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Multifaceted Personality Predictors of Workplace Safety Performance: More Than Conscientiousness
Abstract
This article concerns individual differences in workplace safety behavior. We identify six performance dimensions related to overall safety performance, which in turn, leads to occupational accidents and injuries. We define these dimensions and develop personality-based safety scales to predict them by combining facets of Five-Factor Model scales. Next, we validate these safety scales by aggregating results from independent criterion-related studies and show that a composite safety scale is more predictive of overall safety performance than individual Five-Factor Model scales. Also, results show that safety scales predict accidents and injuries, but this relationship is mediated by safety performance. We consider implications of using individual differences to study links between personality, safety performance, and accidents and injuries in selection, training, and organizational safety culture.
... Whilst all of the five-traits have been demonstrated to have an influence on varying aspects of safety engagement and accident involvement, conscientiousness and neuroticism appeared to contribute more consistently to safe working practices. High consciousness has been shown to predict safety related behaviours (Christian et al., 2009;Clarke and Robertson, 2005;Hogan and Foster, 2013;Wallace and Chen, 2006), and is explained by the characteristics of individuals high on this personality dimension who are typically categorised as being organised, methodical, plan orientated and more likely to comply with procedural processes (Chiaburu et al., 2011). Whereas those low on this trait tend to be more careless, easily distractible, less reliable, and less likely to comply with procedures (Neal and Griffin, 2004). ...
... Whilst a literature search did not yield studies directly linking impulsiveness to workplace safety, the relationship between impulsiveness and risk-taking has been empirically established (Auerbach and Gardiner, 2012), and risk-taking was negatively related to safety behaviour (Bosak et al., 2013;Qing-gui et al., 2012;Stolzer et al., 2008). Risk taking behaviour has also been associated with work accidents and injuries, safety incidients, and unsafe work behaviours (Hogan and Foster, 2013;Lind, 2008;Paul and Maiti, 2007;Westaby and Lowe, 2005). Impulsiveness has been associated with a number of risk taking behaviours, including criminal activity, drug use, drink driving, not wearing seatbelts (Stanford et al., 1996), impaired and risky driving behaviour, and reduced perception of traffic signs (Dahlen et al., 2005). ...
... Participants are presented with statements such as "I am always prepared" and "I panic easily", and asked to rate how accurately each statement applies, with 1 indicating the statement was 'very inaccurate' and 5 indicating the statement is 'very accurate' (Murray et al., 2009). Two of the five sub-scales namely neuroticism and conscientiousness were applied in this research, as the Big Five personality dimensions of neuroticism and conscientiousness have been demonstrated to be correlated with workplace accidents and safety outcomes (Christian et al., 2009;Clarke and Robertson, 2008;Hogan and Foster, 2013;Postlethwaite et al., 2009). ...
Current work health and safety practices focus predominately on fostering a safety climate to promote safety behaviours and reduce workplace accidents. Despite the importance of safety climates in accident prevention, recent research has demonstrated that individual factors can also predict work safety behaviour. This study considered the importance of organisational climate together with individual characteristics including differences in personality, impulsiveness, and perceptions of safety within the workplace on safety behaviour. 203 participants consisting of 67 males and 136 females aged 18 to 71 years, completed an online questionnaire. Results revealed that safety behaviour was directly related to safety climate, and conscientiousness. In contrast, neuroticism, and impulsiveness were not significantly related to safety behaviour. The present study findings support previous findings in the literature regarding the importance of safety climate as well as the personality trait of conscientiousness in applying safety behaviours. However, the present study findings did not support previous research in relation to the personality trait of high neuroticism resulting in decreased safety behaviour, nor did not confirm an inverse relationship between high impulsivity and low safety behaviour as theoretical models would suggest. This new finding may warrant further research into the precursors for safety behaviour.
... Conscientiousness refers to the extent to which people are dependable, careful, thorough, persistent, hard-working, and motivated in pursuing and accomplishing goals (Barrick and Mount 1991;Man and Chan 2018). Individuals who score low on this trait may be more likely than others to be inattentive, ignore rules, and be at greater risk of workplace accidents (Hogan and Foster 2013). Because conscientiousness is related to the goal of achievement, this trait may reduce the likelihood of such individuals to engage in unsafe behaviors (Gao et al. 2020). ...
... Conscientious individuals are described as thorough, achievementstriving, self-disciplined, dutiful, orderly, detail-oriented, diligent, organized, hardworking, careful, efficient, planful, socially responsible, rule-following, and risk-avoiding (Postlethwaite et al. 2009;Gao et al. 2020). Empirical studies support significant correlations between conscientiousness, fewer accidents, and limited safety violations because individuals high in conscientiousness tend to avoid unsafe and risky behaviors when making choices but take active and balanced approaches to stressors, believing that they possess internal and external resources to cope in stressful situations (Hogan and Foster 2013;Kern 2020;Xu et al. 2020). As a result, various studies emphasize the usefulness of personalitybased assessment, particularly measures of conscientiousness, for predicting workplace rule compliance and safety behavior (Postlethwaite et al. 2009;Xu et al. 2020;Xia et al. 2021). ...
This study investigated the moderating effect of personality traits in the association between worker characteristics (work experience, training, and previous injury exposure) and hazard-identification performance through mechanisms of visual attentional indicators. Through an integrated moderated mediation model, the attentional distribution, search strategy, and hazard-identification performance of participants were examined across 115 fall hazards. Results indicate that individuals with more work experience and safety training were better at hazard identification independent of visual attention and regardless of personality. Furthermore, individual differences in conscientiousness and openness personality dimensions significantly moderated the associations between (1) worker characteristics and visual attention; and (2) visual attention and hazard identification. This study provides empirical evidence for the potentially pivotal role of worker characteristics and dispositional traits with regard to hazard-identification performance on jobsites. These findings can empower safety managers to identify at-risk workers and design personalized intervention strategies to improve the hazard-identification skills of workers.
... For example, if leadership effectiveness was the criterion of interest, the facets of assertiveness (extraversion), achievement striving (conscientiousness), and ideas (openness) may be combined to form a compound personality measure that could be highly predictive of the outcome criterion. Also called multifaceted personality predictors (Hogan & Foster, 2013) or criterionfocused occupational personality scales (Ones & Viswesvaran, 2001), some examples of personality compounds that have been found to be useful for predicting their intended criterion construct are workplace safety (Hogan & Foster, 2013), integrity (Ones, Viswesvaran, & Schmidt, 1993), and employee reliability (Hogan & Hogan, 1989). ...
... For example, if leadership effectiveness was the criterion of interest, the facets of assertiveness (extraversion), achievement striving (conscientiousness), and ideas (openness) may be combined to form a compound personality measure that could be highly predictive of the outcome criterion. Also called multifaceted personality predictors (Hogan & Foster, 2013) or criterionfocused occupational personality scales (Ones & Viswesvaran, 2001), some examples of personality compounds that have been found to be useful for predicting their intended criterion construct are workplace safety (Hogan & Foster, 2013), integrity (Ones, Viswesvaran, & Schmidt, 1993), and employee reliability (Hogan & Hogan, 1989). ...
... Many researchers used the term PSC to define the individual level of SC (Dollard, Tuckey, & Dormann, 2012;Huang et al., 2013;Lee et al., 2014;Mohd Awang, Dollard, Coward, & Dormann, 2012). While some other researcher used the term individual difference to explain SC at the individual level (Collins, 2008;Hogan & Foster, 2013;Khdair, 2013). Empirically, unidimensional of PSC has been successfully validated Zohar, Huang, Jin, & Robertson, 2014), electrical and utility industry-specific (Huang et al., 2013) and across different industries and companies . ...
... Individual safety performance Burke et al. (2002) defined ISP as "actions or behaviors that individuals exhibit in almost all jobs to promote the health and safety of workers, clients, the public, and the environment". Lately, there has been a trend towards defining ISP based on multi-dimensional conceptual of ISP measurement (Brondino, Silva, & Pasini, 2012;Hogan & Foster, 2013;Jiang, Yu, Li, & Li, 2010;Olson, Grosshuesch, Schmidt, Gray, & Wipfli, 2009;Starren, Hornikx, & Luijters, 2013;Wahlström & Rollenhagen, 2013;Zohar & Luria, 2005). Nevertheless, a multidimensional conceptual of ISP emphasis that psychological factor, is an essential of the proximal result in the ISP measurement . ...
SME is a backbone of Malaysian economic development, however high
number of occupational accident and injuries are major financial issues.
Many meta-analysis of the safety climate and safety performance
consistently indicated that associate with the reduction in the number of
accident occurrence in the organization. Therefore, the purpose of this study
is to explore the mediating effects of on psychological safety climate in the
relationship between psychological factors and individual safety
performance in the Malaysian manufacturing small enterprise. Quantitative
research using self-administrative questionnaires have been conducted on
377 employees from 11 small manufacturing enterprise firms based on
stratified random sampling. The response rate was at 65 % from 240
returned questionnaires. The results of a preliminary validation showed that
the scale is a reliable and valid instrument to measure the essential elements
of psychological safety climate for Malaysian manufacturing small
enterprise. The result confirmed that here were strong positive correlations
between psychological safety climate and individual safety performance. As
predicted, psychological safety climate found to be directly influenced by
psychological factor but psychological factor not directly correlated with
individual safety performance. Besides that, the findings of this study
revealed that psychological safety climate significantly mediated the
relationship between psychological factor and individual safety
performance. Finally, the implications and suggestions for future studies and
practice are discussed.
