Does safety climate predict safety performance in Italy and the USA? Cross-cultural validation of a theoretical model of safety climate

The cross-level effect of team safety-specific transformational leadership on workplace safety behavior: The serial mediating role of team safety climate and team safety motivation

INTRODUCTION

Workplace safety not only impairs individual health but also affects economic and social development.

METHOD

Based on social learning theory, collective social learning theory, and expectancy-valence theory, using cluster random sampling method, 630 employees from 66 different work teams out of around 800 employees in a domestic petroleum enterprise were selected to participate in the research. The safety-specific transformational leadership, safety climate, safety motivation and workplace safety behavior scales were used. Data were collected in two stages. SPSS22.0 and Mplus7.0 were used to analyze the data to explore the relationship between team safety-specific transformational leadership and workplace safety behavior, as well as the serial mediating effect of team safety climate and team safety motivation.

RESULTS

The results showed that: (a) team safety-specific transformational leadership can positively influence safety compliance and safety participation; (b) team safety climate mediates the relationship between team safety-specific transformational leadership and safety compliance and safety participation; (c) team safety motivation mediates the relationship between team safety-specific transformational leadership and safety compliance and safety participation; and (d) team safety climate and team safety motivation play a serial mediating role between team safety-specific transformational leadership and safety compliance and safety participation.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

This research has both theoretical and practical significance.

Validation of the Spanish version of the Neal, Griffin and Hart safety behavior scale

Objectives. The safety behavior scale (SBS), developed by Neal, Griffin and Hart, is one of the most widely used conceptualizations in the field of occupational safety. Previous studies have evaluated the psychometric properties of this scale in different populations. However, few validation studies have been conducted in the Latin American context. To fill these gaps in the literature, this study aimed to assess the validity, reliability and measurement invariance of this instrument in the context of the Latin American mining industry. Methods. Data were collected from 398 workers from Ecuadorian mining companies. The questionnaire was translated into Spanish following a back-translation process. The latent factorial structure of the SBS was explored by estimating a series of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory equation modeling (ESEM) models. Results. The analyses showed that the two correlated first-order factor CFA representation was the most appropriate model for the data. Measurement invariance by age, type of contract and firm size was also confirmed. Conclusions. The SBS is a valid and reliable measure of safety behavior. In addition, this study determined the applicability of this instrument in the Latin American context, which enhances opportunities for future research in the region.

A fuzzy Bayesian network DEMATEL model for predicting safety behavior

Objectives. Safety behavior significantly affects safety performance in the workplace. This study aimed to develop a Bayesian network (BN) model for managing and improving safety behavior. Methods. This study was carried out in the chemical industries in Iran. The data were gathered by a questionnaire consisting of 13 variables including organization safety priority, systems design, safety communication, safety education, work strategy, human-system interaction, mental workload, environmental distractions, work pressure, fatigue, sleepiness, safety knowledge and locus of control. The BN structure was created using the fuzzy decision-making trial, evaluation laboratory method and expert opinions. Belief updating was used to determine variables with the strongest effect on safety behavior. Results. Locus of control, organization safety priority and safety knowledge were the best predictors of safety behavior. Moreover, it was found that improving organization safety priority and safety knowledge is the best intervention strategy to improve safety behavior significantly. Conclusions. BN is a powerful tool that can model causal relationships among variables. Improving organization safety priority and safety knowledge can lead to the maximum possible level of safety behavior.

How Did COVID-19 Pandemic Impact Safety Performance on a Construction Project? A Case Study Comparing Pre and Post COVID-19 Influence on Safety at an Australian Construction Site

COVID-19 had a significant impact on construction projects due to labor shortages and COVID-19 restrictions, yet little is known about the impact it had on construction safety. To address this gap, an Australian construction project was selected to study the impact of COVID-19 on safety performance, safety climate and safety leadership. The study collected data from safety climate surveys, leading and lagging safety indicators and used linear regression to compare safety performance pre and post the onset of COVID-19. Our results showed after the onset of COVID-19 there was a significant reduction (Pr > F at 0.05%) in incident rate, an improvement in supervisor safety leadership and safety climate, and satisfaction with organisational communication. The study identified the increase level of safety awareness due to COVID-19 did not result in an increase in the level of engagement in safety leadership. Interestingly, participation in the safety leadership activities did not improve until a change of Project Manager occurred. The study determined leaders who establish a positive safety climate within a project could negate the safety performance impact of COVID-19. The study confirms the importance of site safety leadership in maintaining engagement in risk management and the value of focused safety communication.

The psychological mechanism of construction workers' safety participation: The social identity theory perspective

INTRODUCTION

Safety participation has gained increasing attention as an important dimension of workers' safety behaviors. Although previous studies attempted to identify factors affecting workers' safety participation, only a few studies paid attention to the psychological mechanisms behind it. Therefore, this study aimed to develop and test a research model that explains how management factors are implicated in workers' safety participation. Specifically, this study focused on project-based organizations (e.g., construction projects) because employee psychological mechanisms may have a unique nature in such transient employment.

