Safety climate and safety behavior in the passenger ferry context

This research empirically evaluates safety climate and safety behavior in the passenger ferry context. Using survey data collected from 155 respondents working for passenger ferry companies in Taiwan, hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the effects of safety climate on self-reported safety behaviors. Confirmatory factor analysis identified five main dimensions of safety climate as measured on a passenger ferry safety climate scale: safety policy, safety motivation, emergency preparedness, safety training, and safety communication. Further, safety training and emergency preparedness were found to positively affect self-reported safety behaviors with respect to safety compliance and safety participation. The study also revealed positive associations among respondents’ age, ferry capacity, and safety compliance. Implications of the study findings for increasing safety in ferry operations and their contribution to the development of safety management are discussed.     

Labor unions and safety climate: Perceived union safety values and retail employee safety outcomes

Although trade unions have long been recognized as a critical advocate for employee safety and health, safety climate research has not paid much attention to the role unions play in workplace safety. We proposed a multiple constituency model of workplace safety which focused on three central safety stakeholders: top management, ones’ immediate supervisor, and the labor union. Safety climate research focuses on management and supervisors as key stakeholders, but has not considered whether employee perceptions about the priority their union places on safety contributes contribute to safety outcomes. We addressed this gap in the literature by investigating unionized retail employee (N = 535) perceptions about the extent to which their top management, immediate supervisors, and union valued safety. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that perceived union safety values could be distinguished from measures of safety training, workplace hazards, top management safety values, and supervisor values. Structural equation analyses indicated that union safety values influenced safety outcomes through its association with higher safety motivation, showing a similar effect as that of supervisor safety values. These findings highlight the need for further attention to union-focused measures related to workplace safety as well as further study of retail employees in general. We discuss the practical implications of our findings and identify several directions for future safety research.     

The influence of organizational tenure on safety climate strength: A first look

This study examined the relationship between the organizational tenure of employees at a given worksite and safety climate strength (i.e., the variability of employees’ perceptions of the policies, procedures, and practices regarding workplace safety). Results revealed that average worksite tenure was related to safety climate strength such that higher average tenure was associated with stronger safety climates. The moderating effect of tenure level on the relationship between tenure and climate strength was also examined. Results revealed a curvilinear relationship between mean worksite tenure and safety climate strength, such that at higher levels of worksite tenure, smaller increases in the group's average tenure improved climate strength to a greater extent than at lower levels of worksite tenure.     

Job Demands–Control–Support model and employee safety performance

The aim of this study was to explore whether work characteristics (job demands, job control, social support) comprising Karasek and Theorell's (1990) Job Demands–Control–Support framework predict employee safety performance (safety compliance and safety participation; Neal and Griffin, 2006). We used cross-sectional data of self-reported work characteristics and employee safety performance from 280 healthcare staff (doctors, nurses, and administrative staff) from Emergency Departments of seven hospitals in the United Kingdom. We analyzed these data using a structural equation model that simultaneously regressed safety compliance and safety participation on the main effects of each of the aforementioned work characteristics, their two-way interactions, and the three-way interaction among them, while controlling for demographic, occupational, and organizational characteristics. Social support was positively related to safety compliance, and both job control and the two-way interaction between job control and social support were positively related to safety participation. How work design is related to employee safety performance remains an important area for research and provides insight into how organizations can improve workplace safety. The current findings emphasize the importance of the co-worker in promoting both safety compliance and safety participation.     

Consideration of future safety consequences: A new predictor of employee safety

Background

Compliance with safety behaviors is often associated with longer term benefits, but may require some short-term sacrifices. This study examines the extent to which consideration of future safety consequences (CFSC) predicts employee safety outcomes.

Methods

Two field studies were conducted to evaluate the reliability and validity of the newly developed Consideration of Future Safety Consequences (CFSC) scale. Surveys containing the CFSC scale and other measures of safety attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes were administered during working hours to a sample of 128 pulp and paper mill employees; after revising the CFSC scale based on these initial results, follow-up survey data were collected in a second sample of 212 copper miners.