... Focusing on the laboratory, the safety programs involving the laboratory began in the late of 1980s and it required uniformity and continuity throughout the facilities such as chemical labelling and the ways of reporting any accidents or exposure [31]. Safety is the most import element in management of laboratory science [32]. Besides that, Occupational Safety and Health also want all the laboratory staff to subcommittees to ensure shared expertise and tasks including the risk management, hazardous material, infection control, laboratory safety, life safety involving utilities equipment and radiation and many more [8]. ...
... There are a number of possible explanations for construction workers' habituation to workplace hazards. Anecdotal evidence indicates that workers with certain personality traits (such as extraversion and being prone to sensation seeking) tend to be more inattentive at work than other workers (Beus et al. 2015;Hogan and Foster 2013). Consequently, they are more likely to be involved in injuries or accidents. ...
Every year more than 100 fatal accidents occur in road work zones. One of the major causes of pedestrian workers being struck by construction vehicles is that workers become habituated to the warning alarms of these vehicles. Researchers suggest that workers with certain personality traits (e.g., boredom proneness and extraversion) are more likely to become habituated to workplace hazards and therefore have a higher likelihood than other workers of being involved in an accident. This study investigated which aspects of personality correlate with workers’ accident proneness and their vulnerability to habituation to warning alarms in road work zones. An experiment with actual road construction workers was performed using a virtual reality (VR) environment. The results reveal that boredom susceptibility (one of the subdimensions of the personality trait of sensation seeking) is negatively correlated with workers’ attention to warning alarms, and that boredom-prone workers were more likely to be involved in a virtual struck-by accident. The findings of this study provide conceptual motivation for tailoring safety training to individual workers’ personality traits.
... The factors affecting safety at work have been studied for a long time and summarized within the integrated safety model (ISM) [2]. However, research has been limited to studying individual differences in terms of worker shortcomings, such as insufficient attention or misperception of risks [3], personality traits [3][4][5] and cognitive or physical abilities [6][7][8][9][10][11]. ...
Purpose:
Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a relevant issue for many systems and stakeholders. This systematic literature review aims to expand knowledge on this topic starting from the integrated safety model (ISM) and to evaluate the role of psychological capital (PsyCap) on safety behaviours (SBs) (i.e., safety performance and prevention of occupational accidents and injuries).
Methods:
A total of 2704 studies was initially identified in the Scopus, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases. After rigorous screening, 20 empirical studies were included.
Results:
The results showed the relevant contribution of PsyCap in promoting SBs (1) as a direct antecedent, (2) mediator between organizational factors and SBs, or (3) moderator between job demands and SBs.
Conclusion:
Findings indicate that when workers feel resourceful, they feel also more confident and engaged, and in turn, more focused on safety issues. Moreover, the results sometimes turn out to be contradictory, showing the dark side of personal resources. Considering these results, a plan to monitor and develop PsyCap could be implemented to promote SBs and safety environment. Indeed, PsyCap can be an essential individual resource for behaving safely also by reducing job demands' perceptions and improving safety leadership.
... Employee personality is increasingly considered an important determinant of safety performance in organizations (Cellar et al., 2001;Hogan & Foster, 2013;Landay et al., 2020;Rau et al., 2020;Sutherland & Cooper, 1991). Proactive personality, described as an innate willingness to take personal initiative to improve current workplace situations or to create new ones (see Crant & Bateman, 2000;Seibert et al., 2001;Teye-Kwadjo & de Bruin, 2021), has been found to relate positively to employee safety attitudes (Ji et al., 2019). ...
This study explored occupational health and safety among fuel pump attendants at selected oil and gas service stations in Accra, Ghana. Respondents completed a questionnaire battery on proactive personality, safety climate perceptions, safety compliance, and safety participation. Regression models showed that safety climate perceptions and proactive personality each had significant positive main effects on safety compliance and safety participation. Moreover, we found that the positive relationship between safety climate perceptions and safety compliance, and between safety climate perceptions and safety participation was weaker when proactivity was high than when it was low. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed.
... Beus et al. (2015) found that the responsible-oriented nature of conscientiousness can lead individuals to feel responsible for the organisation's safety culture and behave safely at work. Several meta-analyses of occupational safety literature have also noted that personality traits are the inherent characteristics of human beings, which can shape people's individual differences in attitudes towards safety and override safetyrelated decisions and behaviours (Beus et al. 2015;Clarke and Robertson 2008;Hogan and Foster 2013). Existing studies have also presented empirical evidence to support the usefulness of personality traits as effective predictors of people's safety behaviour at work (Beus et al. 2015;Fyhri and Backer-Grøndahl 2012;Sing et al. 2014). ...
In recent years, research has found that people have stable predispositions to engage in certain behavioural patterns to work safely or unsafely, which vary among individuals as a function of their personality features. In this regard, an innovative machine learning model has been recently developed to predict workers’ behavioural tendency based on personality factors. This paper presents an empirical evaluation of the model’s prediction performance (i.e. the degree to which the model can generate similar results compared to reality) to address the issue of the model’s usability before it is implemented in real situations. As virtual reality allows a good grip on fidelity resembling real-world situations, it can stimulate more natural behaviour responses from participants to increase ecological validity of experimental results. Thus, we implemented a virtual reality experimentation environment to assess workers’ safety behaviour. The model’s prediction capability was then evaluated by comparing the model prediction results and workers’ safety behaviour as assessed in virtual reality. The comparison results showed that the model predictions on two dimensions of workers’ safety behaviour (i.e. task and contextual performance) were in good agreement with the virtual reality experimental results, with Spearman correlation coefficients of 79.7% and 87.8%, respectively. The machine learning model thus proved to have good prediction capability, which allows the model to help identify vulnerable workers who are prone to undertake unsafe behaviours. The findings also suggest that virtual reality is a promising method for measuring workers’ safety behaviour as it can provide a realistic and safe environment for experimentation.
... Perhaps an even more expedient application is the possibility of preforming this same task instantaneously through computerassisted cue detection. Indeed, if situational and behavioral features of Instagram photos can produce a likely personality profile for an individual, this profile is also likely related to key outcomes in everyday life Jones et al., 2017), in relationships (Solomon & Jackson, 2014;Weidmann, Ledermann & Grob, 2016), in the workplace (Hogan & Foster, 2013;Higgins et al., 2007), at school (Poropat, 2009), and more. Future applications of this personality assessment approach can use Instagram photos as talent signals for job performance, persistence in university, or leadership potential. ...
... Perhaps an even more expedient application is the possibility of preforming this same task instantaneously through computerassisted cue detection. Indeed, if situational and behavioral features of Instagram photos can produce a likely personality profile for an individual, this profile is also likely related to key outcomes in everyday life Jones et al., 2017), in relationships (Solomon & Jackson, 2014;Weidmann, Ledermann & Grob, 2016), in the workplace (Hogan & Foster, 2013;Higgins et al., 2007), at school (Poropat, 2009), and more. Future applications of this personality assessment approach can use Instagram photos as talent signals for job performance, persistence in university, or leadership potential. ...
This study explores whether photos posted on online social networks can be used to assess personality. We have demonstrated that personality is connected to human- and machine-detected situational cues, characteristics, classes, behavior, and affect displayed in Instagram photos. Observations of individual relationships between normal or dark side personality characteristics and situational features of photos give insight into the various aspects of online portrayal of oneself and the personality behind the photos.
... Besides conscientiousness, we focus on altruism, a facet of the broader agreeableness personality trait, characterized by active concern for others. This choice can be explained by Hogan and Foster (2013)'s work, suggesting that strong relationships can be expected between personality and safety behaviors if the personality characteristics correspond to the type of behavior considered. Indeed, taking one specific safety-related performance dimension at a time they developed predictors using personality facets rather than broad factor scales. ...
Safety citizenship behaviors (SCB) have never been classified following the intended beneficiary of these behaviors. The first aim of this study was to examine Hofmann et al. (2003)'s SCB items in an attempt to identify two dimensions: SCB oriented towards individuals (SCB-I) and SCB oriented towards the organization (SCB-O). Further, by drawing on Christian et al. (2009)'s model of safety performance, we examined how distal (i.e. personality) and proximal (i.e. safety motivation and knowledge) person-related factors are associated with these behaviors. Structural equation modelling realized on a sample of 290 workers from a Belgian pharmaceutical company showed that the broader conscientiousness trait was related to both SCB-I and SCB-O, indirectly through safety motivation and knowledge, as would be predicted by Christian et al. In contrast, the altruism facet was directly related to SCB-I only. Results are discussed and practical implications considered.
... Neuroticism increases people's perception of job stressors as being worse, which, in turn, has a negative impact on well-being and health. In addition, people who score high in conscientiousness generally understand and follow guidelines, particularly safety guidelines, which reduces the probability of accidents (Hogan and Foster, 2013). Two meta-analytical studies confirm the relationships among these two variables of personality and accidents (Beus, Dhanani and McCord, 2015;Fyhri and Backer-Grøndahl, 2012). ...
This article analyses gender differences in occupational accidents from three research areas in which differences have been found: occupational stress, personality and driving patterns. Specifically, it uses the Job Demand-Control Model (JDC) and adds neuroticism and conscientiousness as personality variables related to accidents. Survey data were collected using an anonymous questionnaire (N= 652 workers, 52.5% men, with an average of 38.1 years of age, S.D. = 10.7). Hierarchical linear regression was employed to prove the relationships (direct and interaction effects) to predict the number of accidents (occupational accidents and incidents and commuting accidents). To identify gender influences, separate analyses were undertaken for female and male workers. The results demonstrate that demands and control, measured with the Job Content Questionnaire, are not related to accidents, although they are related to working hours, kms to work and job position. In addition three-way interactions (stressors × personality × gender) are observed, so far unexplored, but which coincide with research in other areas and reinforce the importance of developing a gender perspective in the study of occupational accidents.
