Revisiting vulnerability: Comparing young and adult workers' safety voice intentions under different supervisory conditions

How does subjective invulnerability impact young workers' safety voice?

INTRODUCTION

Young workers are at risk of workplace injuries for numerous reasons. One contentious yet untested theory is that subjective invulnerability to danger-a sense of indestructability in the face of physical hazards-can affect some young workers' reactions to workplace hazards. This study contends that subjective invulnerability can affect these reactions in two ways: (a) perceptions of physical hazards at work generate less fear of injury among those who perceive themselves as more invulnerable and/or; (b) fear of injury does not motivate speaking up about safety concerns (safety voice) among those who perceive themselves as more invulnerable.

METHOD

This paper tests a moderated mediation model in which higher perceptions of physical hazards at work are related to higher safety voice intentions via higher fear of injury, but that subjective invulnerability reduces the extent to which: (a) perceptions of physical hazards at work are associated with fear of injury and/or; (b) fear of injury is associated with safety voice. This model is tested in two studies of young workers (Study 1 on-line experiment: N = 114, M age = 20.67, SD = 1.79; range = 18-24 years; Study 2 field study using three waves of data collected at monthly intervals: N = 80, M age = 17.13, SD = 1.08, range = 15-20 years).

RESULTS

Contrary to expectations, the results showed that young workers who feel more invulnerable to danger are more likely to speak up about safety when experiencing higher fear of injury, and that perceptions of physical hazards-safety voice relationship is mediated by fear of injury for those who perceive themselves to be more invulnerable to danger. Conclusions/Practical Applications: Rather than subjective invulnerability silencing safety voice as predicted, the current data suggest that subjective invulnerability may serve to accelerate how fear of injury motivates safety voice.

The Influence Mechanism of Political Skill on Safety Voice Behavior in High-Risk Industries: The Mediating Role of Voice Efficacy

As an important indicator to measure the adaptability and development potential of individuals in an organization, political skill is rarely considered as an antecedent variable in the field of safety voice. This study is based on impression management theory and social cognitive theory. From the perspective of employee self-service-oriented safety voice motivation, we took political skill as a predictor of safety voice behavior and introduced voice efficacy as an intermediary variable to construct a theoretical model of the relationship between political skill, voice efficacy, and safety voice behavior. We used the method of questionnaire to collect data from employees in high-risk industries. SPSS and AMOS software were used as analysis tools to examine the relationship between political skill, voice efficacy, and safety voice behavior. The study results show that: (1) political skill has a significant positive impact on safety voice behavior; and (2) voice efficacy plays a mediating role in the relationship between political skill and safety voice behavior. In this study, a new predictor of safety voice behavior and its mediation mechanism were obtained. Political skill can not only reflect the psychological cognitive ability of individuals in dangerous work environments, but it is also an important manifestation of the social exchanges between employees and organizations. In the special organizational context where China generally values "guanxi", political skill has a stronger ability to predict and explain safety voice behavior. This research can help organizations obtain safety-related suggestions from employees in a timely manner and realize the sustainable development of safety management.

Young workers and safety: A critical review and future research agenda

INTRODUCTION

Research on young worker safety often relies on inconsistent definitions of young workers and poorly delineated indicators of occupational safety. This review aims to reconcile these fundamental issues by critically integrating research across disciplines and providing clear directions for future research on young worker safety.

METHOD

We critically review the extant research on young worker safety.

RESULTS

We first reconcile the inconsistent definitions of young workers and specify the indicators of occupational safety used in young worker safety research. We next describe the prevalence of workplace injuries and population-level predictors of these injuries among young workers and then outline other factors that increase young workers' susceptibility to workplace injuries. Finally, we discuss the convergence of many of these issues on family farms-a context commonly studied in young worker safety research.

