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Workplace safety: A review and research synthesis
Abstract
Unsafe work environments have clear consequences for both individuals and organizations. As such, an ever-expanding research base is providing a greater understanding of the factors that affect workplace safety across organizational levels. However, despite scientific advances, the workplace safety literature suffers from a lack of theoretical and empirical integration that makes it difficult for organizational scientists to gain a comprehensive sense of (1) what we currently know about workplace safety and (2) what we have yet to learn. This review addresses these shortcomings. First, the authors provide a formal definition of workplace safety and then create an integrated safety model (ISM) based on existing theory to summarize current theoretical expectations with regard to workplace safety. Second, the authors conduct a targeted review of the safety literature and compare extant empirical findings with the ISM. Finally, the authors use the results of this review to articulate gaps between theory and research and then make recommendations for both theoretical and empirical improvements to guide and integrate future workplace safety research.
... To shed further light on this question, we focus on the employees which constitute a key corporate stakeholder that may suffer from shareholder wealth maximization in the context of workplace safety. Prior research, such as Ostrom et al. (1993), Beck & Woolfson (1999), Choudry et al. (2007), and Beus et al. (2016), recognizes the importance of a safety-oriented corporate culture when it comes to mitigating workplace accidents. This is perhaps not surprising considering that such a culture should have a positive impact on workplace safety. ...
... misconduct towards employees. Even though the underlying factors behind workplace safety have been thoroughly documented by previous research (Christian et al. 2009;Gyekye & Salminen 2009;Beus et al. 2016), it is relevant to acknowledge that the interaction between these factors and corporate culture remains unexplored in wider cross-sectional settings. We approach the topic in a similar way as prior finance studies showing that firms with higher leverage (Cohn & Wardlaw 2016), firms facing high external pressure (Caskey & Ozel 2017), and firms in less religious areas (Amin et al. 2021) are associated with inferior safety records. ...
... The importance of corporate culture in promoting workplace safety garnered increased attention following large scale failures in the 1980s (Pidgeon 1998;Paté-Cornell 1993), where the attitudes and behaviors that characterize a strong corporate culture (O'Reilly & Chatman 1996) were absent and resulted in catastrophic consequences. Subsequent research has established the importance of culture in this context, demonstrating that safety climate and a safety-oriented culture lead to safer work environments (Beus et al. 2016). However, it is important to note that the concept of safety climate or safety-oriented culture is a specific component of corporate culture and distinct from an organization's other culture characteristics (Choudry et al. 2007). ...
In this paper, we investigate the link between corporate culture and workplace safety. Using a machine learning based measure of corporate culture and data on employee- and safety-related violations, we find that firms with stronger corporate culture are less likely to be penalized, incur lower regulatory fines, and have a reduced number of violations. As a potential channel, we document higher safety expenditures with stronger corporate culture. When we examine establishment-level data on actual injuries and illnesses, we find that firms with stronger corporate culture have significantly lower injury and illness rates. While shareholders have previously been found to benefit from a stronger corporate culture, we contribute with both research and practical implications on the positive effects of a strong corporate culture for employees and society at large.
... Despite several interventions, the number of occupational accidents and injuries remains high [1]. Several studies deepened the topic of occupational safety and health (OHS), trying to solve the problem [2][3][4][5][6][7]. However, most of the studies in this area have only focused on safety prevention, investigating the factors leading workers to incur accidents and injuries or not. ...
... While the findings of these studies are crucial, some scholars argue that the absence of adverse safety outcomes, such as accidents and injuries, does not necessarily indicate the presence of safety within organizations [2,8]. Accidents and injuries should be evaluated to determine the absence of workplace safety [2]. ...
... While the findings of these studies are crucial, some scholars argue that the absence of adverse safety outcomes, such as accidents and injuries, does not necessarily indicate the presence of safety within organizations [2,8]. Accidents and injuries should be evaluated to determine the absence of workplace safety [2]. In fact, accidents or injuries do not occur in all circumstances, even when workers do not behave appropriately. ...
Abstract: Promoting workplace safety is crucial in occupational health and safety (OHS). However, existing studies have primarily concentrated on accident prevention, overlooking the role of resources in encouraging safety. This research investigates the impact of a personal resource, namely hope, ons afety participation, considering its interaction with job resources and job demands using the JobDemands-Resources (JD-R) model in the context of safety. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a large company managing European shopping centers (N = 262). Of the sample, 52.3% of participants were female. Data were collected through an online questionnaire and analyzed using model 92 of Andrew F. Hayes’ Process Macro to test the hypothesized moderate serial mediation model. Our results highlighted that (1) hope directly correlates with safety participation, (2) hope and job dedication mediate the relationship between autonomy and safety participation, and (3) high job demands can undermine the beneficial effects of resources (i.e., autonomy, hope, and job dedication) on safety participation. These results suggest that workers with personal resources like hope are more likely to engage in safety practices, displaying increased dedication and focus on safety. However, excessive job demands can challenge the effectiveness of these resources in promoting safety participation. This study offers a novel perspective by integrating safety participation into the JD-R model framework.