METHOD

The hypotheses in the research model of the psychological mechanism of construction workers' safety participation are tested using survey data from 261 construction workers.

RESULTS

The results indicated that construction workers' safety participation is influenced by project identification after controlling the shared variance of safety compliance. Project identification also mediates the effects of transformational leadership and communication climate on safety participation.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

This study offers researchers and practitioners an explanation of how management factors influence construction workers' safety behaviors and clarifies the role of project identification play in explaining the effects of management factors on safety compliance and safety participation.

Assessment of workplace safety climate among power sector employees: A comparative study of cross-culture employer in Pakistan

Pakistan’s power sector has undergone extensive reforms to improve its technical and monetary performance over the last two decades. However, despite its fast-growing and hazardous nature, safety research remains limited in this context. This study aims to address this gap by assessing the level of safety climate in the power sector and comparing the safety climate in plants operated by multinational companies (MNCs) and local companies (LCs).To this end, five power plants operating in the southern part of the Punjab region (in Pakistan) were included in this study. The Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50), an analytical tool comprising of 50 items across seven dimensions, was used to determine the level of safety climate. An independent T-Test was then applied to compare the means in two different setups to draw a conclusion about overall safety climate differences. In MNCs, overall management/leadership perception improved; however, workers in both setups responded similarly in many cases. The lowest observed score in both setups was related to worker’s prioritization of safety and risk non-acceptance. The study highlights the importance of a company’s policies, procedures, and leadership commitments in creating a stronger safety climate by instilling trust in workers. The study further demonstrates that cross-cultural and strong policies devised by multinational companies help to improve the overall safety climate andconcludes that promoting an efficient and positive safety climate in the power sector is a long journey and that can only be achieved if all workers and leaders take on an active role.

How Does Leadership in Safety Management Affect Employees' Safety Performance? A Case Study from Mining Enterprises in China

Leadership is a necessary element for ensuring workplace safety. Rather little is known about the role of leadership safety behaviours (LSBs) in the mining industry. Using regression analysis and structural equation modelling analysis, this study examined the cause-and-effect relationships between leadership safety behaviours and safety performance. Data were collected by questionnaires from 305 miners in China. Data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, which identified five main dimensions of LSBs: safety management commitment, safety communication with feedback, safety policy, safety incentives, and safety training; the analysis also identified three main dimensions of safety performance: employee’s safety compliance, safety participation, and safety accidents. The results showed the overall effects of each LSB variable on safety compliance in descending order as: safety training (0.504), safety incentives (0.480), safety communication with feedback (0.377), safety management commitment (0.281), and safety policy (0.110). The overall effects of each LSB variable on safety participation in descending order were: safety training (0.706), safety incentives (0.496), safety management commitment (0.365), and safety policy (0.247). Furthermore, we found that safety management commitment and safety incentives increased employees’ safety behaviours, but this influence was mediated by safety training, safety policy, and safety communication with feedback.

Doubt in store: vaccine hesitancy among grocery workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

The objective of this study was to assess the influence of workplace safety conditions alongside the World Health Organization's model of the "3 Cs", on grocery store workers' vaccine hesitancy concerning COVID-19. Data for this study come from the Arizona Frontline Workers Survey, a longitudin web-based survey of 770 grocery store workers in the state of Arizona (US) collected in July 2020 and January 2021. We utilized ordinary least squares and multinomial logistic regression analyses to assess predictors of hesitancy at our Wave 2. Thirty-nine percent of our sample reported being unlikely to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Two aspects of the "3 Cs" model, confidence and convenience, were correlated with lower levels of vaccine hesitancy while the perceptions of being protected by one's employer increased hesitancy. Our findings underscore the importance of workplace conditions for vaccine hesitancy and the need to include vaccine messaging in employers' safety practices.

The impact of workplace safety and customer misbehavior on supermarket workers' stress and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

Essential frontline workers in the retail sector face increased exposure risks to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to frequent interactions with the general public. Often these interactions are fraught with controversies over public safety protocols. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of frontline workers' perceptions of workplace safety and customer misbehaviors on their stress and psychological distress to inform managing workplace health and safety during public health crises.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted an online survey of 3,344 supermarket workers in the state of Arizona (US) during the state's first COVID-19 pandemic wave in July 2020. Measures included mental health distress, and perceptions of workplace safety and customer behaviors. The authors utilized a mixed-methods approach combining multiple regression analyses with qualitative analyses of open-ended comments.

Findings

Workers reported high rates of stress and psychological distress. Increases in mental health morbidity were correlated with perceptions of being unsafe in the workplace and concerns about negative customer encounters. Qualitative analyses reveal frustration with management's efforts to reduce risks intertwined with feelings of being unsafe and vulnerable to threatening customer encounters.