... Breaches provide insight into the managerial decision making aspects of safety. Poor safety outcomes can be the result of both worker behaviors and the production system that management's decisions create (Brown, Willis, & Prussia, 2000;Hogan & Foster, 2013). Research suggests that when management creates and maintains a safe production system, accidents are, in general, minimized (Brown et al., 2000). ...
Previous research has established a link between the debt component of capital structure and managers making risky decisions. Literature in finance and strategy has explored the role of debt and concluded that increases in debt focus managerial decision making on short‐term financial goals, suggesting that increases in debt might also lead to managers making decisions that put operational workers and the firm at long‐term risk. Therefore this research explores if the strategic choice of a firm's level of debt predicts the firm's likelihood of breaching safety regulations. Furthermore, this study explores the short‐ and long‐term financial implications of breaching safety regulations. Secondary safety and financial data collected in the United Kingdom is used to answer the research questions using logistic models and an event study. The results show that decisions on debt are a significant predictor of a firm's likelihood of breaching safety regulation and that breaching safety regulation harms long‐term financial performance. Strategic decisions on debt levels lead to further decisions that place the workforce and profitability of the firm at risk.
... compare to the large company [5-7], 30% to 50% higher Research Questions: The research questions addressed researcher used the term individual difference to explain in the present Malaysian manufacturing small enterprise SC at the individual level [42][43][44]. Empirical support study are: ...
Small Medium Enterprises have been recognized as a back bone of Malaysia economic. Instead of
significant contribution to the national economy, their contribution to the total occupational accident
substantially high. This present work aims to investigate the role of psychological work ownership and
psychological factors in the relationship between safety climate and safety performance (individual level) in
the Malaysian manufacturing small enterprise. Random stratified sampling design was successfully implemented
in Malaysian manufacturing small enterprise involving 11 firms in seven districts of the East Coast Region of
Malaysia. The model revealed a significant positive relationship between psychological safety climate
positively and individual safety performance. Results based on a sample of 240 employees supported the
conceptual framework, indicating that the effect of psychological factors and psychological work ownership
has an essential practical role in, encourages psychological safety climate, with subsequent prediction of
individual safety performance events mediated by psychological safety climate. Implications for theory,
practical and recommendation research on psychological climate, ownership, and performance for further
research are discussed.
... Human contributing factors to the accident process needed to be identified to design relevant prevention strategies and improve safety performance (Dekker, 2002;Gyekye, 2010;Hansen, 1989). Predictors of safety behavior were identified (Hogan & Foster, 2013;Wallace & Vodanovich, 2003). Variables related to workplace safety were named (Hofmann & Stetzer, 1996;Zacharatos et al., 2005). ...
The present study examined psychological needs, types of motivation, and demographic variables as predictors of types of safety motivation in public employees. Psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and autonomous to controlled types of motivation were described by self-determination theory. This study used quantitative methodology with a non-experimental, correlational design. Nonprobability quota sampling was used to recruit 121 survey participants who represented the larger population of public employees based upon job categories. Data was collected through surveys. Data was analyzed through multiple linear regression to answer Research Question 1. Multiple linear regression stepwise with backward elimination identified the dominant predictor variables to answer Research Question 2. The results suggested that none of the independent variables were statistically significant predictors of intrinsic safety motivation. External motivation significantly predicted identified safety motivation. External motivation by itself and combined with introjected motivation was a statistically significant predictor of external safety motivation. Similarly, the results of the backward elimination analysis suggested that none of the independent variables were significantly predictive of intrinsic safety motivation, but six models predicted identified safety motivation and nine models predicted external safety motivation. The present study suggested that multiple types of motivation and variables interact to predict types of safety motivation in employees in the public work domain.
... To get a sense of this, let's consider the workplace environment. Clearly, a wide variety of factors in addition to emotion regulation and self-control influence work safety (Kotze & Steyn, 2013;Hogan & Foster, 2013;Lawton & Parker, 1998). In a study to examine whether System 2 thinking ("controlled cognition") together with System 1 thinking ("automatic cognition") could better predict safety behaviors in the workplace, Xu et al. (2014) found that individual differences in inhibition can shift the relative weight of System 2 and System 1 cognitive processes in predicting employees' safety behaviors in the workplace. ...
... This should be true whether the behaviors are safe or unsafe, rule-prescribed or discretionary, intentional or unintentional. Thus, personality's effects on workplace accidents should be transmitted primarily through safety-related behaviors (Chris- tian et al., 2009;Hogan & Foster, 2013;Neal & Griffin, 2004;Turner, McClure, & Pirozzo, 2004). For example, although conscientiousness has revealed direct empirical associations with accidents, it is arguably not the psychological trait of conscientiousness-reflecting a tendency toward dutifulness or orderlinessthat directly prevents (or leads to) accidents but rather actual conscientious behaviors such as following (or failing to follow) safety rules and regulations that mitigate (or increase) accident occurrence. ...
The purpose of this meta-analysis was to address unanswered questions regarding the associations between personality and workplace safety by (a) clarifying the magnitude and meaning of these associations with both broad and facet-level personality traits, (b) delineating how personality is associated with workplace safety, and (c) testing the relative importance of personality in comparison to perceptions of the social context of safety (i.e., safety climate) in predicting safety-related behavior. Our results revealed that whereas agreeableness and conscientiousness were negatively associated with unsafe behaviors, extraversion and neuroticism were positively associated with them. Of these traits, agreeableness accounted for the largest proportion of explained variance in safety-related behavior and openness to experience was unrelated. At the facet level, sensation seeking, altruism, anger, and impulsiveness were all meaningfully associated with safety-related behavior, though sensation seeking was the only facet that demonstrated a stronger relationship than its parent trait (i.e., extraversion). In addition, meta-analytic path modeling supported the theoretical expectation that personality’s associations with accidents are mediated by safety-related behavior. Finally, although safety climate perceptions accounted for the majority of explained variance in safety-related behavior, personality traits (i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism) still accounted for a unique and substantive proportion of the explained variance. Taken together, these results substantiate the value of considering personality traits as key correlates of workplace safety.
... The identification of specific psychological factors that may increase the likelihood of workplace incidents and accidents in high-risk work environments will assist managers and human behaviour specialists in the design and implementation of interventions that could reduce the level of workplace and vehicle incidents/accidents. It follows from the literature that possible psychological factors that could potentially influence employees' attitude or response towards workplace safety are cognitive abilities, personality traits and work-wellness (Arthur, Barett, and Alexander 1991;Carty, Stough, and Gillespie 1999;Clarke and Robertson 2005;Frone 1998;Hogan and Foster 2013;Lawton and Parker 1998;O'Toole 1990;Paul and Maiti 2008;Rundmo 1995;Schmidt and Hunter 2004;Zhao 2010;Zohar 2000). ...
Workplace safety researchers and practitioners generally agree that it is necessary to understand the psychological factors that influence people's workplace safety behaviour. Yet, the search for reliable individual differences regarding psychological factors associated with workplace safety has lead to sparse results and inconclusive findings. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there are differences between the psychological factors, cognitive ability, personality and work-wellness of employees involved in workplace incidents and accidents and/or driver vehicle accidents and those who are not. The study population (N = 279) consisted of employees employed at an electricity supply organisation in South Africa. Mann-Whitney U-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted to determine the differences in the respective psychological factors between the groups. These results showed that cognitive ability did not seem to play a role in workplace incident/accident involvement, including driver vehicle accidents, while the wellness factors burnout and sense of coherence, as well as certain personality traits, namely conscientiousness, pragmatic and gregariousness play a statistically significant role in individuals' involvement in workplace incidents/accidents/driver vehicle accidents. Safety practitioners, managers and human resource specialists should take cognisance of the role of specifically work-wellness in workplace safety behaviour, as management can influence these negative states that are often caused by continuously stressful situations, and subsequently enhance work place safety.
Based on the socially embedded model of thriving, the present study examined a moderated mediation framework, which involves the mediating role of employee thriving and the moderating role of career adaptability in the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and safety performance. A two‐wave survey was administered among full‐time commercial pilots working for airlines ( N = 131). Our results showed that EI had a positive influence on employee thriving, which in turn positively affected safety performance. In addition, the results further revealed that the positive effect of EI on safety performance was stronger among pilots with a higher level of career adaptability. These findings have important implications for theoretical developments on EI, thriving, and performance in a safety context, and they also provide practical insights on how to enhance workplace safety.
Objectives:
This review aimed to integrate previous research to gain a deeper understanding of which individual factors are associated with reduced accident involvement, and which factors may be linked to success during emergency situations when they do occur. Better understanding how the human will react in these situations, combined with technological enhancements is vital to risk mitigation and ensuring successful performance. This review will also identify gaps in the literature that have yet to be addressed.
Method:
A systematic literature review was undertaken, beginning with 18,319 articles from three multidisciplinary databases. After careful review and exclusion, a final sample of 22 relevant articles were retained. This analysis was spread across various high risk, sociotechnical industries, including aviation, rail, mining, nuclear power, etc.