... Safety climate interventions focus on safety-related education and training (e.g., awareness of risks and hazards) and communication (e.g., discussion of safety issues), and often include leadership support, such as safety-specific leadership trainings, and developing communication skills to signify the importance of safety (e.g., Clarke & Taylor, 2018;Lee, Huang, et al., 2019;Mullen & Kelloway, 2009;Zohar & Polachek, 2014). Although safety climate interventions tend to improve workplace safety outcomes, scholars have called attention to the inconclusiveness of findings in the workplace safety literature due to methodological shortcomings, such as reliance on correlational or quasi-experimental designs rather than true experimental designs (e.g., Aburumman et al., 2019;Beus et al., 2016;Lee, Huang, et al., 2019). This work demonstrates that there is a need to broaden the approaches used to protect employees at work, particularly through the implementation and evaluation of randomized controlled trial interventions. ...
... Conceptual Model of Hypothesized Effects safety research, Beus et al. (2016) find that there is only weak-tomoderate (rather than strong) empirical evidence for factors that influence safety outcomes at work, given the overall lack of rigorous, experimental designs. Consequently, Beus et al. (2016) called for research that investigates modifiable personal resources-"factors that reflect an individual's level of personal energy or capacity to accomplish work" (p. ...
... Conceptual Model of Hypothesized Effects safety research, Beus et al. (2016) find that there is only weak-tomoderate (rather than strong) empirical evidence for factors that influence safety outcomes at work, given the overall lack of rigorous, experimental designs. Consequently, Beus et al. (2016) called for research that investigates modifiable personal resources-"factors that reflect an individual's level of personal energy or capacity to accomplish work" (p. 361)-and their associations with workplace safety. ...
We tested the effects of a randomized controlled trial Total Worker Health®
intervention on workplace safety outcomes. The intervention targeted employee sleep
at both the supervisor-level (e.g., sleep-specific support training) and employee-level
(e.g., sleep tracking and individualized sleep feedback). The intervention components
were developed using principles of Total Worker Health® approach and theory of
triadic influence for health behaviors. We hypothesized that employees in the treatment
group would report greater safety compliance, safety participation, and safety
motivation, and would be less likely to experience a work-related accident or injury
following the intervention through improvements in sleep quantity and quality, as well
as increased perceptions of supervisors’ support for sleep. It was theorized that the
indirect effects of the intervention on workplace safety outcomes via sleep mediators
operated through a resource pathway whereas the supervisor support for sleep
mediator operated through an exchange pathway. Results broadly revealed that
employees in the treatment group, compared to those in the control group, reported
greater workplace safety behaviors and safety motivation, and reduced workplace
accidents and injuries 9 months post-baseline, through lower dissatisfaction with sleep, reduced sleep-related impairments, and greater supervisor support for sleep 4 months post-baseline. Intervening on sleep and supervisor support for sleep in an integrated Total Worker Health® framework can have a positive impact on workplace safety.
... According to the job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007), safety climate is a form of job resource as it provides a supportive environment for employees (Crawford et al., 2010;Nahrgang et al., 2011). A positive safety climate can expand employees' resource pool (Nahrgang et al., 2011), motivate employees to engage in safety activities (Beus et al., 2016;Goldenhar et al., 2003), and help them cope with burnout (Halbesleben, 2006;Nahrgang et al., 2011;Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). Therefore, the third purpose of the current study is to investigate these possible benefits for employees and their effects on safety behavior. ...
... Safety climate helps employees identify which kinds of behaviors are likely to be rewarded and supported in their organization (Schneider et al. 2013;Zohar, 2010). Studies consistently show that a positive safety climate is associated with a higher level of safety behavior (Beus et al., 2016;Christian et al., 2009). As a measure of safety performance, safetyrelated behaviors play an important role in maintaining a safe work environment (Beus et al., 2016;Neal & Griffin, 2006). ...
... Studies consistently show that a positive safety climate is associated with a higher level of safety behavior (Beus et al., 2016;Christian et al., 2009). As a measure of safety performance, safetyrelated behaviors play an important role in maintaining a safe work environment (Beus et al., 2016;Neal & Griffin, 2006). Similar to general job performance, safety behavior includes the following two dimensions: safety compliance and safety participation (Griffin & Neal, 2000). ...
... In addition to the individual human harm, there is also significant economic damage, which should be mitigated by comprehensive workplace safety measures [17,18]. Workplace safety is defined by Beus et al. (2016) [19] as "an attribute of work systems reflecting the (low) likelihood of physical harm-whether immediate or delayed-to persons, property, or the environment during the performance of work". Beus et al. present the Integrated Safety Model, in which safety-related knowledge, skills and motivation are considered to be determining factors for workplace safety. ...
... In addition to the individual human harm, there is also significant economic damage, which should be mitigated by comprehensive workplace safety measures [17,18]. Workplace safety is defined by Beus et al. (2016) [19] as "an attribute of work systems reflecting the (low) likelihood of physical harm-whether immediate or delayed-to persons, property, or the environment during the performance of work". Beus et al. present the Integrated Safety Model, in which safety-related knowledge, skills and motivation are considered to be determining factors for workplace safety. ...