Practical implications

The findings highlight the need to provide and enforce clear safety guidelines, including how to manage potential hostile customer interactions, to promote positive health workplace management during a pandemic.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to assess the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the mental health of non-health care frontline essential workers and presents novel insights regarding perceived customer misbehavior and need for management support and guidance in a public health crisis.

Role of supervisor behavioral integrity for safety on the relationship between top management safety climate, safety motivation and safety performance

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

The Safer Culture Framework: An Application to Healthcare Based on a Multi-Industry Review of Safety Culture Literature

BACKGROUND

Errors and preventable harm to patients remain regrettably common and expensive in healthcare. Improvement requires transforming the culture of the healthcare industry to put a greater emphasis on safety. Safety culture involves holding collective attitudes, values, and behaviors that prioritize safety. The Safer Culture framework, previously established through a narrative review of literature in multiple industries, provides a consensus on what impacts safety culture, how it manifests in behavior, and how it influences safety-related outcomes.

METHODS

Through a theoretical review, we validate, refine, and provide nuance to this framework for the development of safety culture in healthcare contexts. To accomplish this, we conceptually map existing dimensions pulled through the literature onto our Safer Culture framework.

RESULTS

A total of 360 articles were reviewed. We present specific elements for each dimension in our framework and apply the dimension to healthcare contexts.

CONCLUSION

We provide an evidence-based and comprehensive framework that can be used by patient safety leaders and researchers to guide the evaluation of safety culture and develop interventions to foster patient safety culture and improve patient safety outcomes.

How Optimism Bias and Safety Climate Influence the Risk-Taking Behavior of Construction Workers

Risk taking among construction workers is a critical topic in construction safety research. The aim of this study was to empirically investigate how optimism bias and safety climate influence construction worker risk-taking behavior. A survey with a designed questionnaire was conducted to collect data from construction workers. A total of 183 construction workers participated in this study and completed the designed questionnaire. The collected data were subjected to statistical analysis by using structural equation modeling. Results show that optimism bias related to work risks positively influences construction worker risk-taking behavior, whereas safety climate and optimism bias related to hazard perception skills negatively affect the risk-taking behavior. These findings can enrich the literature on construction worker risk-taking behavior from the perspective of optimism bias and safety climate. Practical implications are provided for discouraging construction workers from taking risks at work.

Essential but Ill-Prepared: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affects the Mental Health of the Grocery Store Workforce

OBJECTIVES

Frontline essential workers face elevated risks of exposure to COVID-19 because of the interactive nature of their jobs, which require high levels of interaction with the general public and coworkers. The impact of these elevated risks on the mental health of essential workers, especially outside the health care sector, is not well studied. To address this knowledge gap, we examined correlations between perceptions of workplace risks and mental health distress among grocery store workers in Arizona.

METHODS

We collected the first statewide sample of essential workers outside the health care sector focused on mental health and well-being. A total of 3344 grocery store workers in Arizona completed an online survey in July 2020. We used multiple regression models to identify demographic and work-based correlates of mental health distress.

RESULTS

Levels of mental health distress among respondents were high: 557 of 3169 (17.6%) reported severe levels and 482 of 3168 (15.2%) reported moderate levels. Perceptions of workplace safety were strongly correlated with significantly reduced levels of mental health distress (ß = -1.44; SE = 0.20) and reduced perceived stress (ß = -0.97; SE = 0.16). Financially disadvantaged workers and employees aged <55 reported high levels of mental health distress. Perceptions of safety and protection in the workplace were significantly correlated with availability of safety trainings, social distancing, and policies governing customer behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

Lacking sufficient workplace protections, grocery store employees in Arizona experienced high levels of mental health distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing clear federal and state policies to employers to guide implementation of workplace protections may help reduce sources of mental health distress.

A path model approach to safety compliance and personal factors among electrical workers in India

This paper reports the findings from a safety research survey conducted among the employees of a large public sector electrical utility in the state of Kerala, India. Response of 3017 employees was collected by one-to-one interaction using the developed instrument. Personal factors like self-esteem, job stress, personal stress, social supports, and fatigue of the targeted population were measured. Personal safety climate factors of the utility were accessed by modifying the existing safety climate scales. Statistical analysis confirmed the reliability and validity of the factors in the study. A significant path model of personal and safety climate factors was developed. Seven research hypotheses were validated by using statistical analysis. The results of the study highlighted the need for safety participation, safety knowledge, safety training, and interventions to reduce personal issues in the workplace. These findings provide valuable insights to safety professionals for implementing novel methods to ensure workplace safety.