Results

In Study I, CFSC was predictive of employee safety knowledge and motivation, compliance, safety citizenship behaviors, accident reporting attitudes and behaviors, and workplace injuries – even after accounting for conscientiousness and demographic variables. Moreover, the effects of CFSC on the variables generally appear to be direct, as opposed to mediated by safety knowledge or motivation. These findings were largely replicated in Study II.

Conclusions

CFSC appears to be an important personality construct that may predict those individuals who are more likely to comply with safety rules and have more positive safety outcomes. Future research should examine the longitudinal stability of CFSC to determine the extent to which this construct is a stable trait, rather than a safety attitude amenable to change over time or following an intervention.     

Individual safety performance in the construction industry: development and validation of two short scales

In the current research a short measure of safety performance is developed for use in the construction industry and the relationships between different components of safety performance and safety outcomes (e.g., occupational injuries and work-related pain) are explored within the construction context. This research consists of two field studies. In the first, comprehensive measures of safety compliance and safety participation were shortened and modified to be appropriate for use in construction. Evidence of reliability and validity is provided. Both safety compliance and safety participation were negatively related to occupational injuries, yet these two correlations were not statistically different. In the second study, we investigated the relationships between these two components of safety performance and work-related pain frequency, in addition to replicating Study 1. Safety compliance had a stronger negative relationship with pain than safety participation. Implications for research are discussed.     

Management commitment to safety vs. employee perceived safety training and association with future injury

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to explore and examine, specific to the restaurant industry, two important constructs emerging from the safety climate literature: employee perceptions of safety training and management commitment to safety. Are these two separate constructs? Are there both individual- and shared group-level safety perceptions for these two constructs? What are the relationships between these two constructs and future injury outcomes?

Methods

A total of 419 employees from 34 limited-service restaurants participated in a prospective cohort study. Employees’ perceptions of management commitment to safety and safety training and demographic variables were collected at the baseline. The survey questions were made available in three languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. For the following 12 weeks, participants reported their injury experience and weekly work hours. A multivariate negative binomial generalized estimating equation model with compound symmetry covariance structure was used to assess the association between the rate of self-reported injuries and measures of safety perceptions.

Results

Even though results showed that the correlation between employees’ perceived safety training and management commitment to safety was high, confirmatory factor analysis of measurement models showed that two separate factors fit the model better than as two dimensions of a single factor. Homogeneity tests showed that there was a shared perception of the factor of management commitment to safety for the restaurant workers but there was no consistent perception among them for the factor of perceived safety training. Both individual employees’ perceived management commitment to safety and perceptions of safety training can predict employees’ subsequent injuries above and beyond demographic variables. However, there was no significant relationship between future injury and employees’ shared perception of management commitment to safety. Further, our results suggest that the variable of employees’ perceived safety training could be a proximal predictor of future injury outcome which mediated the relationship between employees’ perceived management commitment to safety (a distal predictor) and injury outcome. We propose that when employees perceive their management as having a high level of commitment to safety, they will also perceive that the safety training of the organization is good, which will then further predict future injury experience of the employees.     

Attentional bias toward safety predicts safety behaviors

Safety studies have primarily focused on how explicit processes and measures affect safety behavior and subsequent accidents and injuries. Recently, safety researchers have paid greater attention to the role of implicit processes. Our research focuses on the role of attentional bias toward safety (ABS) in workplace safety. ABS is a basic, early-stage cognitive process involving the automatic and selective allocation of attentional resources toward safety cues, which reflect the implicit motivational state of employees regarding safety goal. In this study, we used two reaction time-based paradigms to measure the ABS of employees in three studies: two modified Stroop tasks (Studies 1 and 2) and a visual dot-probe task (Study 3). Results revealed that employees with better safety behavior showed significant ABS (Study 2), and greater ABS than employees with poorer safety behavior (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, ABS was positively associated with the perceived safety climate and safety motivation of employees, both of which mediate the effect of ABS on safety behavior (Study 3). These results contributed to a deeper understanding of how early-stage automatic perceptual processing affects safety behavior. The practical implications of these results were also discussed.     