Workplace safety training is the cornerstone of workplace safety and accident prevention. In the case of frequently rotating employees, such as in the laboratories of higher education institutions, where students are required to perform tasks as part of their education, a considerable amount of effort for workplace safety training is demanded from the supervising instructors. Accordingly, the use of self-guided workplace safety training may lead to significant savings in the workload for instructors. In this evaluation study, we investigated to what extent an augmented reality (AR) app is deemed suitable for workplace safety training. The prototypical augmented reality (AR) app is based on an AR platform that performs tracking based on visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (vSLAM, Google Tango). The workplace safety training was carried out for two common stations and two devices in a workshop of an environmental engineering laboratory at a higher education institution. A total of 12 participants took part in the mixed-method study. Standardized questionnaires were used to assess usability, cognitive load and the learner prerequisites of motivation and emotion. Qualitative results were collected through subsequent semi-structured interviews. The app was able to achieve good usability, and the values for cognitive load can be classified as conducive to learning, as can the values for the learning prerequisites of motivation and emotion. The interviews provided insights into strengths, but also into potential improvements to the app. The study proved that using vSLAM-based AR apps for workplace safety training is a viable approach. However, for further efforts to establish AR-app-based workplace safety training, these insights need to be ported to a new AR platform, as the platform used has since been discontinued.
... Workplace safety is an essential concern for companies, employees and industrial regulators in the United States and other countries. According to Beus et al (2016), unsafe workplace portends severe consequences for individuals and organizations. The authors further encouraged an increasing examination of the factors affecting workplace safety in an organization. ...
... Workplace safety has been defined in terms of safety in work environment and preventing all practices that can injure, endanger, or negatively impact the health and condition of workers. For instance, Beus et al (2016) performance of work.". The importance of workplace safety to the performance of employees in the realization of organizational goals cannot be overstated. ...
... Workplace safety is an essential concern for companies, employees and industrial regulators in the United States and other countries. According to Beus et al (2016), unsafe workplace portends severe consequences for individuals and organizations. The authors further encouraged an increasing examination of the factors affecting workplace safety in an organization. ...
... Workplace safety has been defined in terms of safety in work environment and preventing all practices that can injure, endanger, or negatively impact the health and condition of workers. For instance, Beus et al (2016) performance of work.". The importance of workplace safety to the performance of employees in the realization of organizational goals cannot be overstated. ...
... Interessanti ricerche sugli antecedenti dei comportamenti sicuri, rias sunte nell'Integrated Safety Model (ISM; Beus et al., 2016), hanno messo in luce il fatto che questi comportamenti sono influenzati sia da risorse individuali del lavoratore (come la loro personalità, le loro attitudini ed abilità) che lavorative (quali stili di leadership, pratiche, policy o clima di sicurezza). ...
... In una revisione del 2016, Beus et al. hanno esaminato gli ambienti lavorativi sicuri, distinguendo tra antecedenti distanti (es., differenze individuali) e prossimali (es., la conoscenza) e considerando l'influenza di richieste e risorse lavorative sui comportamenti sicuri in base alle risorse personali (Bakker et al., 2023;Beus et al., 2016). L'importanza di fattori organizzativi come la leadership nella sicurezza è stata sottolineata, evidenziando come questi elementi influenzino le risorse personali e, di conseguenza, i comportamenti sicuri. ...
A partire dal 2020, le organizzazioni in Italia hanno affrontato la sfida senza precedenti posta dalla pandemia di Covid-19, che ha introdotto nuovi rischi per la salute e la sicurezza dei dipendenti. Questa ricerca ha avuto come scopo l’analisi dell’influenza delle risorse lavorative – in termini di adeguatezza delle misure organizzative, efficacia della comunicazione interna e leadership orientata alla sicurezza – e delle risorse personali, come il Capitale Psicologico, nell’incoraggiare comportamenti sicuri in risposta alla crisi pandemica. L’indagine trasversale, condotta tramite questionario su un campione di 123 lavoratori di tre differenti aziende del Nord Italia, ha messo in luce due aspetti chiave: primo, un’associazione significativa e positiva tra le risorse lavorative e la performance di sicurezza legata al Covid; secondo, il Capitale Psicologico agisce come mediatore tra le risorse considerate e l’adozione di comportamenti sicuri. Questi risultati aprono la strada a futuri sviluppi di ricerca e suggeriscono possibili interventi per rafforzare la sicurezza organizzativa durante periodi di crisi.
... It expresses the protection of the safety of employees against the dangers caused by the work performed. For this purpose, Beus et al. (2016) defined workplace safety as an attribute of work systems reflecting the likelihood of immediate or deferred physical harm to persons, property or the environment during the performance of work. In addition, Yulifa et al. (2021) stated that workplace safety includes the prevention or reduction of accidents, occupational diseases, permanent disabilities and deaths, as it includes securing materials, construction and maintenance. ...
... These behaviors can be used to infer both the absence and presence of safety in the workplace. Also, these behaviors are like any workplace behavior that impacts the likelihood of physical harm (Beus et al., 2016;Janackovic et al., 2020). They are translated by compliance and participation in safety (Basahel, 2021). ...
Purpose
Lean management tools are becoming increasingly applied in different types of organizations around the world. These tools have shown their significant contribution to improving business performance. In this vein, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of lean management on both occupational safety and operational excellence in Tunisian companies.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted among Tunisian companies, and it resulted in the collection of 62 responses that were analyzed using the software SPSS. In addition, a conceptual model linking the practices of the three basic concepts was designed to highlight the hypotheses of the research. Subsequently, factor analysis and structural equation method analysis were conducted to assess the validation of the assumptions.
Findings
The results obtained have shown that lean management has a significant impact on occupational safety. Similarly, occupational safety has a significant impact on operational excellence. However, lean management does not have a significant impact on operational excellence.