Findings:
The findings show that previous research has identified cognitive ability, leadership, situation awareness, personality, and risk perception as the most prominently considered factors in reducing accident involvement. Training, skill, situation awareness, and emotional stability were the most commonly associated factors to success through emergencies.
Conclusion:
While the research around individual differences impacting success during emergencies is scarce, this review provides future direction on potential factors influencing reduced accident involvement and/or potential factors that could influence a person's success through a disaster or emergency. This information could be implemented in recruitment and training of front-line workers in high-reliability organisations to reduce risk, increase safety and work towards reducing the number of accidents.
Introduction:
Compared to other types of occupational training, safety training suffers from several unique challenges that potentially impair the engagement of learners and their subsequent application or "transfer" of knowledge and skills upon returning to the job. However, existing research on safety training tends to focus on specific factors in isolation, such as design features and social support. The aim of this research is to develop an overarching theoretical framework that integrates factors contributing to training engagement and transfer.
Method:
We conducted a comprehensive qualitative review of safety training research that was published between 2010 and 2020. We searched Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, yielding 147 articles, and 38 were included. We content analyzed article summaries to arrive at core themes and combined them with contemporary models of general occupational training to develop a rich model of safety training engagement and transfer.
Results:
We propose that training engagement is a combination of pre-training factors such as individual, organizational, and contextual factors, that interact with design and delivery factors. Safety training engagement is conceptualized as a three-component psychological state: affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Organizations should prioritize pre-training readiness modules to address existing attitudes and beliefs, optimize the safety training transfer climate, and critically reflect on their strategy to design and deliver safety training so that engagement is maximized.
Conclusions:
There are practical factors that organizations can use before training (e.g., tailoring training to employees' characteristics), during training (e.g., ensuring trainer credibility and use of adult learning principles), and after training (e.g., integrating learned concepts into systems). Practical Applications: For safety training to 'stick,' workers should be affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally engaged in learning, which will result in new knowledge and skills, improvements in attitudes, and new safety behaviors in the workplace. To enable engagement, practitioners must apply adult learning principles, make the training relevant, and tailor the training to the job and individual needs. After training, ensure concepts are embedded and aligned with existing systems and routines to promote transfer.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of organizational personality on safety performance by explaining the mediating role of job satisfaction. Statistical population in this study was employees of Tehran urban train company and suburbs. The Cochran's formula was used to obtain the sample size and the cluster and random sampling method was used to distribute the questionnaire among the estimated samples. In order to collect the data, the standard questionnaire (organizational personality, safety performance and job satisfaction) was used. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by face and construct validity and its reliability were investigated with Cronbach "s alpha. To analyze the data obtained from the questionnaire and statistical sample, smart PLS software and structural equation modeling are used. The findings show that organizational personality and job satisfaction on the dimensions of safety performance (safety compliance and safety participation) have a significant positive effect. Also job satisfaction has a significant positive effect on organizational personality. Furthermore, the results indicate that organizational personality through job satisfaction leads to improved safety performance in Tehran Urban Train Company and Suburbs.
The Hong Kong construction industry is notorious for the high number of accidents and fatalities. Risk-taking is one kind of unsafe behavior that can result in accidents and injuries. The study reported here concerns a Construction Worker Risk-Taking Behavior (CoWoRTB) model and an attempt to gain an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms by which personal and organizational factors influence the risk-taking behavior of construction workers. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 536 construction workers employed on Hong Kong government construction projects. Using the data collected, the proposed model was analyzed using structural equation modeling. It was found that the personal factors: outcome expectancy, risk perception – worry and unsafe, and attitude toward risk-taking behavior, significantly influenced risk-taking behavior. The organizational factors that had a significant effect on risk-taking behavior were safety promotion policy, and safety training. Also, the significant indirect effect of safety promotion policy on risk-taking behavior was mediated by outcome expectancy, and significant indirect effects of safety training on risk-taking behavior were mediated by attitude toward risk-taking behavior, and risk perception – worry and unsafe. These findings may be used to develop effective safety policies, interventions and strategies for reducing the risk-taking behavior of construction workers. Some practical recommendations for improving construction safety are discussed.
Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between three selected personality traits and contextual factors with safety performance.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among the operational staff of a gas refinery (n = 487) in Iran. Structural equation modeling was used to model the factors affecting safety performance based on personality traits and job and organizational related factors including consideration of future safety consequence, safety locus of control and impulsiveness, safety climate, job insecurity and role-overload, and mediator roles of safety knowledge and safety motivation.
Results: Structural equation modeling results indicated that consideration of future safety consequence was directly correlated with safety performance. Impulsiveness and safety locus of control indirectly associated with safety performance through the mediator role of safety knowledge and motivation. Furthermore, job insecurity and role overload were partially and directly correlated with safety performance. Moreover, safety climate had a significant relationship with safety performance.
Conclusion: Consideration of future safety consequence is a valid personality trait for predicting safety performance. It can therefore be used as an indicator in the employee selection process. Moreover, improving employee safety performance necessitates increased safety knowledge and motivation as well as improved occupational characteristics and safety climate.
Safety performance merupakan perilaku kerja yang terkait dengan keselamatan pekerja dalam melakukan pekerjaannya. Banyaknya kasus kecelakaan kerja yang terjadi di Indonesia menguatkan urgensi dilakukannya penelitian ini. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi safety performance seseorang dalam bekerja. Skala untuk mengukur kepribadian, pengetahuan dan motivasi seseorang tentang keselamatan kerja, serta safety performance diberikan kepada 142 pekerja dengan risiko tinggi. Analisis regresi menunjukkan bahwa ada korelasi negatif yang signifikan dari tipe kepribadian neuroticism (B=-0.067, SE=0.031, nilai p=.03), dan korelasi positif dari safety knowledge (B=0.387, SE=0.06, nilai p<.001) dan safety motivation (B=0.317, SE=0.064, nilai p<.001) terhadap aspek compliance pada safety performance. Lebih lanjut, ada korelasi negatif yang signifikan dari pendidikan (B=-0.406, SE=0.160, nilai p=.012), serta korelasi positif dari aspek kepribadian openness to experience (B=0.082, SE=0.03, nilai p=.008), safety knowledge (B=0.355, SE=0.068, nilai p<.001) dan safety motivation (B=0.454, SE=0.073, nilai p<.001) terhadap aspek partisipasi. Hasil penelitian ini dapat dijadikan dasar seleksi maupun pengembangan karyawan, khususnya untuk mereka yang bekerja pada lingkungan dengan resiko tinggi.
Although the rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) enhanced the national transportation and boosted the economical grow in China, it also has great impacts on the psychology and behaviors of high-speed rail drivers. Personality traits affect individual's psychological and behavioral performance at work. In this paper, two studies were designed to partly investigate whether or not personality factors affects job burnout and safety performance of HSR drivers in China. In Study 1, the data was collected from 273 HSR drivers in China. The results showed the personality of HSR drivers affected their job burnout. In particular, neuroticism, openness and agreeableness negatively influenced job burnout. Organization identification partly mediated the association between neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and job burnout. In Study 2, we collected data from 349 high-speed rail drivers from 6 railway bureaus across the country, and the results are very similar to of Study 1. That is neuroticism, openness and agreeableness positively influenced safety performance. Organization identification partly mediated the association between neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and safety performance. Finally, the difference between the results of this study and other scholars' research results is also discussed, and practical suggestions are put forward.
For safety and health management in the workplace, workers’ active participation is essential. The participation is promoted by workers’ perception, their sense of value, motivation, response toward safety measures, and so on. And the knowledge of the influential factors can be shared across all industry sectors.
This study collected previous studies on workers’ safety perceptions and analyse them to obtain influential factors. The analysis and categorization resulted in four influential factors: people and organization around the worker, system/safety programme/rules, work environment, workers’ characters and their circumstances. The extent of which the influential factors function for workers is variable depending on organizations, industrial sectors, and research methods they adopt, but these factors are considered to be helpful to design approaches to motivate workers to work safely.
Although studies have suggested that personality can forecast safety performance at the individual level, the link between organizational-level personality and safety performance is rarely considered. On the basis of the Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) theory, the present study investigated the direct and indirect effects of the organizational emergence of personality (Five-Factor Model) on individual-level outcomes (safety performance) in the high-speed rail industry. The sample consisted of 1035 high-speed rail operators in China. The results indicated that the effects of organizational-level personality on safety performance are similar to or stronger than the effects of individual-level personality. Specifically, organizational-level extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness have significantly positive relationships with individual-level safety compliance and safety participation, while neuroticism has a significantly negative relationship with safety compliance and safety participation; the effect of openness to experience was not significant. Moreover, in terms of indirect effects, job satisfaction mediated the links of the four personality constructs (extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness) with safety compliance and safety participation. These findings highlight the importance of organizational personality to improving employees’ safety performance in safety-critical organizations.
Initiating a safety oriented change - or safety initiative - is conceptually distinct from other forms of safety participation and safety citizenship behaviour, yet little attention has been given to its performance outcomes or its motivational antecedents. An initial study with a sample composed of middle managers (N = 86) showed that safety initiative predicted objective improvement actions six months later, whereas, showing differential validity, safety compliance predicted the implementation of monitoring actions. Two subsequent studies focused on motivational antecedents. First, using a sample of team leaders (N = 295), we tested a higher-order structure of proactive motivation that incorporates three domains: “can do”, “reason to” and future orientation. Second, in a longitudinal study of chemical work operators (N = 188), after checking for the influence of potential confounds (past behaviours; accidents experience; perceived risk), we showed that safety initiative was predicted only by proactive motivation. Instead, safety compliance was found to be associated with affective commitment and scrupulousness, whereas safety helping was found to be associated with affective commitment. Self-reported behaviours were validated against rater assessments. This study supports the importance of distinguishing safety initiative from other safety behaviours, indicating how to create an organizational context supporting a proactive management of workplace safety.