Do you see what I see? Effects of national culture on employees’ safety-related perceptions and behavior

Growing international trade and globalization are increasing the cultural diversity of the modern workforce, which often results in migrants working under the management of foreign leadership. This change in work arrangements has important implications for occupational health and safety, as migrant workers have been found to be at an increased risk of injuries compared to their domestic counterparts. While some explanations for this discrepancy have been proposed (e.g., job differences, safety knowledge, and communication difficulties), differences in injury involvement have been found to persist even when these contextual factors are controlled for. We argue that employees’ national culture may explain further variance in their safety-related perceptions and safety compliance, and investigate this through comparing the survey responses of 562 Anglo and Southern Asian workers at a multinational oil and gas company. Using structural equation modeling, we firstly established partial measurement invariance of our measures across cultural groups. Estimation of the combined sample structural model revealed that supervisor production pressure was negatively related to willingness to report errors and supervisor support, but did not predict safety compliance behavior. Supervisor safety support was positively related to both willingness to report errors and safety compliance. Next, we uncovered evidence of cultural differences in the relationships between supervisor production pressure, supervisor safety support, and willingness to report errors; of note, among Southern Asian employees the negative relationship between supervisor production pressure and willingness to report errors was stronger, and for supervisor safety support, weaker as compared to the model estimated with Anglo employees. Implications of these findings for safety management in multicultural teams within the oil and gas industry are discussed.     

The influence of dispositional mindfulness on safety behaviors: A dual process perspective

Based on the dual process model of human cognition, this study investigated the influence of dispositional mindfulness on operators’ safety behaviors and its boundary conditions. In a sample of 212 nuclear power plant control room operators, it was found that both safety compliance and safety participation behaviors were positively influenced by dispositional mindfulness as measured by the 14-item Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory. This effect was still positive after controlling for age, intelligence, work experience and conscientiousness. Moreover, two boundary conditions were identified: the impact of dispositional mindfulness of safety behaviors was stronger among operators who were either more experienced or more intelligent. Theoretically, the framework we used to understand the benefit of mindfulness on safety behaviors has been proved to be useful. Practically, it provides a new and valid criterion that could be used in operators’ selection and training program to improve organizational safety.     

Occupational driver safety: Conceptualising a leadership-based intervention to improve safe driving performance

Occupational driving crashes are the most common cause of death and injury in the workplace. The physical and psychological outcomes following injury are also very costly to organizations. Thus, safe driving poses a managerial challenge. Some research has attempted to address this issue through modifying discrete and often simple target behaviours (e.g., driver training programs). However, current intervention approaches in the occupational driving field generally consider the role of organizational factors in workplace safety. This study adopts the A–B–C framework to identify the contingencies associated with an effective exchange of safety information within the occupational driving context. Utilizing a sample of occupational drivers and their supervisors, this multi-level study examines the contingencies associated with the exchange of safety information within the supervisor–driver relationship. Safety values are identified as an antecedent of the safety information exchange, and the quality of the leader–member exchange relationship and safe driving performance is identified as the behavioural consequences. We also examine the function of role overload as a factor influencing the relationship between safety values and the safety information exchange. Hierarchical linear modelling found that role overload moderated the relationship between supervisors’ perceptions of the value given to safety and the safety information exchange. A significant relationship was also found between the safety information exchange and the subsequent quality of the leader–member exchange relationship. Finally, the quality of the leader–member exchange relationship was found to be significantly associated with safe driving performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Relationships between psychological safety climate facets and safety behavior in the rail industry: A dominance analysis