Improving the Safety-Performance Nexus: A Study on the Moderating and Mediating Influence of Work Motivation in the Causal Link between Occupational Health and Safety Management (OHSM) Practices and Work Performance in the Oil and Gas Sector

The preventive systems required to ensure workers are protected from occupational accidents and injuries dwell heavily on effective occupational health and safety management (OHSM) systems and practices. In this study, the concepts of the job demand-resource model (JD-R), self-determination theory (SDT), and perceived organizational support for safety (POSS) theory were adopted to develop a holistic conceptual model that seeks to unravel moderating and mediating effects of work motivation on the causal link between OHSM practices and work performance in the oil and gas sector. The study measured OHSM practices from six distinct safety dimensional perspectives and work performance using a two-dimensional distinct construct that assesses different aspects of positive work behaviours. A quantitative research approach through the structural equation modelling analysis technique was applied. A total of 1310 participants were selected across three major organizations that represent downstream, upstream, and middle stream of the Ghanaian oil and gas sector. Respondents were recruited through stratified, purposive, and convenient sampling techniques. The findings from the path estimate through the SEM analysis suggested that OHSM practices positively and significantly influenced both safety performance and task performance of employees. However, OHSM practices indicated a higher positive significant influence on task performance than safety performance. The significant influence of OHSM practices on both task and safety performance was significantly moderated and partially mediated by work motivation, while both task performance and safety performance were significantly determined by work motivation. In this study, the dimensions for assessing work performance extend the performance theories established in previous literature, whereas the integrated multifaceted OHSM practices employed diverge from the traditional individualistic approach by providing insights into more flexible managerial practices that are employee-centred and outcome-oriented. The findings from this study address the need for organizations to appreciate the importance of managing workers’ perception of OHSM practices as a motivational drive that induces work performance.

The Italian Validation of OSCI: The Organizational and Safety Climate Inventory

Although safety climate has been the object of multiple studies in the last thirty years, the relationship between safety climate and organizational climate has been scarcely investigated. The Organizational and Safety Climate Inventory (OSCI) was the first and only validated instrument to allow the assessment of organizational and safety climates simultaneously and by using the same theoretical framework. The present work investigated the psychometric properties of OSCI in an Italian sample at the group level; study 1 (N = 745) examined the factor structure of the scale by using confirmatory factor analyses. Study 2 (N = 471) advanced the original Portuguese validation by testing its measurement equivalence across gender and company sector through multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses. Results confirmed one higher-order factor structure with four first-order factors for both Organizational Climate and Safety Climate, with Organizational Climate predicting Safety Climate. Moreover, the scale was found to be invariant between men and women and between different types of company. Reliability, discriminant, and criterion validities of the scale showed very good values. Overall, the findings strengthened the original claim of the OSCI to be a valid and innovative instrument, which allows the identification of specific dimensions of safety climate, starting from a more general model of organizational climate.

Safety climate as a predictor of work ability problems in blue-collar workers: prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate whether safety climate items would be predictive of future physical and mental work ability among blue-collar workers.

METHODS

Blue-collar workers (n=3822) from the Danish Work Environment and Health study replied to questions on safety climate, physical and mental work ability, and health in 2012 and 2014. Using multivariate logistic regression, we estimated the association of number of safety climate items (0-5) in 2012 with physical and mental work ability in 2014. Potential confounders included sex, age, socioeconomic class, occupational group, lifestyle (smoking habits and body mass index) and previous accidents.

RESULTS

In the fully adjusted model, workers reporting two and three or more safety climate problems (reference: 0) had higher risk for reduced physical work ability at follow-up (OR 1.29 [95% CI 1.03 to 1.61] and OR 1.52 [95% CI 1.27 to 1.84], respectively). Similar outcomes were observed for mental work ability. Using number of safety climate items as a continuous variable, a doseresponse association existed both for physical and mental work ability (trend-test <0.0001).

CONCLUSION

A dose-response association between the number of safety climate items at baseline and lower physical and mental work ability was detected after 2 years. Safety climate items should be highly prioritised in blue-collar companies.

Explanation and prediction of accidents using the path analysis approach in industrial units: The effect of safety performance and climate

BACKGROUND

The safety climate in an organization depends on people's understanding of the safety policies and procedures, as well as the value, importance, and priority of safety in the workplace.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to describe and predict accidents using the path analysis model (PAM) in industrial units though the analysis of the effect of safety performance and climate.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 294 workers in industrial units in Hamadan, a province in the western part of Iran. The data on safety performance and climate was collected using a questionnaire. The first part of the questionnaire was a short version inventory (with 25 items on safety climate) that was used to assess five variables of management commitment, supportive environment, training, personal safety prioritization, and perceived work pressure. Moreover, the safety performance was measured using 10 items on safety rules and participation. The PAM was used to describe the effects of safety climate and performance on accidents.

RESULTS

The results showed that the safety climate had the strongest negative impact on work pressure and safety compliance toward accident, followed by safety participation, and quality of training. Moreover, the negative influence of safety climate on accident was mainly mediated by two variables: work pressure and safety participation toward accident. The work pressure had the strongest indirect and total influence on accidents. However, none of the variables had a direct effect on accidents. Training was the most important direct cause of promoting personal safety priority. The safety compliance was more effective than safety participation in reducing accidents rates.