Originality/value
This work highlighted the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprise’s managers from emerging economies in the studied concepts’ practices. Likewise, it testified to the impacts of lean management on occupational safety and operational excellence in the Tunisian context.
... This suggests that a higher occurrence of injuries will mean poor workplace safety, whereas a minor event of fatalities will signify adequate workplace safety (Hinze et al., 2013). However, a more robust contemporary perspective argues that the absence of workplace fatalities does not essentially affirm evidence of workplace safety (Beus et al., 2016), as nurses' workplace safety behaviours manifest first before the accident (Zohar, 2014). Recently, safety-related work behaviours have been identified to provide a more precise assessment of nurses' workplace safety because they can be used to establish both the absence and presence of safety (Beus et al., 2016). ...
... However, a more robust contemporary perspective argues that the absence of workplace fatalities does not essentially affirm evidence of workplace safety (Beus et al., 2016), as nurses' workplace safety behaviours manifest first before the accident (Zohar, 2014). Recently, safety-related work behaviours have been identified to provide a more precise assessment of nurses' workplace safety because they can be used to establish both the absence and presence of safety (Beus et al., 2016). Therefore, safety performance, as revealed through safety behaviours, is viewed as a primary parameter for workplace safety because fatalities are not a true reflection of safety, as they only mirror the absence and presence of safety post a loss or injuries. ...
Aim
The study's main objective was to use a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to identify the configuration of recipes that predict nurses' safety compliance behaviour.
Design
A cross‐sectional design.
Methods
A survey was used where questionnaires were collected from 285 nurses across four primary healthcare hospitals within the Ashanti Region, Ghana. The data collection happened between June 1 to August 2, 2022. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis was used to identify the recipes of psychological factors that determine nurses' safety compliance behaviour.
Results
Results from the study suggest that the necessary configurations that explained nurses' safety compliance behaviour came from the presence of subjective norm, attitude, perceived behavioural control, perceived organizational support and negation of intention. The result highlights the need for safety protocols to be conscious of the interplay between nurses' assessment of self, social clues and perception of management care and support since such psychological factors must be considered concurrently to achieve the optimal safety compliance behaviour among nurses.
Conclusion
A health and safety protocol that fails to recognize the importance of psychological antecedents on subordinates' safety compliance behaviour could limit the safety policy's usefulness in bringing the appropriate behavioural change in nurses.
Impact
To date, no study has combined the antecedents of theory planned behaviour with perceived organizational support and cue to action to assess how they collectively predict nurses' safety compliance behaviour. Findings from the study suggest that nurses in primary health facilities inform their safety compliance behaviour by assessing self‐capabilities, social signals from superiors and colleagues and perception of management support. Hospital administrators and nursing managers in sub‐Saharan Africa may rely on these psychological forces to persuade nurses to develop positive safety compliance behaviour at the health facility.
Patient or Public Contribution
No Patient or Public Contribution.
... From the current study, we aim to assess the usefulness of social impact theory as an explanatory framework, thus refining the theoretical explanation for why safety support from senior managers, direct supervisors, and coworkers may be more or less influential in predicting safety outcomes. Beus et al. (2016) define workplace safety as "an attribute of work systems reflecting the (low) likelihood of physical harm-whether immediate or delayed-to persons, property, or the environment during the performance of work" (p. 353) and differentiate safety outcomes by lagging and leading indicators of how safe the workplace is. ...
... As a particular form of social support, safety support provides employees with help completing their job tasks safely, as well as a sense that their organization and coworkers care about their safety. Safety support is considered a distal antecedent to indicators of safety, such as employee safety behaviors (Beus et al., 2016). ...
This paper aims to examine the relative importance of safety support from three sources-senior managers, direct supervisors, and coworkers-in predicting employee injuries and safety behaviors. While previous research has found that each of these three sources of support is related to better employee safety outcomes, they have never been tested simultaneously in the same model. Using Latané's (1981) social impact theory as a guide, we hypothesized that safety support from coworkers would be more strongly associated with fewer employee injuries and more frequent safety behaviors than safety support from either senior managers or direct supervisors. We tested this hypothesis in three samples of employees in safety-intensive occupations (Studies 1 and 2: N = 307 and N = 123 railway maintenance workers, respectively; Study 3: N = 205 steelworkers) using relative importance analysis. In Study 1, senior managers were the only source of safety support that significantly related to fewer injuries in the presence of the safety support from the other two sources. In Study 2, coworkers were the strongest predictor of safety compliance, and coworkers and direct supervisors were equally important in predicting safety participation. In Study 3, no source emerged as strongest in predicting safety behaviors. Across all studies, no single source of safety support was consistently strongest in predicting injuries, but all sources of safety support played some role among the three samples in predicting fewer injuries and more frequent safety behaviors. These inconsistent findings call into question the utility of social impact theory in predicting the importance of safety support and suggest that features of context may moderate the relationships. Based on these findings, organizations should ensure safety support from all three sources and consider possible conditions under which sources of safety support may play more or less important roles.
... Companies that prioritize safety management have lower turnover rates and constantly 666 increasing productivity (Ogbu& Ikevuje, 2024). Furthermore, safety protocols, employee expectations, and workplace realities move in the same direction and in parallel, all of which together contribute to increased morale and develop their sense of belonging, resulting in strengthened organizational commitment (Beus et al., 2016). ...