Keywords: safety behaviour, initiative, motivation, compliance, helping
This chapter explains the role personality plays in organizational safety and why research examining direct links between individual personality variables and safety-related criteria often produces inconsistent results. First, it discusses previous research examining personality and its relationship to safety-related outcomes, behaviors, and performance ratings. Next, it explains how combinations of personality scales, or the use of personality subscales or facets, can be stronger predictors of safety-related criteria. Finally, the chapter illustrates how specific behaviors mediate relationships between personality and safety-related criteria. To demonstrate the importance of focusing on subscales and possible mediation, the chapter defines a model of six behaviors critical to organizational safety across settings and outlines how specific personality facets predict each of these behaviors. These include: complying with rules, avoiding unnecessary risks, remaining vigilant, responding appropriately to safety threats, managing stress, and adhering to training.
Occupational health and safety remains a critical issue for academics and practitioners, given the impact that occupational accidents and work-related ill-health has on individuals, families, organizations, and societies worldwide. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book examines the influences on occupational safety from a psychological perspective, considering factors at an individual, team, job, and organizational level that impact upon the work environment and employees' behavior. It takes an integrative approach to health and safety in organizations, bringing together a collection of chapters from renowned contributors. The book also examines key topics in health and safety literature, both from the specific perspective of occupational safety (e.g., personality, social norms, and leadership) and workplace health and well-being (e.g., job demands, long work hours, and workplace aggression), and also from a consideration of the intersection of these two areas (e.g., safety workarounds and organizational climate).
This chapter focuses on the individual characteristics that mold workers' safety behavior. It begins with a timeline-based review of key personality traits appearing in the occupational health and safety literature. Then, the chapter explains how individual differences in cognition, age, and experience influence an employee's ability to respond to organizational hazards. It also discusses physiological predictors of safety outcomes, and provides several examples of behavior related to individual differences that lead to accidents and injuries. The chapter then talks about underrepresented areas of research and describes the recent shift from a singular lens of safety outcomes to multilevel interactional safety psychology, which includes the workplace environment and employee experiences at work. It talks about the Big Five, which comprises of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability or neuroticism, and openness to experience or intellect. The chapter concludes with a commentary on the direction of personality and individual differences research.
This chapter focuses on employees’ safety-related behaviours: why do workers do things that put them at risk of injury and death, on the one hand, and why do they do things that promote a safer workplace, on the other? The first part of the chapter sets out types of both unhelpful and helpful safety behaviours, and then discusses possible person-related factors involved, including accident proneness and personality, before considering these in relation to employee perceptions of safety aspects of their workplaces, and in turn relating these to other, non-safety specific psychological processes involved in workers’ evaluations of their jobs and work relationships. Thereafter, we discuss how workplace situations such as job demands, job resources, technology, an employee's work-group, their leaders, and their organization affect helpful and unhelpful safety behaviour, including the question of what kid of behaviour organizations should or should not try to regulate.
New employee safety is partly determined by how members of an organization behave toward them when they begin work. Research suggests that how members of an organization behave toward a new employee is partly determined by the employees’ perceptions of what the organization has done during the recruitment and selection processes (what they have done to hire the new employee). Where employees think that organizational processes have successfully delivered a new employee who is able to, and will work safely, they may be less inclined to engage in behaviors to ensure the new employee’s, or indeed their own, safety. In this chapter, research on how employees perceive recruitment and selection processes, and how these perceptions can influence the employees’ perception of new employee risk, and how they behave toward a new employee is discussed. This chapter also examines recruitment and selection processes, with a particular emphasis on methods which can be used by an organization to assess (predict) a new employee’s safety behavior. Recommendations for the adoption of recruitment and selection processes, and procedures to ensure employees correctly perceive the organization’s ability to predict new employee safety behavior, and ways of ensuring employees behave appropriately toward new employees, are discussed.
Health and safety legislation typically requires employees to be trained for the work they are undertaking. Thus, organizations often have a legal obligation to provide new employees with job-specific training before they commence working. Added to this training, there should be entry and socialization processes (sometimes referred to as on-boarding processes) which are aimed at more general objectives, such as introducing new employees to the organization’s safety policies and procedures, and facilitating the development of the psychological contract between the new employee and the organization. The relationships between new employee safety and prestart training and socialization processes are discussed in this chapter. This chapter begins by examining research which has investigated how organizational members view prestart training processes and how this can change their perceptions of new employee risk and change employee’s behavior toward new employees in their initial period of employment. The majority of this chapter is devoted to practices which can be used to improve socialization and prestart training processes and employee’s understanding of the effectiveness of these processes.
Employees of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are exposed to higher risks than the employees of larger ones, and SMEs have difficulties in controlling risk. Many countries have noticed the potential of the SMEs, and they judge employment and economic growth to a great extent based on these enterprises. The studies regarding this subject have increased during the last decade, parallel to the political and economic interests in occupational health and safety in SMEs. The objective of this chapter is to reveal general conclusions on effective approaches to prevent occupational diseases and injuries in SMEs and to gain information related to employment, welfare and health facilities, health education, legislation, occupational health, and safety management as a part of integrated management systems and other safety activities. The chapter also aims to facilitate developing an informative perspective about Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) in SMEs by emphasizing the drivers, benefits, and barriers of SMEs trying to adopt these systems.
The ability of personality traits to predict important life outcomes has traditionally been questioned because of the putative small effects of personality. In this article, we compare the predictive validity of personality traits with that of socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability to test the relative contribution of personality traits to predictions of three critical outcomes: mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment. Only evidence from prospective longitudinal studies was considered. In addition, an attempt was made to limit the review to studies that controlled for important background factors. Results showed that the magnitude of the effects of personality traits on mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment was indistinguishable from the effects of SES and cognitive ability on these outcomes. These results demonstrate the influence of personality traits on important life outcomes, highlight the need to more routinely incorporate measures of personality into quality of life surveys, and encourage further research about the developmental origins of personality traits and the processes by which these traits influence diverse life outcomes.
© 2007 Association for Psychological Science.
Meta-analysis is arguably the most important methodological innovation in the social and behavioral sciences in the last 25 years. Developed to offer researchers an informative account of which methods are most useful in integrating research findings across studies, this book will enable the reader to apply, as well as understand, meta-analytic methods. Rather than taking an encyclopedic approach, the authors have focused on carefully developing those techniques that are most applicable to social science research, and have given a general conceptual description of more complex and rarely-used techniques. Fully revised and updated, Methods of Meta-Analysis, Second Edition is the most comprehensive text on meta-analysis available today. New to the Second Edition: * An evaluation of fixed versus random effects models for meta-analysis* New methods for correcting for indirect range restriction in meta-analysis* New developments in corrections for measurement error* A discussion of a new Windows-based program package for applying the meta-analysis methods presented in the book* A presentation of the theories of data underlying different approaches to meta-analysis
Both researchers and practitioners are increasing their attention to the multitasking demands of contemporary work contexts, and previous work suggests polychronicity plays a central role in the motivation of individuals to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. However, our detailed examination of existing literature reveals a wide range of conceptualizations and operationalizations of this construct, as well as incongruent results concerning the effects of polychronicity on behavior and performance. In this article, we develop recommendations for defining and measuring polychronicity more precisely, we examine and compare existing work on predictors of polychronicity, and we address the equivocal relationship between polychronicity and performance. We conclude with implications for future research.
Despite widespread and growing acceptance that published personality tests are valid predictors of job performance, Morgeson et al. (2007) propose they be abandoned in personnel selection because average validity estimates are low. Our review of the literature shows that Morgeson et al.'s skepticism is unfounded. Meta-analyses have demonstrated that published personality tests, in fact, yield useful validity estimates when validation is based on confirmatory research using job analysis and taking into account the bidirectionality of trait–performance linkages. Further gains are likely by use of narrow over broad measures, multivariate prediction, and theory attuned to the complexities of trait expression and evaluation at work. Morgeson et al. also suggest that faking has little, if any, impact on personality test validity and that it may even contribute positively to job performance. Job applicant research suggests that faking under true hiring conditions attenuates personality test validity but that validity is still sufficiently strong to warrant personality test use in hiring. Contrary to Morgeson et al., we argue that the full value of published personality tests in organizations has yet to be realized, calling for programmatic theory-driven research.
Little systematic research on personality measures has been directed at investigating whether the Big Five are predictors of counterproductive behaviors such as absenteeism, accidents, deviant behaviors, and turnover. For example, published meta-analyses did not investigate whether the Big Five personality factors predicted these criteria. The results of the meta-analyses carried out here showed that conscientiousness predicted deviant behaviors and turnover, and extroversion, openness, agreeableness and emotional stability predicted the turnover criterion. However, none of the Big Five personality measures were found to be predictors of absenteeism or accidents. The implications of these findings for future research and practice are discussed.