CONCLUSIONS

Therefore, it seems that perceived work pressure has an indirect effect on accidents which is mediated by other variables, mainly personal safety priority and safety performance.

Safety Doesn't Happen by Accident: A Longitudinal Investigation on the Antecedents of Safety Behavior

Research recognizes the shared perceptions of the priority attributed to safety in comparison to other organizational goals (i.e., safety climate) as a potential antecedent of safety behavior among construction workers. This type of climate can dismantle barriers to the promotion of effective strategies to mitigate workplace hazards. On the other hand, the current understanding of the underlying process that links the perception of a safety climate to the implementation of safety behavior is far from being exhaustive. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore the role of risk perception and safety knowledge in explaining the positive impact of safety climate before attending a training course (Time 0) and safety behavior after the training completion (Time 1). Data were collected at two time-points on a sample of N = 278 construction workers taking part in different safety training courses promoted by a vocational training organization in Northern Italy. The hypothesized relationships were tested using a serial mediation model bootstrapping approach. The obtained results indicated that the perception of a safety climate at Time 0 (T0) among construction workers is associated with higher risk perception and safety knowledge that, in turn, resulted in a higher implementation of safety behavior at Time 1 (T1). These findings contribute to the understanding of those factors that constitute a fertile ground for preventing injuries and accidents in the construction sector.

Multilevel Job Demands and Resources: Cross-level Effects of Competing Organizational Facet-Specific Climates on Risky Safety Behaviors

Both individual demands (i.e., workload) and organizational demands and resources (i.e., production pressure and safety climates) may affect the likelihood that employees undertake risky safety behaviors in different ways. Adopting an organizational multilevel perspective, the aim of the present research was fourfold: (1) to examine the impact of individual-level job demands (i.e., workload) on the enactment of risky safety behaviors; (2) to evaluate the effects of coexisting and competing organizational facet-specific climates (i.e., for safety and for production pressure) on the above outcome; (3) to assess their cross-level interactions with individual job demands, and (4) to test the interaction among such organizational demands and resources in shaping risky behaviors. A series of multilevel regression models tested on surveydata from 1375 employees nested within 33 organizations indicated that high workload increases the likelihood of employees enacting risky safety behaviors, while organizational safety and production pressure climates showed significant and opposite direct effects on this safety outcome. Moreover, organizational safety climate significantly mitigated the effect of individual job demands on risky safety behaviors, while organizational production pressure climate exacerbated this individual-level relationship. Finally, organizational safety climate mitigates the cross-level direct effect of organizational production pressure climate on the enactment of risky safety behaviors.

Influence of Social Safety Capital on Safety Citizenship Behavior: The Mediation of Autonomous Safety Motivation

In recent years, the safety issue of construction workers has become a research hotspot, and many researchers have achieved results in the impact of safety behavior regarding China’s construction industry. However, the existing research about the driving factors of safety citizenship behavior is insufficient. To fill this gap, this paper explores the driving factor of safety citizenship behavior from the perspective of social capital theory. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey, involving 311 Chinese construction workers, was conducted to verify the influence of Social Safety Capital on Safety Citizenship Behavior. The results showed that safety citizenship behavior made by workers was significantly related to social safety capital. Autonomous safety motivation mediated the relationships between social safety capital and safety citizenship behavior. Further, this research supports the differences between social safety capital and autonomous safety motivation. Specifically, the paper found that social safety capital had the largest regression coefficient for participation of suggestion-making, and autonomous safety motivation had the largest regression coefficient for the relationship between superior and subordinate by multiple regression analysis.

A dual perspective on risk perception and its effect on safety behavior: A moderated mediation model of safety motivation, and supervisor's and coworkers' safety climate

Previous studies have acknowledged the impact of risk perception on safety behavior, but were largely controversial. This study aims to clarify this conflict and the mechanism through which risk perception can have an impact on safety behavior. From the perspective of the dual attribute of the job demand concept in job demands-resources theory, we posit that risk perception can be considered as a job hindrance or a job challenge depending on the context, thereby resulting in a negative or positive impact on safety behavior, respectively. The current research context is the construction industry and the hypotheses were tested using hierarchically nested data collected from 311 workers in 35 workgroups. Risk perception was demonstrated to be a job hindrance exerting a negative impact on safety behavior and safety motivation mediated this effect. In addition, two dimensions of group-level safety climate--supervisor's and coworkers'--were expected to alleviate or even reverse the detrimental effects of hindrance risk perception on safety motivation and on safety behavior via motivation. A moderation model and a first-stage moderated mediation model were established, respectively, for testing the moderating roles of safety climate in the relationship between risk perception and safety motivation, and in the indirect relationship of risk perception with safety behavior via motivation. Surprisingly, contrary to the hypotheses, when supervisor's safety climate changed from a low level to a high level, the impact of risk perception on safety motivation changed from positive to negative, and the negative effect of risk perception on safety behavior via safety motivation was not alleviated but worsened. As expected, for workers in a positive coworkers' safety climate, the negative effect of risk perception on motivation and the indirect negative effect of risk perception on behavior were both reversed to the positive. This indicates that coworkers' safety climate helped to change perceived risk from a job hindrance to a challenge. This research contributes to workplace risk perception and safety behavior research by theoretically viewing risk perception as a dual job hindrance-challenge concept and proposing two competing hypotheses concerning the impact of risk perception on safety behavior. The empirical investigation confirmed the hindrance attribute of risk perception in the construction context. It provides a theoretical framework and empirical evidence for future research to synthesize the conflict risk perception-safety behavior relationship. We also contribute to the literature by pointing out the potential negative role of certain supervisor safety activities such as paternalistic leadership in influencing employee safety.