The basic objective of this study is to explore the role of comprehensive safety management on employee satisfaction in Mass Global Energy Ltd. The main problem is the internal obstacles that MASS employees in the Kurdistan Region constantly face, which significantly affects their satisfaction in their workplace. A quantitative method was used to analyze and critique the data and describe the relationship of variables. The study was conducted on Mass Global Energy Ltd., which measures the production of electricity from liquefied petroleum gas. For data collection, questionnaire form was used and 52 forms were distributed. The participants consisted of (41) employees of Mass, who responded to the forms in a completed form. IBM SPSS 26 statistics was used for data analysis and results. The results include having a postive relationship between comprehensive safety management and employee satisfaction. Variable associations of comprehensive safety management also had a positive effect on employee performance. Finally, several important recommendations have been made to address some of the management problems, especially the implementation of the research findings in the Kurdistan Region.
... Safety behavior and safety knowledge are interconnected [55][56][57]. Safety knowledge helps more experienced workers behave safely [56,57]. The level of safety awareness in the project area indicates how well-versed construction workers are in safety protocols and practices within construction companies [56,57]. ...
... This clearly communicates the importance of documenting the vision and setting a process by which others who are governed by it adhere to it with full understanding. The benefit of doing this is that it eliminates barriers and limitation and allow an environment where those who truly will serve the organization are considered part of the long-term strategic plan of the business (Beus et al., 2019). ...
... Occupational safety is an attribute of work systems that reflects the (low) likelihood of physical harm to people, property, or the environment during labor [1]. According to Indrawati et al., this area is one of the keywords in the management of any organization [2]. ...
Occupational safety, reflecting the likelihood of work-related accidents, is crucial in work systems. A risk management model identifies, analyzes, and prioritizes risks, followed by the strategic application of resources to mitigate, monitor, and control the probability and impact of future events. Models integrating safety, ergonomics, and operational efficiency in risk management are non-existent, especially in the food retail sector. The proposed risk management model assigns the risk level to Safety using the Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment index (HIRA), an integral part of the Global Safety Index (GSI), both indices with five risk levels: 1 to 5 (acceptable to very critical). The organizational hierarchy of the evaluated company includes levels from microtask to insignia. The research aims to apply the HIRA index from the microtask to the area level. The HIRA application was conducted in a food retail company, starting with the identification and characterization of tasks in the “food” section and “fresh products” area (butchery, fishmonger, bakery, charcuterie/takeaway, and fruits and vegetables sections). The risk level of each microtask was assessed, then aggregated to higher organizational levels. Results showed that two new solutions reduced the safety risk in the mentioned sections proving the HIRA value as decision-making tool.
... The attitudes of construction workers at job sites are critical for enhancing behavioural safety, as these individuals are directly engaged in physical construction activities and are consequently exposed to potential hazards (Liu et al., 2020). Scholars in both general occupational safety and construction safety have identified safety-related behaviours as key predictors of workplace safety, highlighting the significant role of health-risk behaviours (Hon, Chan & Yam, 2014;Beus, McCord, & Zohar, 2016;Guo, Yiu, & González, 2016;Boal et al., 2020). The consumption of both smokeless and smoked tobacco, along with binge drinking, has been recognised as particularly concerning health-risk behaviours (Boal et al., 2020: 493). ...
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), which aims to ensure healthy lifestyles and promote well-being for all, is a critical focus within the context of construction health and safety, particularly for construction workers. A significant factor influencing the health and safety of construction workers is their consumption of alcohol and tobacco (A&T). This article presents a systematic review of the research on A&T use among construction workers, an analysis of key findings, research methodologies, and recommendations. A knowledge-mapping approach is applied to 108 articles sourced from the Web of Science (WOS), generating clusters of relevant keywords to illustrate the interrelationships between A&T usage and construction workers. The knowledge map reveals 40 distinct keyword distributions, organised into five clusters, highlighting the key connections between alcohol, tobacco, and construction workers. From an initial pool of 336 articles from WOS and Scopus, 26 were selected based on the PRISMA protocol for further analysis. A review of these 26 studies demonstrates a predominant use of mixed-methods and quantitative research approaches. The findings show the heightened vulnerability of construction workers to hazardous A&T consumption, its adverse health effects, and the urgent need for comprehensive interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating this risk.
... ej., conocimientos, habilidades o motivación en materia de seguridad) de conductas relacionadas con la seguridad y accidentes posteriores en niveles individuales y grupales (Ver figura 1). Beus, McCord y Zohar (2016). ...
El desarrollo e implementación de un clima de seguridad en las organizaciones se ha vuelto una prioridad debido a su relación con la prevención de accidentes y riesgos laborales. La investigación ha señalado causas y antecedentes relacionados con ambientes seguros de trabajo. Con base en lo anterior, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los efectos del liderazgo de cambio en el clima de seguridad en el trabajo en una empresa manufacturera. Para la realización del objetivo se recolectaron datos a través de una encuesta online aplicada a una muestra de 240 trabajadores de una empresa fabricante de motores. El tipo de estudio realizado fue descriptivo y correlacional, y el tipo de diseño fue transversal. Los resultados muestran que el liderazgo orientado al cambio obtuvo una relación baja pero significativa con el clima de seguridad laboral. Lo anterior pudo deberse a que en la empresa recientemente los directivos implementaron acciones para reforzar la participación de jefes y líderes de área respecto al clima de seguridad. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados.