The goals of this study were twofold: (1) to confirm a relationship between employee perceptions of psychological safety climate and safety behavior for a sample of workers in the rail industry and (2) to explore the relative strengths of relationships between specific facets of safety climate and safety behavior. Non-management rail maintenance workers employed by a large North American railroad completed a survey (n = 421) regarding workplace safety perceptions and behaviors. Three facets of safety climate (management safety, coworker safety, and work-safety tension) were assessed as relating to individual workers’ reported safety behavior. All three facets were significantly associated with safety behavior. Dominance analysis was used to assess the relative importance of each facet as related to the outcome, and work-safety tension evidenced the strongest relationship with safety behavior.     

Exploring the possibility of a common structural model measuring associations between safety climate factors and safety behaviour in health care and the petroleum sectors

The aim of the present study was to explore the possibility of identifying general safety climate concepts in health care and petroleum sectors, as well as develop and test the possibility of a common cross-industrial structural model. Self-completion questionnaire surveys were administered in two organisations and sectors: (1) a large regional hospital in Norway that offers a wide range of hospital services, and (2) a large petroleum company that produces oil and gas worldwide. In total, 1919 and 1806 questionnaires were returned from the hospital and petroleum organisation, with response rates of 55 percent and 52 percent, respectively. Using a split sample procedure principal factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis revealed six identical cross-industrial measurement concepts in independent samples—five measures of safety climate and one of safety behaviour. The factors’ psychometric properties were explored with satisfactory internal consistency and concept validity. Thus, a common cross-industrial structural model was developed and tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). SEM revealed that a cross-industrial structural model could be identified among health care workers and offshore workers in the North Sea. The most significant contributing variables in the model testing stemmed from organisational management support for safety and supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety. These variables indirectly enhanced safety behaviour (stop working in dangerous situations) through transitions and teamwork across units, and teamwork within units as well as learning, feedback, and improvement. Two new safety climate instruments were validated as part of the study: (1) Short Safety Climate Survey (SSCS) and (2) Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture-short (HSOPSC-short). Based on development of measurements and structural model assessment, this study supports the possibility of a common safety climate structural model across health care and the offshore petroleum industry.     

Safety climate and self-reported injury: assessing the mediating role of employee safety control

To further reduce injuries in the workplace, companies have begun focusing on organizational factors which may contribute to workplace safety. Safety climate is an organizational factor commonly cited as a predictor of injury occurrence. Characterized by the shared perceptions of employees, safety climate can be viewed as a snapshot of the prevailing state of safety in the organization at a discrete point in time. However, few studies have elaborated plausible mechanisms through which safety climate likely influences injury occurrence. A mediating model is proposed to link safety climate (i.e., management commitment to safety, return-to-work policies, post-injury administration, and safety training) with self-reported injury through employees' perceived control on safety. Factorial evidence substantiated that management commitment to safety, return-to-work policies, post-injury administration, and safety training are important dimensions of safety climate. In addition, the data support that safety climate is a critical factor predicting the history of a self-reported occupational injury, and that employee safety control mediates the relationship between safety climate and occupational injury. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating organizational factors and workers' characteristics in efforts to improve organizational safety performance.     