In this investigation, we report the results of 2 studies designed to (a) conduct confirmatory factor analytic tests of a model of general safety performance with performance ratings from 550 coworker appraisals (Study 1), and (b) examine hypothesized relationships between indicators of breadth and depth of knowledge constructs and confirmed safety performance factors (from Study 1) with training history data and supervisory appraisals for 133 hazardous waste workers in 23 jobs and 4 organizations (Study 2). Confirmatory factor analytic results from Study 1 provided support for a 4-factor model of general safety performance with performance factors labeled Using Personal Protective Equipment, Engaging in Work Practices to Reduce Risk, Communicating Health and Safety Information, and Exercising Employee Rights and Responsibilities. In general, the results from Study 2 supported the hypothesized dominance of depth of knowledge over breadth of knowledge in the prediction of performance with respect to more routine, consistent safety tasks. Issues concerning the general-izability of these factors to other types of work and the human resource management implications of these results are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to investigate conflicting findings in previous research on personality and job performance. Meta-analysis was used to (a) assess the overall validity of personality measures as predictors of job performance, (b) investigate the moderating effects of several study characteristics on personality scale validity, and (c) appraise the predictability of job performance as a function of eight distinct categories of personality content, including the “Big Five” personality factors. Based on review of 494 studies, usable results were identified for 97 independent samples (total N= 13,521). Consistent with predictions, studies using confirmatory research strategies produced a corrected mean personality scale validity (.29) that was more than twice as high as that based on studies adopting exploratory strategies (.12). An even higher mean validity (.38) was obtained based on studies using job analysis explicitly in the selection of personality measures. Validities were also found to be higher in longer tenured samples and in published articles versus dissertations. Corrected mean validities for the “Big Five” factors ranged from .16 for Extroversion to .33 for Agreeableness. Weaknesses in the reporting of validation study characteristics are noted, and recommendations for future research in this area are provided. Contrary to conclusions of certain past reviews, the present findings provide some grounds for optimism concerning the use of personality measures in employee selection.
Traditional approaches on the prevention of accidents/injuries in mines reached its limit of effectiveness in improving safety performance and a fresh approach is utmost required. Behavioral safety analysis has been identified as an effective alternative in many industries. This paper is therefore sought to examine the role of behavioral factors on the occurrence of mine accidents and injuries through a case study. Data were collected from two neighboring underground coalmines operating under a large public sector organization of India. High–low plots and t-test were done to explore the differences between behavioral characteristics of accident involved (case) and non-involved (control) workers. How these differences could cause accidents/injuries in mines was estimated through structural equation modeling. The case study results show that accident group of workers (cases) are more job dissatisfied, negatively affected, and highly risk taking compared to the non-accident group of workers (controls). The accident model path analysis shows that negative affectivity, job dissatisfaction, and risk taking behaviors predict an increased number of injuries in mines. Apart from direct influences to work injuries, negative affectivity and job dissatisfaction make workers to take more risks and behave unsafely. These findings contribute to the design of safety programs including safety training, which should be behaviorally motivated. Mine safety management of the case study mines should outskirt their age old belief that accidents/injuries are due to hazardous nature of mining and only engineering control and regulatory monitoring are sufficient for improving safety of the mines. The multivariate analysis also shows that experience bears no relationships with work injury indicating that a less experienced worker is equally likely to be injured as an experienced worker. It implies that experience though helps workers in understanding the physical hazards, however, avoiding the imminent danger is much more behavioral. The variables negative affectivity, job dissatisfaction, and risk taking behaviors are therefore crucial in avoiding accident/injuries in mines.
Within psychology, different research traditions have attempted to explain individual differences in risky driving behaviour and traffic accident involvement. The present study attempts to integrate two of these research traditions, the personality trait approach and the social cognition approach, in order to understand the mechanisms underlying young drivers' risk-taking behaviour in traffic. The study was based on a self-completion questionnaire survey carried out among 1932 adolescents in Norway. The questionnaire included measures of risk perception, attitudes towards traffic safety and self-reported risk-taking in traffic. Personality measures included aggression, altruism, anxiety and normlessness. The results of a structural equation model suggested that the relation between the personality traits and risky driving behaviour was mediated through attitudes. On this basis it was concluded that personality primarily influences risky driving behaviour indirectly through affecting the attitudinal determinants of the behaviour. Practical implications for traffic safety campaigns are also discussed.
This book explores the human contribution to the reliability and resilience of complex, well-defended systems. Usually the human is considered a hazard - a system component whose unsafe acts are implicated in the majority of catastrophic breakdowns. However there is another perspective that has been relatively little studied in its own right - the human as hero, whose adaptations and compensations bring troubled systems back from the brink of disaster time and again. What, if anything, did these situations have in common? Can these human abilities be ‘bottled’ and passed on to others? The Human Contribution is vital reading for all professionals in high-consequence environments and for managers of any complex system. The book draws its illustrative material from a wide variety of hazardous domains, with the emphasis on healthcare reflecting the author's focus on patient safety over the last decade. All students of human factors - however seasoned - will also find it an invaluable and thought-provoking read.
The authors compared the Big 5 factors of personality with the facets or traits of personality that constitute those factors on their ability to predict 40 behavior criteria. Both the broad factors and the narrow facets predicted substantial numbers of criteria, but the latter did noticeably better in that regard, even when the number of facet predictors was limited to the number of factor predictors. Moreover, the criterion variance accounted for by the personality facets often included large portions not predicted by the personality factors. The narrow facets, therefore, were able to substantially increase the maximum prediction achieved by the broad factors. The results of this study are interpreted as supporting a more detailed approach to personality assessment, one that goes beyond the measurement of the Big 5 factors alone.
This paper makes seven points in response to certain claims made by Ones and Viswesvaran (1996, this issue). First, we see no evidence that the fidelity–bandwidth trade-off has become a crisis in the empirical literature. Moreover, we seen no evidence that anyone prefers narrow band personality measures over broad bandwidth scales. In addition, because job performance is complex and multidimensional, broad bandwidth predictors are normally required in personnel selection. Finally, our conclusion is simple—the nature of the criterion dictates the choice of predictors and matching predictors with criteria always enhances validity.
This study examined demographic, personality, and economic incentive correlates of workplace injuries suffered by 171 firefighters over a 12-yr period. Results showed that female firefighters experienced more injuries than male firefighters. Several Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scales (Conversion Hysteria, Psychopathic Deviate, and Social Introversion) were positively related to injury frequency. Regression analyses revealed that age, tenure, gender, marital status, type of injury, and wage variables were significant when predicting the duration of injuries as well as an interaction between marital status and gender. Two MMPI scales (Psychopathic Deviate and Schizophrenia) were also significantly related to injury duration. Indemnity cost estimates were calculated. The results underscore the importance of distinguishing the duration of injury from the occurrence of injury.
The authors compared the Big 5 factors of personality with the facets or traits of personality that constitute those factors on their ability to predict 40 behavior criteria. Both the broad factors and the narrow facets predicted substantial numbers of criteria, but the latter did noticeably better in that regard, even when the number of facet predictors was limited to the number of factor predictors. Moreover, the criterion variance accounted for by the personality facets often included large portions not predicted by the personality factors. The narrow facets, therefore, were able to substantially increase the maximum prediction achieved by the broad factors. The results of this study are interpreted as supporting a more detailed approach to personality assessment, one that goes beyond the measurement of the Big 5 factors alone.
This personal historical article traces the development of the Big-Five factor structure, whose growing acceptance by personality researchers has profoundly influenced the scientific study of individual differences. The roots of this taxonomy lie in the lexical hypothesis and the insights of Sir Francis Galton, the prescience of L. L. Thurstone, the legacy of Raymond B. Cattell, and the seminal analyses of Tupes and Christal. Paradoxically, the present popularity of this model owes much to its many critics, each of whom tried to replace it, but failed. In reaction, there have been a number of attempts to assimilate other models into the five-factor structure. Lately, some practical implications of the emerging consensus can be seen in such contexts as personnel selection and classification.
The interrater reliabilities of ratings of 9,975 ratees from 79 organizations were examined as a function of length of exposure to the ratee. It was found that there was a strong, nonlinear relationship between months of exposure and interrater reliability. The correlation between a logarithmic transformation of months of experience and reliability was .73 for one type of ratings and .65 for another type. The relationship was strongest during the first 12 months on the job. Changes in reliability were accounted for mostly by changes in criterion variance. Asymptotic levels of reliability were only about .60, even with 10-20 years of experience. Implications for estimating reliabilities in individual and meta-analytic studies and for performance appraisal were presented, and possible explanations of the reliability-variance relationship were advanced.
This paper describes the development and validation of an integrity test, the WorkKeys Performance Assessment, designed specifically to measure two domains: employee risk reduction (i.e., safety behavior) and general work attitudes. These domains were hypothe-sized to differentially predict multiple work outcomes, including task performance, organizational citizenship, counterproductive behavior, and safety. The study used a large sample of workers whose performance was rated by their supervisors. Results suggest that both integrity domains predict employee behavior, with risk reduction providing incre-mental validity over general work attitudes when predicting counterproductive and safety behavior. The findings support the value of measuring both domains of integrity.
Problem: While several management practices have been cited as important components of safety programs, how much does each incrementally contribute to injury reduction? This study examined the degree to which six management practices frequently included in safety programs (management commitment, rewards, communication and feedback, selection, training, and participation) contributed to a safe work environment for hospital employees. Method: Participants were solicited via telephone to participate in a research study concerning hospital risk management. Sixty-two hospitals provided data concerning management practices and employee injuries. Results: Overall, the management practices reliably predicted injury rates. A factor analysis performed on the management practices scale resulted in the development of six factor scales. A multiple regression performed on these factor scales found that proactive practices reliably predicted injury rates. Remedial measures acted as a suppressor variable. Discussion: While most of the participating hospitals implemented reactive practices (fixing problems once they have occurred), what differentiated the hospitals with low injury rates was that they also employed proactive measures to prevent accidents. Impact on Industry: The most effective step that hospitals can take is in the front-end hiring and training of new personnel. They should also ensure that the risk management position has a management-level classification. This study also demonstrated that training in itself is not adequate.