... In mines where management neglects employee well-being, accidents are common. Many studies have shown that in all mines with a low accident rate, the union supported the company's enforcement of safety rules (Beus et al., 2016). Coworker support in occupational safety and health indicates the degree of attention shown by coworkers (Parker et al., 2017). ...
The mining industry is a crucial driver of economic development, yet it faces significant challenges due to its hazardous nature. Safety and health at work are paramount for sustainable operations within this industry. This study focuses on managers' perceptions of workplace safety factors concerning mining machinery operators and explores how technical, human, and organisational factors influence mining operators' sustainable safety efforts. A survey was conducted in mining companies to analyse management opinions regarding factors influencing occupational safety and health in mining machinery operators. The data collected was statistically processed using the software package SPSS. Statistical tests were used based on the collected data and opinions of the managers. This research's implications are reflected in the identification of key factors that contribute to the effective implementation of security measures and practices. Despite its limitations, the results offer strong empirical support for the proposed theoretical model. These findings provide valuable guidance for researchers and practitioners seeking to enhance safety in the workplace for mining machinery operators. Through an in-depth analysis of these factors, mining company managers can identify key aspects contributing to the effective implementation of security measures and practices. Finally, a framework will be created that will enable the sustainable management of the safety activities of mining machinery operators, which will result in a reduction in the risk of injury and an improvement in the health of workers in the mining sector.
... When management shows support and takes action to improve safety, workers believe that they are valued, and the organization is committed to their safety [19,42]. So, employees will be motivated to implement safety behavior and try to be involved in safety activities in the organization [19,20,43,44]. Therefore, Company X is strongly advised to create a social environment that can support employees to voluntarily implement safety behavior without pressure. ...
Background
The aim of this research is to analyze the transformation of workers perceptions of the safety climate in an oil and gas company in Indonesia when they experience a change in ownership from a multinational to a national company.
Methods
This cross-sectional study used questionnaires distributed offline and online in three periods of ownership of Company X. Data analysis was carried out descriptively by comparing workers perception scores regarding the safety climate at Company X when managed by the multinational holder, transition period, and national holder.
Results
Workers perceptions of the safety climate in Company X when it experienced a change in ownership from a multinational company to a national company has a trend of decreasing scores (from 8.07 to 7.48). Overall, a decreasing trend in scores occurred in several sub-variables of safety climate, namely management commitment (8.33 to 7.56), communication (8.10 to 7.64), safety priority (8.55 to 7.68), personal appreciation of risk (8.25 to 5.48), involvement (7.50 to 7.36), and personal priority and need for safety (8.25 to 5.48).
Conclusions
Ownership changes cause a trend of decrease in employee perceptions of the safety climate at Company X. Company's priority on safety related to production target factors is decreasing due to the change of ownership. On the other hand, the national period had a higher score in supportive environments and work environments, compared to the multinational period.
... While existing meta-analyses have addressed these topics separately, summarizing evidence on workplace injuries (e.g., Christian et al., 2009;Nahrgang et al., 2011) and mental health challenges (e.g., Paul & Moser, 2009;White et al., 2017), the intersection of these areas and the implications of their interrelation have been largely neglected. Other meta-analyses have considered work injuries or mental health challenges as outcomes of individual, group, and organizational factors (e.g., Beus et al., 2016;Stansfeld & Candy, 2006), yet the present meta-analysis introduces a novel approach by focusing on the relationship between work injuries and mental health challenges. This critical relationship has been overlooked across the diverse disciplines that have examined these issues, including applied psychology, management, psychiatry, ergonomics, industrial-occupational health, epidemiology, sociology, nursing and medicine, sports therapy, agricultural sciences, risk management, and law. ...
The link between work injuries and mental health challenges significantly impacts individuals, organizations, and society. However, an integrated understanding of their relationship is lacking due to fragmented research across various disciplines. Drawing from uncertainty in illness theory, our comprehensive meta‐analysis (147 samples, N = 1,457,562) clarifies the bidirectional relationship between work injuries and mental health challenges. We estimate the average strength of the association, compare temporal ordering (work injuries preceding mental health challenges, and vice versa), explore underlying mechanisms, and identify potential moderating factors. Results from a random‐effects model reveal a moderate association between work injuries and mental health challenges (k = 147, ρ = .21, 95% CI = .19, .24, 95% CR = −.11, .50). Notably, the relationship is stronger when work injuries precede mental health challenges (k = 40, ρ = .23, 95% CI = .18, .29, 95% CR = −.10, .52) compared to the reverse (k = 18, ρ = .11, 95% CI = .03, .19, 95% CR = −.23, .42). Negative cognitions and perceived job demand underlie the bidirectional relationships between work injuries and mental health challenges. These findings highlight the interconnected nature of work injuries and mental health challenges, illustrating the need for comprehensive rehabilitation approaches that integrate physical and psychological care, and paving the way for future research and interventions.
... Because of the inherent dangers involved in operations, workplace safety is a key concern in the manufacturing business [16], [17] . Working with heavy machinery, handling hazardous products, and performing repetitive jobs all raise the risk of accidents and injuries in the manufacturing industry. ...