Improving Safety through Non-Technical Skills in Chemical Plants: The Validity of a Questionnaire for the Self-Assessment of Workers

This research is aimed at developing a questionnaire for the self-assessment of non-technical skills (NTS) leading to safety in the chemical sector and at analysing the properties of its scales in terms of construct validity. The research involved 269 Italian employees from three chemical plants of an international company, who occupied low⁻medium levels in the organizational hierarchy. Results showed a good level of validity and reliability of the instrument and suggested that communication, situational awareness, decision-making, and fatigue/stress management are the four most important NTS for safety in the chemical sector.

The measurement equivalence of a safety climate measure across five faultlines

This study examines the appropriateness of comparing safety climate survey responses across multiple faultlines-hypothetical dividing lines that split a group into subgroups based on one or more attributes. Using survey data from 8790 employees of a multinational chemical processing and manufacturing company from 76 work sites nested within 19 different countries, we examined the multilevel measurement equivalence of a safety climate measure across cultural dimensions, survey languages, organizational hierarchy, employment arrangements, and work environments. As simulation studies support the faultline at the individual-level requires measurement equivalence tests that are different from the faultline at the country-level, we used multi-group multilevel confirmatory factor analyses for the Level-3 faultline, and multilevel factor mixture models for known classes for the Level-1 faultlines. The results demonstrated that faultlines can prevent safety climate measurement equivalence, which prohibits the aggregation of individual-level scores to higher levels and making comparisons across faultlines. This first study on multilevel safety climate measurement equivalence serves as both a warning to safety climate researchers and practitioners regarding the importance of faultlines and reminds us to consider the level of the faultlines when testing measurement equivalence with multilevel data.

Unintended consequences of management strategies for improving labor productivity in construction industry

INTRODUCTION

Labor productivity and safety are important topics in the construction industry. Even so, the literature provides little information for project managers trying to determine how management strategies designed to improve labor productivity impact safety.

METHOD

This research addresses the gap by measuring the impact of two groups of management strategies that involve human resource related management strategies and construction related management strategies related to safety performance in construction projects. Data were collected from 111 general construction projects through the survey.

RESULTS

The results show that the relationship between the implemented management strategies and safety performance is nuanced with 'Communication' harming safety performance while implementation of 'Labor Management,' 'Supervision and Leadership,' 'Planning' and 'Management of Construction' strategies improve the level of safety performance. This study took a further step by measuring the impact of the interactions between the two groups of management strategies on safety performance. The results show that the interactions of construction and human related management strategies are not always in the favor of safety. Practical Applications: This paper adds to the literature on the relationship between productivity and safety in the construction industry. The research findings can assist project managers to improve labor productivity without harming the safety of laborers unintentionally.

Workplace injuries, safety climate and behaviors: application of an artificial neural network

This article proposes and tests a model for the interaction effect of the organizational safety climate and behaviors on workplace injuries. Using artificial neural network and survey data from 306 metal casting industry employees in central Anatolia, we found that an organizational safety climate mitigates workplace injuries, and safety behaviors enforce the strength of the negative impact of the safety climate on workplace injuries. The results suggest a complex relationship between the organizational safety climate, safety behavior and workplace injuries. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in light of decreasing workplace injuries in the Anatolian metal casting industry.

Does company size matter? Validation of an integrative model of safety behavior across small and large construction companies

INTRODUCTION

Previous safety climate studies primarily focused on either large construction companies or the construction industry as a whole, while little is known about whether company size has significant effects on workers' understanding of safety climate measures and relationships between safety climate factors and safety behavior. Thus, this study aims to: (a) test the measurement equivalence (ME) of a safety climate measure across workers from small and large companies; (b) investigate if company size alters the causal structure of the integrative model developed by Guo, Yiu, and González (2016).

METHOD

Data were collected from 253 construction workers in New Zealand using a safety climate measure. This study used multi-group confirmatory factor analyses (MCFA) to test the measurement equivalence of the safety climate measure and structure invariance of the integrative model.