One-on-one interviews and focus-group meetings were held at 20 organizations that had implemented a behavior-based safety (BBS) process in order to find reasons for program success/failures. A total of 31 focus groups gave 629 answers to six different questions. A content analysis of these responses uncovered critical information for understanding what employees are looking for in a BBS program. A perception survey administered to individual employees (n = 701) at these organizations measured a variety of variables identified in prior research to influence success in safety efforts. The survey data showed five variables to be significantly predictive of employee involvement in a BBS process: 1) perceptions that BBS training was effective; 2) trust in management abilities; 3) accountability for BBS through performance appraisals; 4) whether or not one had received education in BBS; and 5) tenure with the organization. Also, employees in organizations mandating employee participation in a BBS process (n=8 companies) reported significantly higher levels of: (a) involvement; (b) trust in management; (c) trust in coworkers; and (d) satisfaction with BBS training than did employees whose process was completely voluntary (n = 12 companies). In addition, employees in mandatory processes reported significantly greater frequency of giving and receiving positive behavior-based feedback.
Although a number of studies have examined individual personality traits and their influence on accident involvement, consistent evidence of a predictive relationship is lacking due to contradictory findings. The current study reports a meta-analysis of the relationship between accident involvement and the Big Five personality dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness). Low conscientiousness and low agreeableness were found to be valid and generalizable predictors of accident involvement, with corrected mean validities of .27 and .26, respectively. The context of the accident acts as a moderator in the personality–accident relationship, with different personality dimensions associated with occupational and non-occupational accidents. Extraversion was found to be a valid and generalizable predictor of traffic accidents, but not occupational accidents. Avenues for further research are highlighted and discussed.
This study investigated the relation of the "Big Five" personality di- mensions (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Consci- entiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled/semi-skilled). Results indicated that one dimension of person- ality. Conscientiousness, showed consistent relations with all job per- formance criteria for all occupational groups. For the remaining per- sonality dimensions, the estimated true score correlations varied by occupational group and criterion type. Extraversion was a valid pre- dictor for two occupations involving social interaction, managers and sales (across criterion types). Also, both Openness to Experience and Extraversion were valid predictors of the training proficiency criterion (across occupations). Other personality dimensions were also found to be valid predictors for some occupations and some criterion types, but the magnitude of the estimated true score correlations was small (p < .10). Overall, the results illustrate the benefits of using the 5- factor model of personality to accumulate and communicate empirical findings. The findings have numerous implications for research and practice in personnel psychology, especially in the subfields of person- nel selection, training and development, and performance appraisal.
Two hundred and two undergraduate participants (134 female, 68 male) completed both the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI‐R) and self‐report measures of prior workplace accident involvement. Significant inverse relationships were found between the factor of Agreeableness and the total reported number of work‐related accidents and between the factor of Conscientiousness and the total reported number of not‐at‐fault work‐related accidents alone, as well as the total reported number of work‐related accidents. Further, regression analyses indicate that both Agreeableness and Conscientiousness factors may be useful for predicting certain types of workplace accidents. Implications and potential future directions for research are discussed.
This study developed criterion and construct validity evidence for polychronicity, which is the extent to which people prefer to be engaged in two or more tasks or activities at the same time. Hypothesized relationships between polychronicity and lateness, absence, and supervisory ratings of performance were developed and tested in a heterogenous field sample of 181 train operators. Results indicated that polychronicity was significantly related to absence (r = .25), lateness (r = .19), and supervisory performance ratings (r = -.17). Hypothesized Big Five personality dimensions (Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism) were also significantly associated with absence, but not lateness. Specifically, absence was significantly related to Conscientiousness (r = -.23), Extraversion (r = .15), and Neuroticism (r = .19). In addition, polychronicity accounted for variance in absence and lateness beyond that accounted for by hypothesized Big Five personality dimensions, cognitive ability, and demographic characteristics. Future research directions for work on polychronicity are discussed.
This article presents the rationale and procedures for conducting a process analysis in evaluation research. Such an analysis attempts to identify the process that mediates the effects of some treatment, by estimating the parameters of a causal chain between the treatment and some outcome variable. Two different procedures for estimating mediation are discussed. In addition we present procedures for examining whether a treatment exerts its effects, in part, by altering the mediating process that produces the outcome. Finally, the benefits of process analysis in evaluation research are underlined.
L'auteur discute un modele a cinq facteurs de la personnalite qu'il confronte a d'autres systemes de la personnalite et dont les correlats des dimensions sont analyses ainsi que les problemes methodologiques
This study examined the relationship between safety climate and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). It involved a comparative analysis between workers active in citizenship behaviors and their colleagues who were passive or inactive regarding OCBs. Additional analyses also compared job satisfaction, compliance with safe work policies, and accident frequency between the two groups. T-tests were used in these comparative analyses. A positive association was found between safety perception and OCBs: workers who actively engaged in citizenship behaviors had positive perceptions of safety in their workplaces, and vice versa. Additionally, the group active in OCBs expressed more job satisfaction, were more compliant with safety management policies, and subsequently had a relatively lower accident involvement rate. The implications of these findings in the work environment are discussed.
This study examined relationships with job performance at different stages of employee tenure for a broad personality measure (conscientiousness) and 2 more narrow subtraits (order and achievement). Applicants for a sales position were given a personality test as part of the hiring process. 85 of these applicants were eventually employed and participated in the study. 98 sales representatives who had previously been hired were also given the personality measure and participated in the study. Conscientiousness exhibited a consistent relationship with performance for employees in both the transition stage (newly hired employees) and the maintenance stage (veteran employees). In contrast, the more narrow subtraits exhibited differential relationships. Order correlated more strongly with performance in the transition stage, whereas achievement correlated more strongly in the maintenance stage. In the respective samples, order and achievement also provided incremental validity beyond conscientiousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The interrater reliabilities of ratings of 9,975 ratees from 79 organizations were examined as a function of length of exposure to the ratee. It was found that there was a strong, nonlinear relationship between months of exposure and interrater reliability. The correlation between a logarithmic transformation of months of experience and reliability was .73 for one type of ratings and .65 for another type. The relationship was strongest during the first 12 months on the job. Changes in reliability were accounted for mostly by changes in criterion variance. Asymptotic levels of reliability were only about .60, even with 10–20 yrs of experience. Implications for estimating reliabilities in individual and meta-analytic studies and for performance appraisal were presented, and possible explanations of the reliability–variance relationship were advanced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The only quantitative attempt to solve the problem of classifying personality traits and mental abilities was Spearman's "two-factor" or single-factor method is inadequate to analyze the multi-dimensionality of mental traits, because it assumes a single general factor and many special factors and is unable to deal with the group factors which appear. To satisfy the tetrad-difference criterion the tests must be so selected as to have only one factor in common, for this criterion merely shows whether or not any given set of intercorrelations can be described in terms of only one common factor. The multiple-factor method of analysis, which recognizes the possibility of group factors and attempts to determine the smallest number that must be postulated to account for the differentiable human traits, of which the tetrad difference method is a special case, is described. Several specific studies of personality, in which the multiple-factor method have been used, are described; one on a list of sixty adjectives descriptive of personality, which yielded five group factors; one on the insanities, in which the whole range of psychotic symptoms reduced to five clusters; another on the vocational interests of college students; and a fourth on radicalism as a common factor. The multiple-factor analysis has been applied to two sets of data used by Spearman's students in support of the single-factor hypothesis. Both turn out to reduce to two common factors. It is suggested that an adequate multiple-factor analysis of mental abilities will probably yield at least three distinct though correlated factors—verbal ability, perceptual relations, and arithmetical ability; also that the isolation of mental abilities will turn out to be a problem in genetics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Employee reliability (or unreliability) is often conceptualized quite narrowly—for example, as employee theft. But theft is just one element in a larger syndrome of antisocial behavior. Consequently, employee screening procedures that focus on theft necessarily ignore a number of other indicators of unreliability; these include substance abuse, insubordination, absenteeism, excessive grievances, bogus worker compensation claims, temper tantrums, and various forms of passive aggression. In this article we describe the development and validation of a personality measure designed to assess a construct called organizational delinquency. Data from several studies show that scores on this measure are related to a wide range of indicators of both positive and negative work performance. Persons with low scores on the measure engage in a variety of counterproductive behaviors on the job; persons with high scores tend to be well liked by their supervisors and coworkers. We also discuss the economic consequences of using this measure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
describes . . . a descriptive model, the "Big Five" dimensions of personality description, derived from analyses of the natural-language terms people use to describe themselves and others
describes the history of the lexical approach and the discovery of the five dimensions / presents more recent research replicating and extending this model, both in English and in several other languages
present a consensual definition of the five dimensions, which I [the author] then use . . . to discuss numerous other dimensions of personality, temperament, mood, and interpersonal behavior proposed by researchers outside the lexical tradition
address some criticisms of the Big Five structure, and discuss problems and issues that still await resolution (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
To satisfy the need in personality research for factorially univocal measures of each of the 5 domains that subsume most English-language terms for personality traits, new sets of Big-Five factor markers were investigated. In studies of adjective-anchored bipolar rating scales, a transparent format was found to produce factor markers that were more univocal than the same scales administered in the traditional format. Nonetheless, even the transparent bipolar scales proved less robust as factor markers than did parallel sets of adjectives administered in unipolar format. A set of 100 unipolar terms proved to be highly robust across quite diverse samples of self and peer descriptions. These new markers were compared with previously developed ones based on far larger sets of trait adjectives, as well as with the scales from the NEO and Hogan personality inventories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
For any given research area, one cannot tell how many studies have been conducted but never reported. The extreme view of the "file drawer problem" is that journals are filled with the 5% of the studies that show Type I errors, while the file drawers are filled with the 95% of the studies that show nonsignificant results. Quantitative procedures for computing the tolerance for filed and future null results are reported and illustrated, and the implications are discussed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Comments on the original article by D. S. Ones and C. Viswesvaran (see record 84-17290) regarding the fidelity-bandwidth dilemma in personality measurement for personnel selection purposes. The authors make 4 points in response to the original authors' claims. First, Hogan and Roberts see no evidence that the fidelity-bandwidth trade-off has become a crisis in empirical literature. Second, they see no evidence that anyone prefers narrow band personality measures over broad bandwidth scales. Additionally, because job performance is complex and multidimensional, broad bandwidth predictors are normally required in personnel selection. Finally, Hogan and Roberts agree with Ones and Viswesvaran's discussion of the need to match the characteristics of predictors to the characteristics of criteria. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In [this book], managers responsible for worker safety and OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] compliance will learn how to increase personal responsibility for safety and how to involve all employees in actively caring for a Total Safety Culture. Using everyday language, as well as anecdotes, illustrations, and case studies, this book is accessible and user friendly. It tells managers what steps to take now, today, to empower employees and dispel the barriers— physical and mental, real and imagined— that hold everyone in the workplace back from preventing injuries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This research investigated the effects of cognitive failure on workplace safety and accidents over 2 studies. It was hypothesized that cognitive failure would directly predict safety behavior and workplace accidents and predict these outcomes over and above conscientiousness. It was found that cognitive failure uniquely accounted for workplace safety behavior and accidents. However, it has been suggested by researchers that certain individual differences might interact to produce differential effects. Thus, a moderated model was tested examining the interaction of cognitive failure and conscientiousness. It was found that cognitive failure moderated the relationship between conscientiousness and accidents and unsafe work behaviors. Overall, results suggest that cognitive failure plays an important part in individual safety behavior, especially when conscientiousness is low.