This research investigates the use of collaborative technology in the manufacturing industry to improve worker safety. It looks into how these tech- nologies affect incident prevention, safety communication, and employee en- gagement. The research used a case study technique to examine the integration of AR headsets and wearable devices with sensors in a manufacturing organiza- tion. The findings show that greater situational awareness and real-time visual signals lead to considerable increases in incident prevention. With consolidated platforms, safety communication has been improved, allowing for faster inci- dent reporting and coordination. Employee involvement and empowerment have increased as a result of the implementation of collaborative technology. The report finishes with practical consequences, such as advice for industry practitioners and implementation instructions for collaborative technology. It also identifies future study objectives, such as investigating long-term effects and incorporating new technology.
... Apart from that, there also exist previous studies which had proven that safety leadership is a factor that influences safety behavior (16,17). Safety leadership is considered as a key component that contributes to decreasing number of workplace injuries (18). A study in Malaysia suggested that safety leadership which translates to the act of monitoring and coaching has high potential to transform workers' attitude, safety knowledge, and behavior in manufacturing firms (19). ...
Introduction: Workplace accidents have been a persistent problem in Malaysia’s manufacturing industry, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Employee behavior has been identified as a significant contributing factor to these accidents, and research has suggested that improving safety knowledge and attitudes can enhance safety behavior. Despite this, there have been no empirical intervention studies in Malaysia to investigate the effectiveness of safety intervention programs aimed at improving SME worker safety behavior. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the efficacy of the Occupational Hazard Self-Evaluation Module (OHSEM) intervention in enhancing safety knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (KAB) among SME workers in the manufacturing sector. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with control group was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of the OHSEM intervention. The intervention was implemented over a 12-week period on production workers in the experimental group, while the control group received no intervention. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 88 production workers in both groups before and after the intervention to measure the improvement of safety KAB. Descriptive analysis and an independent t-test were used to analyse the data. Results: The post-test results showed that safety KAB for the control group was moderate (mean = 2.11), while the mean score in the experimental group was high (m=4.17). Furthermore, the t-test result revealed a significant difference in safety KAB mean scores between the experimental and control groups. Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the OHSEM intervention in enhancing safety KAB in SMEs in the Malaysian SME (manufacturing) sector.
... Safety participation and compliance are two aspects of safety behaviors that are seen as aspects of individual safety performance [1]. Acco rd in g t o Beus, et al. [7], safety behaviors are defined as "any workplace behaviors that affect the likelihood of physical harm to persons". These actions are crucial for enhancing safety results and reducing the risk of workplace accidents and injuries [8]. ...
The relationship between risk perception and safety outcomes has been extensively studied in the past, but there is scarce research on the mediating effect of safety training on risk perception and both safety dimensions of safety behaviors in hospital settings. This study investigates the role of safety training as a mediator in the relationship between risk perception and safety behavior, as measured by compliance and participation in safety measures. The cross-sectional data from one big private hospital in Saudi Arabia was examined using the most recent iteration of Smart Partial Least Squares (PLS4). A 71% response rate was achieved on surveys that were personally handed out to 155 non-medical staff in hospitals. In this study, the significance level for Percentile Bootstrapping with a 95% confidence interval and p ≤ 0.05 was utilized to analyze mediation. Safety training served as a full mediating variable in the link between risk perception and safety compliance. Surprisingly, safety training did not act as a mediator in the relationship between risk perception and safety participation. This study fills a gap in the body of knowledge about non-medical staff's attitudes toward risk, safety training, and safety behaviors. Additionally, it helps us comprehend how safety training can help people perceive risks and behave safely. Considering that hospital management and safety officials receive high-quality training on safety concerns, more workers follow safety precautions, and the number of workplace accidents is reduced. The results of this study can be used as a foundation for future studies to enhance occupational safety practices.
... Enhancing production safety will safeguard the lives and health of the workforce and help the coal mining industry, particularly DHC, achieve its objectives of clean and safe mines (Beus et al., 2016;Opoku et al., 2020;Rivas et al., 2011). This research aimed at reducing occupational accidents in the min-ing sector and improving the quality of life for workers and the surrounding community. ...
Workplace safety is of paramount importance in industries such as coal mining, where accidents and occupational illnesses can result in significant human and economic costs. This study aims to develop an action plan to improve safety standards at Duong Huy Coal Company from 2021 to 2025. A comprehensive survey involving 93 safety managers and 379 workers from various production sites was researched to gather insights and opinions on safety priorities. Focus group discussions and expert consultations were employed to assess the current safety situation, identify challenges, and develop coherent safety solutions. Based on the survey results, the proposed action plan focuses on the following objectives: reducing workplace accidents by 20-25% annually, progressing towards zero accidents in the following years, and increasing productivity and benefits for both workers and the company. The plan also emphasizes the role of company leadership in widely communicating their commitment to safety and the need for individual units within the company to proactively plan, budget, and implement safety measures following their functions and responsibilities. Collaboration with relevant state agencies, mass mobilization campaigns, and the application of science and technology in safety and occupational health will further contribute to the enhancement of workplace safety at Duong Huy Coal Company.
... This results in an inadequate account of the incidents in the factory and, maybe even more importantly, hampers learning from those incidents and improving safety. Beus et al. (2016) and Gherardi and Nicolini (2002) found similar results, concluding that a strong focus on zero workplace accidents is not only an imperfect indicator, but it also leads to the fact that the practical and tacit competences of workers are unrecognized. This is problematic because, as a result, no learning about and improvement of safe working practices can take place. ...