RESULTS

Results indicate that workers from small and large companies understood the safety climate measure in a similar manner. In addition, it was suggested that company size does not change the causal structure and mediational processes of the integrative model.

CONCLUSIONS

Both measurement equivalence of the safety climate measure and structural invariance of the integrative model were supported by this study. Practical applications: Findings of this study provided strong support for a meaningful use of the safety climate measure across construction companies in different sizes. Safety behavior promotion strategies designed based on the integrative model may be well suited for both large and small companies.

Comparing recall vs. recognition measures of accident under-reporting: A two-country examination

A growing body of research suggests that national injury surveillance data significantly underestimate the true number of non-fatal occupational injuries due to employee under-reporting of workplace accidents. Given the importance of accurately measuring such under-reporting, the purpose of the current research was to examine the psychometric properties of two different techniques used to operationalize accident under-reporting, one using a free recall methodology and the other a recognition-based approach. Moreover, in order to assess the cross-cultural generalizability of these under-reporting measures, we replicated our psychometric analyses in the United States (N=440) and Italy (N=592). Across both countries, the results suggest that both measures exhibited similar patterns of relationships with known antecedents, including job insecurity, production pressure, safety compliance, and safety reporting attitudes. However, the recall measures had more severe violations of normality and were less correlated with self-report workplace injuries. Considerations, implications, and recommendations for using these different types of accident measures are discussed.

Do we see how they perceive risk? An integrated analysis of risk perception and its effect on workplace safety behavior

While risk perception is a key factor influencing safety behavior, the academia lacks specific attention to the ways that workers perceive risk, and thus little is known about the mechanisms through which different risk perceptions influence safety behavior. Most previous research in the workplace safety domain argues that people tend to perceive risk based on rational formulations of risk criticality. However, individuals' emotions can be also useful in understanding their perceptions. Therefore, this research employs an integrated analysis concerning the rational and emotional perspectives. Specifically, it was expected that the identified three rational ways of perceiving risk, i.e., perceived probability, severity, and negative utility, would influence the direct emotional risk perception. Furthermore, these four risk perceptions were all expected to positively but differently influence safety behavior. The hypotheses were tested using a sample of 120 construction workers. It was found that all the three rational risk perceptions significantly influenced workers' direct perception of risk that is mainly based on emotions. Furthermore, safety behavior among workers relied mainly on emotional perception but not rational calculations of risk. This research contributes to workplace safety research by highlighting the importance of integrating the emotional assessment of risk, especially when workers' risk perception and behavior are concerned. Suggested avenues for improving safety behavior through improvement in risk perception include being aware of the possibility of different ways of perceiving risk, promoting experience sharing and accident simulation, and uncovering risk information.

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.

Modeling the Relationship between Safety Climate and Safety Performance in a Developing Construction Industry: A Cross-Cultural Validation Study

This study attempts to validate a safety performance (SP) measurement model in the cross-cultural setting of a developing country. In addition, it highlights the variations in investigating the relationship between safety climate (SC) factors and SP indicators. The data were collected from forty under-construction multi-storey building projects in Pakistan. Based on the results of exploratory factor analysis, a SP measurement model was hypothesized. It was tested and validated by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on calibration and validation sub-samples respectively. The study confirmed the significant positive impact of SC on safety compliance and safety participation, and negative impact on number of self-reported accidents/injuries. However, number of near-misses could not be retained in the final SP model because it attained a lower standardized path coefficient value. Moreover, instead of safety participation, safety compliance established a stronger impact on SP. The study uncovered safety enforcement and promotion as a novel SC factor, whereas safety rules and work practices was identified as the most neglected factor. The study contributed to the body of knowledge by unveiling the deviations in existing dimensions of SC and SP. The refined model is expected to concisely measure the SP in the Pakistani construction industry, however, caution must be exercised while generalizing the study results to other developing countries.

Disentangling the roles of safety climate and safety culture: Multi-level effects on the relationship between supervisor enforcement and safety compliance

Despite increasing attention to contextual effects on the relationship between supervisor enforcement and employee safety compliance, no study has yet explored the conjoint influence exerted simultaneously by organizational safety climate and safety culture. The present study seeks to address this literature shortcoming. We first begin by briefly discussing the theoretical distinctions between safety climate and culture and the rationale for examining these together. Next, using survey data collected from 1342 employees in 32 Italian organizations, we found that employee-level supervisor enforcement, organizational-level safety climate, and autocratic, bureaucratic, and technocratic safety culture dimensions all predicted individual-level safety compliance behaviors. However, the cross-level moderating effect of safety climate was bounded by certain safety culture dimensions, such that safety climate moderated the supervisor enforcement-compliance relationship only under the clan-patronage culture dimension. Additionally, the autocratic and bureaucratic culture dimensions attenuated the relationship between supervisor enforcement and compliance. Finally, when testing the effects of technocratic safety culture and cooperative safety culture, neither safety culture nor climate moderated the relationship between supervisor enforcement and safety compliance. The results suggest a complex relationship between organizational safety culture and safety climate, indicating that organizations with particular safety cultures may be more likely to develop more (or less) positive safety climates. Moreover, employee safety compliance is a function of supervisor safety leadership, as well as the safety climate and safety culture dimensions prevalent within the organization.

