthcare institutions are interested in assessing organisational phenomena, especially after the reforms of the nineties. The instrument was found to be applicable and suitable for measuring organisational climate. Administration of the questionnaire leads to an acceptable response rate. Climate can be described by means of 7 underlying dimensions.

Use of a safety climate questionnaire in UK health care: factor structure, reliability and usability

AIM

To explore the factor structure, reliability, and potential usefulness of a patient safety climate questionnaire in UK health care.

SETTING

Four acute hospital trusts and nine primary care trusts in England.

METHODS

The questionnaire used was the 27 item Teamwork and Safety Climate Survey. Thirty three healthcare staff commented on the wording and relevance. The questionnaire was then sent to 3650 staff within the 13 NHS trusts, seeking to achieve at least 600 responses as the basis for the factor analysis. 1307 questionnaires were returned (36% response). Factor analyses and reliability analyses were carried out on 897 responses from staff involved in direct patient care, to explore how consistently the questions measured the underlying constructs of safety climate and teamwork.

RESULTS

Some questionnaire items related to multiple factors or did not relate strongly to any factor. Five items were discarded. Two teamwork factors were derived from the remaining 11 teamwork items and three safety climate factors were derived from the remaining 11 safety items. Internal consistency reliabilities were satisfactory to good (Cronbach's alpha > or =0.69 for all five factors).

CONCLUSIONS

This is one of the few studies to undertake a detailed evaluation of a patient safety climate questionnaire in UK health care and possibly the first to do so in primary as well as secondary care. The results indicate that a 22 item version of this safety climate questionnaire is useable as a research instrument in both settings, but also demonstrates a more general need for thorough validation of safety climate questionnaires before widespread usage.

Nontraditional work factors in farmworker adolescent populations: implications for health research and interventions

Agriculture has been documented to be one of the most hazardous work environments for both adults and children. Adolescents may be especially vulnerable to adverse health effects from agricultural exposures due to the rapid growth and development experienced during those years. Separating the occupational, economic, and social issues in this population is difficult. Weak regulatory protection, lack of compliance with existing regulations, and gaps in service provision characterize the working conditions of adolescent farmworkers. Although there is increasing research on the impact of work organization on mental and physical health in adult working populations, there is a scarcity of research focused on this concept in young workers--and it remains virtually unaddressed in young farmworkers. Work characteristics of the informal work sector, better delineated in international literature, should be considered when planning research or interventions in this at-risk population. Further, the population of adolescent farmworkers is diverse, and research strategies and interventions need to be targeted and tailored to the heterogeneous groups. This article addresses some of the nontraditional work factors associated with the less-than-formal work organization and environments in the farmworker adolescent population and how these factors may inform the planning of research and interventions. Specifically, mobility, cultural patterns and social networks, alternative sampling strategies, alternative delivery of health care and education, and involvement of a wide range of players in the work environment of adolescent farmworkers should all be considered when conducting research or planning programs for this population.

Organisational and occupational risk factors associated with work related injuries among public hospital employees in Costa Rica

AIMS

To explore the relation between occupational and organisational factors and work related injuries (WRI) among public hospital employees in Costa Rica.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a stratified random sample of 1000 employees from 10 of the 29 public hospitals in Costa Rica. A previously validated, self-administered questionnaire which included occupational and organisational factors and sociodemographic variables was used. From the final eligible sample (n = 859), a total of 842 (response rate 98%) questionnaires were returned; 475 workers were analysed after excluding not-at-risk workers and incomplete questionnaires. WRI were computed for the past six months.

RESULTS

Workers exposed to chemicals (RR = 1.36) and physical hazards (RR = 1.26) had higher WRI rate ratios than non-exposed workers. Employees reporting job tasks that interfered with safety practices (RR = 1.46), and a lack of safety training (RR = 1.41) had higher WRI rate ratios than their counterparts. Low levels of safety climate (RR = 1.51) and safety practices (RR = 1.27) were individually associated with an increased risk of WRI. Also, when evaluated jointly, low levels of both safety climate and safety practices showed the highest association with WRI (RR = 1.92).

CONCLUSIONS

When evaluated independently, most of the occupational exposures and organisational factors investigated were significantly correlated with an increased injury risk. As expected, some of these associations disappeared when evaluated jointly. Exposure to chemical and physical hazards, lack of safety training, and low levels of safety climate and safety practices remained significant risk factors for WRI. These results will be important to consider in developing future prevention interventions in this setting.