Behavior-based safety on construction sites: A case study

This work presents the results of a case study and describes an important area within the field of construction safety management, namely behavior-based safety (BBS). This paper adopts and develops a management approach for safety improvements in construction site environments. A rigorous behavioral safety system and its intervention program was implemented and deployed on target construction sites. After taking a few weeks of safety behavior measurements, the project management team implemented the designed intervention and measurements were taken. Goal-setting sessions were arranged on-site with workers’ participation to set realistic and attainable targets of performance. Safety performance measurements continued and the levels of performance and the targets were presented on feedback charts. Supervisors were asked to give workers recognition and praise when they acted safely or improved critical behaviors. Observers were requested to have discussions with workers, visit the site, distribute training materials to workers, and provide feedback to crews and display charts. They were required to talk to operatives in the presence of line managers. It was necessary to develop awareness and understanding of what was being measured. In the process, operatives learned how to act safely when conducting site tasks using the designed checklists. Current weekly scores were discussed in the weekly safety meetings and other operational site meetings with emphasis on how to achieve set targets. The reliability of the safety performance measures taken by the company's observers was monitored. A clear increase in safety performance level was achieved across all categories: personal protective equipment; housekeeping; access to heights; plant and equipment, and scaffolding. The research reveals that scores of safety performance at one project improved from 86% (at the end of 3rd week) to 92.9% during the 9th week. The results of intervention demonstrated large decreases in unsafe behaviors and significant increases in safe behaviors. The results of this case study showed that an approach based on goal setting, feedback, and an effective measure of safety behavior if properly applied by committed management, can improve safety performance significantly in construction site environments. The results proved that the BBS management technique can be applied to any country's culture, showing that it would be a good approach for improving the safety of front-line workers and that it has industry wide application for ongoing construction projects.     

Keys to effective third-party process safety audits

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) Process Safety Management (PSM) regulation was promulgated in 1992. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) corresponding Risk Management Program (RMP) rule followed in 1996. Both programs include requirements for triennial compliance audits. Effective compliance audits are critical in identifying program weaknesses and ensuring the safety of facility personnel and the surrounding public. Large companies with corporate and facility health, safety, and environmental groups typically have the resources and experience to conduct audits internally, either through a corporate audit team or the sharing of personnel between multiple facilities. Small to medium sized businesses frequently do not have the expertise or the resources to perform compliance audits, and rely on third-party consultants to provide these services. This paper will discuss the observations of the authors in performing audits and working with PSM/RMP programs across a number of market sectors (e.g. chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, water treatment), including effective practices, hurdles to successful implementation and execution of programs, and typical program shortcomings. The paper will also discuss steps to improve the audit process and increase effectiveness whether performed by a third party or internally.     

Family climate for road safety: A new concept and measure

This research adapted the workplace concept of safety climate to the domain of safe driving, defining a new construct of “family climate for road safety”. Four studies were conducted in Israel with the aim of developing and validating a multidimensional instrument to assess this construct among young drivers. Study 1 (n = 632) focused on developing the Family Climate for Road Safety Scale (FCRSS), a self-report scale assessing the family climate by means of seven aspects of the parent–child relationship: Modeling, Feedback, Communication, Monitoring, Noncommitment, Messages, and Limits. Significant differences were found between young men and women on all factors. In addition, significant associations were found between the FCRSS factors on the one hand, and the reported frequency of risky driving and personal commitment to safety on the other. Studies 2–4 confirmed the factorial structure of the FCRSS and the reliability of its factors, adding to its criterion and convergent validity. Study 2 (n = 178) yielded significant associations between the scale and young drivers’ perception of their parents as involved, encouraging autonomy, and providing warmth; Study 3 (n = 117) revealed significant associations between the scale and youngsters’ reported proneness to take risks while driving, as well as significant associations between the factors and various dimensions of family functioning; and Study 4 (n = 156) found associations between the FCRSS factors and both driving styles (risky, angry, anxious, careful) and family cohesion and adaptability. The discussion deals with the validity and utility of the concept of family climate for road safety and its measurement, addressing the practical implications for road safety.     

The effect of safety climate on seafarers’ safety behaviors in container shipping

This study empirically examined safety climate and its effects on safety behaviors from seafarers’ perceptions in the container shipping context. Research hypotheses were formulated and tested using survey data collected from 608 seafarers working on 124 vessels belonging to 13 of the top 20 global container carriers. A structural equation model was used to examine the effect of safety climate dimensions, namely, safety policy, perceived supervisor safety behavior, and safety management, on safety behavior. The results revealed a positive association between safety climate and seafarers’ safety behavior. The contribution of the study findings to the development of safety climate theory and their managerial implications for vessel safety in shipping operations are discussed.