Transformational leadership based interventions were assessed using a pre-test, post-test, and control group design. Leaders (N=54) from 21 long-term health care organizations were randomly assigned to general transformational leadership training, safety-specific transformational leadership training, or a control group. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that leadership training resulted in significant effects on manager post-training ratings of safety attitudes, intent to promote safety, and self-efficacy. The effects of leadership training on employee (N=115) perceptions of leader safety-specific transformational leadership, safety climate, safety participation, safety compliance, safety-related events and, injuries were also assessed. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), with the pre-test scores as the covariates, showed that leadership training resulted in significant effects on the safety-specific transformational leadership and safety climate outcomes.
The purpose of this multilevel study was to test whether regulatory focus mechanisms (promotion focus and prevention focus; Higgins, 1997, American Psychologist, 52, 1280–1300; Higgins, 2000, American Psychologist, 55, 1217–1230) can help explain how group safety climate and individual differences in Conscientiousness relate to individual productivity and safety performance. Results, based on a sample of 254 employees from 50 work groups, showed that safety climate and conscientiousness predicted promotion and prevention regulatory focus, which in turn mediated the relationships of safety climate and Conscientiousness with supervisor ratings of productivity and safety performance. Implications for theory and research on climate, motivation, and performance and avenues for future research are discussed.
Personality has been studied as a predictor variable in a range of occupational settings. The study reported is based on a systematic search and meta-analysis of the literature, using the “Big Five” personality framework. The results indicated that there was substantial variability in the effect of personality on workplace accidents, with evidence of situational moderators operating in most cases. However, one aspect of personality, low agreeableness, was found to be a valid and generalisable predictor of involvement in work accidents. The implications of the findings for future research are discussed. Although meta-analysis can be used to provide definite estimates of effect sizes, the limitations of such an approach are also considered.La personnalité a étéétudiée comme variable prédictrice dans un ensemble de situations professionnelles. Ce travail s’appuie sur une investigation approfondie et une méta-analyse de la littérature faisant appel au modèle de la personnalité du « Big Five ». Les résultats montrent qu’il existe de fortes variations en ce qui concerne le rôle de la personnalité dans les accidents du travail, avec l’interférence de facteurs situationnels dans la plupart des cas. Cependant, un aspect de la personnalité, une « agreeableness » basse, apparaît comme étant un prédicteur valide et général de l’implication dans les accidents du travail. On réfléchit à l’intérêt de ces résultats pour de futures recherches. La méta-analyse peut certes procurer une évaluation précise de l’impact d’une variable, mais il faut aussi prendre en considération les limites de cette approche.
This article focuses on personality measures constructed for prediction of individual differences in particular work behaviors of interest (e.g., violence at work, employee theft, customer service). These scales can generically be referred to as criterion-focused occupational personality scales (COPS). Examples include integrity tests (which aim to predict dishonest behaviors at work), violence scales (which aim to predict violent behaviors at work), drug and alcohol avoidance scales (which aim to predict substance abuse at work), stress tolerance scales (which aim to predict handling work pressures well) and customer service scales (which aim to predict serving customers well). We first review the criterion-related validity, construct validity and incremental validity evidence for integrity tests, violence scales, stress tolerance scales, and customer service scales. Specifically, validities for counterproductive work behaviors and overall job performance are summarized as well as relations with the Big Five personality scales (conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to experience, agreeableness and extraversion). Second, we compare the usefulness of COPS with traditional, general purpose, adult personality scales. We also highlight the theoretical and practical implications of these comparisons and suggest a research agenda in this area.
The research relating personality traits to industrial and traffic accidents is reviewed. The research from the past 15 years is integrated with the multitude of studies preceding this period. All of the research is interpreted in terms of the differential accident liability concept, rather than the discredited accident proneness theory. The need to control for the confounding effects of age, experience, sex, and accident risk is discussed. It is concluded that the personality traits of extroversion, locus of control, impulsivity, aggression, social maladjustment, and some aspects of neurosis are related to the occurrence of accidents. Finally, the need to develop causal models of the personality-accident process and to identify causal influences through time series designs is proposed.
Due to the various work phases in disassembly and assembly, coupled with, for example, the pressure of time and working in close contact with machinery, industrial maintenance operations include several occupational risks. This article presents the results of an analysis based on real accident data. The data consisted of public Finnish accident reports describing fatal and severe non-fatal accidents in Finnish industry. The examination was limited to those accidents that involved full-time maintenance workers executing industrial maintenance operations. In the case of fatal accidents, the examination included the reports that were published during the years 1985–2004. The analysis of severe non-fatal accidents included the publication years 1994–2004. The accident types as well as their sources were examined in the light of Reason's theory on organizational accidents. During the reference periods, a total of 37 maintenance workers died in 33 accident cases. The respective number of victims among severe non-fatal accidents is 90. The findings indicate that the most typical accident types in both fatal and severe non-fatal accidents are crushing, falling, and accidents involving falling objects. The most frequently identified unsafe act leading to fatal accidents is dangerous working method (including conscious risk-taking), while the severe non-fatal accidents occur most often due to working at a running process. Within both types of accidents the most typical latent causes are defects in work instructions and machinery safety equipment. Based on the findings, the most essential roles in accident prevention are played by organizational factors, such as safety management and operations planning.
One-on-one interviews and focus-group meetings were held at 20 organizations that had implemented a behavior-based safety (BBS) process in order to find reasons for program success/failures. A total of 31 focus groups gave 629 answers to six different questions. A content analysis of these responses uncovered critical information for understanding what employees are looking for in a BBS program. A perception survey administered to individual employees (n = 701) at these organizations measured a variety of variables identified in prior research to influence success in safety efforts. The survey data showed five variables to be significantly predictive of employee involvement in a BBS process: 1) perceptions that BBS training was effective; 2) trust in management abilities; 3) accountability for BBS through performance appraisals; 4) whether or not one had received education in BBS; and 5) tenure with the organization. Also, employees in organizations mandating employee participation in a BBS process (n=8 companies) reported significantly higher levels of: (a) involvement; (b) trust in management; (c) trust in coworkers; and (d) satisfaction with BBS training than did employees whose process was completely voluntary (n = 12 companies). In addition, employees in mandatory processes reported significantly greater frequency of giving and receiving positive behavior-based feedback.
This paper reviews research since 1970 on the relationship between accident liability and individual differences, focusing specifically on accidents at work. The history of research into accident liability and the methodological problems associated with the research are considered. The review goes on to examine work on the impact of personality factors, cognitive factors, and social factors on the likelihood of accident involvement at work. We suggest that research into individual differences in accident liability should consider two possible routes to accident involvement via errors and/or violations. Although errors are predominantly associated with cognitive factors, violations have their origins in social psychological factors. We also consider the role of stress in mediating the personality-accident association. It is contended that individuals differ in their reactions to stress, so that although some respond by an increase in risk-taking behavior, the effect on others is to increase the likelihood of suboptimal performance in terms of information processing. Actual or potential applications of this research include the development of a more sophisticated model of individual differences in accident liability, which should be useful to organizations attempting to promote safety.