Safety compliance and safety climate: A repeated cross-sectional study in the oil and gas industry

INTRODUCTION

Violations of safety rules and procedures are commonly identified as a causal factor in accidents in the oil and gas industry. Extensive knowledge on effective management practices related to improved compliance with safety procedures is therefore needed. Previous studies of the causal relationship between safety climate and safety compliance demonstrate that the propensity to act in accordance with prevailing rules and procedures is influenced to a large degree by workers' safety climate. Commonly, the climate measures employed differ from one study to another and identical measures of safety climate are seldom tested repeatedly over extended periods of time. This research gap is addressed in the present study.

METHOD

The study is based on a survey conducted four times among sharp-end workers of the Norwegian oil and gas industry (N=31,350). This is done by performing multiple tests (regression analysis) over a period of 7years of the causal relationship between safety climate and safety compliance. The safety climate measure employed is identical across the 7-year period.

CONCLUSIONS

Taking all periods together, the employed safety climate model explained roughly 27% of the variance in safety compliance. The causal relationship was found to be stable across the period, thereby increasing the reliability and the predictive validity of the factor structure. The safety climate factor that had the most powerful effect on safety compliance was work pressure.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The factor structure employed shows high predictive validity and should therefore be relevant to organizations seeking to improve safety in the petroleum sector. The findings should also be relevant to other high-hazard industries where safety rules and procedures constitute a central part of the approach to managing safety.

Work Pressure and Safety Behaviors among Health Workers in Ghana: The Moderating Role of Management Commitment to Safety

BACKGROUND

safety and healthy working environment has received numerous research attention over the years. Majority of these researches seem to have been conducted in the construction industry, with little attention in the health sector. Nonetheless, there are couple of studies conducted in Africa that suggest pressure in hospitals. Therefore the aim of the study was to examine how pressure influence safety behavior in the hospitals. With reference to the relevance of safety behavior in primary health care delivery, there was the need for the study.

METHOD

Data was obtained from 422 public hospital employees. Respondents were assured that all information would be kept confidential to increase the response rate and acquire more accurate information. Collection of questionnaires from participants took four weeks (20 working days), after which the data was analyzed.

RESULTS

The result of the study showed that work pressure correlated negatively with safety behavior. General safety climate significantly correlated positively with safety behavior and negatively with work pressure, although the effect size for the latter was smaller. Hierarchical regression analysis showed management commitment to safety to moderate the relationship between work pressure and safety behavior.

CONCLUSION

When employees perceive safety communication, safety systems and training to be positive, they seem to comply with safety rules and procedures than voluntarily participate in safety activities.

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.

Work-family conflict and safety participation of high-speed railway drivers: Job satisfaction as a mediator

Despite the large body of work on the work-family interface, hardly any literature has addressed the work-family interface in safety-critical settings. This study draws from social exchange theory to examine the effect of employees' strain-based work-to-family conflict on their supervisors' rating of their safety participation through job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 494 drivers from a major railway company in China. The results of a structural equation model revealed that drivers' strain-based work-to-family conflict negatively influences safety participation, and the relationship was partially mediated by job satisfaction. These findings highlight the importance of reducing employees' work-to-family conflict in safety-critical organizations.

THE REGRESSION MODEL OF IRAN LIBRARIES ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE

Background:

The purpose of this study was to drawing a regression model of organizational climate of central libraries of Iran’s universities.

Methods:

This study is an applied research. The statistical population of this study consisted of 96 employees of the central libraries of Iran’s public universities selected among the 117 universities affiliated to the Ministry of Health by Stratified Sampling method (510 people). Climate Qual localized questionnaire was used as research tools. For predicting the organizational climate pattern of the libraries is used from the multivariate linear regression and track diagram.

Results:

of the 9 variables affecting organizational climate, 5 variables of innovation, teamwork, customer service, psychological safety and deep diversity play a major role in prediction of the organizational climate of Iran’s libraries. The results also indicate that each of these variables with different coefficient have the power to predict organizational climate but the climate score of psychological safety (0.94) plays a very crucial role in predicting the organizational climate. Track diagram showed that five variables of teamwork, customer service, psychological safety, deep diversity and innovation directly effects on the organizational climate variable that contribution of the team work from this influence is more than any other variables.

Conclusions:

Of the indicator of the organizational climate of climateQual, the contribution of the team work from this influence is more than any other variables that reinforcement of teamwork in academic libraries can be more effective in improving the organizational climate of this type libraries.