CONCLUSIONS

Clearer definitions of young workers and indicators of occupational safety can improve the interpretation and comparability of extant research findings. Furthermore, the prevalence of workplace injuries and population-level predictors of injury among young workers are subject to the interactions among age, gender, minority status, and job characteristics. Other factors that increase young workers' susceptibility to injury include young workers' responses to hazardous work, individual differences stemming from young workers' biological and psychological development, managerial attitudes about young workers, and the limited safety training young workers are thus provided, the types of work that young workers typically perform, and the range of social influences on young workers.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Safety campaigns and safety training should consider interactions among young workers' age, gender, minority status, and job characteristics, rather than considering these features independently.

How Safety Climate Impacts Safety Voice-Investigating the Mediating Role of Psychological Safety from a Social Cognitive Perspective

Safety voice has become a popular research topic in the organizational safety field because it helps to prevent accidents. A good safety climate and psychological safety can motivate employees to actively express their ideas about safety, but the specific mechanisms of safety climate and psychological safety, on safety voice, are not yet clear. Based on the "environment-subject cognition-behavior" triadic interaction model of social cognitive theory, this paper explores the relationship between safety climate and safety voice, and the mediating role of psychological safety. We collected questionnaires and conducted data analysis of the valid questionnaires using analytical methods such as hierarchical regression, stepwise regression, and the bootstrap sampling method. We found that safety climate significantly and positively influenced safety voice, and psychological safety played a mediating role between safety climate and safety voice, which strengthened the positive relationship between them. From the research results, it was clear that to stimulate employees to express safety voice behavior, organizations should strive to create a good safety climate and pay attention to building employees' psychological safety. The findings of this paper provide useful insights for the management of employee safety voice behavior in enterprises.

Development and validation of employee safety voice scale in the Chinese organizational context

Safety voice helps organizations to identify safety issues timely and is critical to the long-term growth of the organization. Safety voice has become a hot research topic in organizational safety, and different scales have been developed. However, the unique cultural context in China has led to the need to redevelop safety voice measurement tools. In this paper, we developed an initial scale of safety voice for employees in Chinese organizational contexts fusing in-depth interviews and mature scales. The initial scale based on two samples (n1 = 205, n2 = 420) was revised and validated using item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability analysis to finalize the final scale. We finally found that the safety voice scale in Chinese organizational contexts contains two dimensions: promotive safety voice and prohibitive safety voice. The scale developed in this paper is a reliable tool to measure safety voice behavior of Chinese employees.

When and for Whom Organizational Identification is More Effective in Eliciting Safety Voice: An Empirical Study from Construction Industry Perspective

Safety voice (SV) is a form of voice in which employees express opinions or concerns about organizational safety. It plays an important role in preventing accidents and promoting safety performance. The purpose of this study is to reveal the emotional factors and boundary conditions behind employee engagement in SV, especially in the construction context. This study, therefore, investigated how organizational identification (OID) drove construction project participants' SV using a three-way interaction model of perceived insider status (PIS) as an individual difference and safety climate (SC) as an organizational contextual difference. The proposed model was tested using a sample of 357 participants in different construction projects. The results showed that OID was positively correlated with SV. The interaction effect of OID and PIS on SV depended on the SC, with PIS enhancing the identification-voice relationship at a low level of SC and weakening it at a high level of SC.

Safety outcomes for incident responders operating on high speed roads: An analysis of the relationship with behaviour, motivation and role clarity

High-speed roads present a considerable level of risk for frontline workers operating in these environments. To optimise safety, prevention activities need to target the key skills required to mitigate risk. The aim of this research was to explore the behavioural (compliance, participation, voice), motivational (safety motivation) and work demand (role clarity) factors that influence safety outcomes for incident responders working on high-speed roads. Safety outcomes included secondary incidents and near misses with passing vehicles. A total of 295 complete survey responses were received from six emergency service and incident response agencies in one Australian state. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results showed that higher levels of safety voice, safety motivation and, role clarity were significantly associated with safer self-reported safety outcomes after controlling for the number of incidents attended. The findings from this study will be used to guide the development of a training program to improve the cognitive, behavioural and perceptual skills of incident responders operating on high-speed roads. Some insight into the structure and format of this program is provided.