... Despite its crucial importance to the health and well-being of both employees and organisations, we lack an understanding of the factors that drive within-person safety behaviour. Several research groups have noted the need for temporal accounts of safety behaviour (Beus et al., 2016;Beus & Taylor, 2018;Griep & Hansen, 2020), and in particular, for dynamic self-regulatory models that can help explain how individual employees manage their own safety behaviour over time (Casey et al., 2017). However, only a few recent studies (Olsen et al., 2021;Tholén et al., 2013) have examined the dynamic within-person processes underlying safety behaviour, with research in frontline contexts only examining broad changes across significantly longer timescales (e.g., months to years) (Halbesleben et al., 2013;Neal & Griffin, 2006). ...
Frontline work is defined by its safety criticality and is increasingly relied on by our economies and societies to maintain efficiency and performance. Despite the importance of these jobs, little is known about the factors that drive safety behaviours dynamically in safety critical environments, and how frontline workers shape their alignment with the core requirements of their job to execute such behaviours. In this paper, we build on self-regulation theory and employ a multilevel (i.e., between-person versus within-person) design to investigate reciprocal relationships between safety behaviours and person-job fit. Across a total sample of n = 1139 temporal data points for 86 (daily diary study) and 81 (weekly diary study) frontline police and nurse workers we find evidence for reverse causality (i.e., safety behaviours predicting person-job fit) at the within-person level. Furthermore, we find support for both normal (i.e., person-job fit predicting safety behaviours) and reverse causality at the between-person level of analysis. Overall, results across both levels illustrate how frontline workers self-regulate their safety behaviour and person-job fit within safety critical environments.
... Over the years a plethora of theoretical and empirical research on safety climate established its importance as the most important construct predicting safety behaviors and outcomes [8][9][10]. Moreover, the recent results of several meta-analyses on safety climate have also reported similar results [3,11,12] confirming its position as a lead predictor of safety behaviors and outcomes (accidents and injuries). ...
Background:
Contemporary literature raises serious questions about the inclusion of negatively worded items in the safety climate scale. Despite these reservations, limited efforts have been made to address this shortcoming.
Objective:
The present study aims to adapt and empirically validate the ten-items group-level safety climate scale with the purpose of replacing negatively worded items with positively worded ones after a thorough validation process. The present study is one of the first to propose an empirically validated group-level safety climate scale that uses positive items to measure the safety climate construct.
Methods:
Study 1 was conducted using a sample of 135 participants. Study 2 used a time-lagged approach to validate the scale, with a sample of 173 production workers from six oil and gas organizations in Malaysia. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to test the hypothesized relationships.
Results:
In Study 1, the results of the exploratory factor analysis showed good reliability for the revised scale. In Study 2, the results of the PLS-SEM analysis demonstrated a positive relationship between safety climate and safety behaviors, thereby validating the revised and translated scale of safety climate.
Conclusion:
The revised safety climate scale will not only improve data quality, but it will also increase response rates. Additionally, the revised scale will assist managers in understanding the true perceptions of safety climate in their organization, regardless of the cultural context in which the scale is used.
... In this regard, the provision of decent wages is one of the many necessary structural conditions of decent work that potentially benefit the overall health and success of organizations. We emphasize that other structural conditions, such as promoting and institutionalizing organizational fairness (e.g., Whitman et al., 2012), workplace safety (e.g., Beus et al., 2016), freedom from harassment and discrimination (e.g., Ozeren, 2014), and communication and cooperation opportunities (e.g., Seubert et al., 2021) are important dimensions of decent work and also lead to favorable workplace outcomes but are beyond the scope of this chapter. What we aim to highlight at this point is that it is within the control of organizations to institutionalize support for workers' optimal functioning through just policies and mechanisms related to financial incentives that minimize, if not eradicate, precarity. ...
... As safety behavior studies are rare in the garment and footwear industry, safety research in other areas has addressed the driving force of safety behavior [5,8,50]. Recent studies have explored the personally related antecedents of safety behavior, including personality, knowledge, and skill [44,51]. In contrast, other authors have examined the organizational factors such as job design, training, safety policy, safety rules, and procedure that impact safety behavior [5,52]. ...
Volunteers are considerable human source in disasters. The stress, pressure and difficult conditions of disasters can lead to violations of safety rules by employees, especially young people. Safety violations may lead to stoppage or failure of the activities. This research focus on the young volunteers’ behaviours on violating safety rules in disasters. Based on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, data were gathered through semi-structured interviews from individuals working in the regions affected by the 6 February 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake. The research sample consisted of 17 young disaster volunteers between the ages of 18-26 who were eligible for criterion sampling. The data were analysed thematically, theory-oriented and deductively. As a result of the thematic analysis, 3 themes, namely work demands, work resources and violation of safety rules, and 16 categories under these themes were discovered. Results implies that young volunteers use work resources against intense work demands. Although studies in the field of organisational safety show that job resources increase safe behaviour, it can be said that job resources of volunteers in disasters increase breaking of safety rules.
Purpose
This study purposes a model based on competitive advantage theory, social identity theory and signaling theory that explores the relationship between GHRM and employer branding mediated by corporate environmental sustainability and organizational safety climate and employees experience as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered using a survey questionnaire from 329 employees working in this sector. Structural Equational Modeling was employed for data analysis through Smart PLS.
Findings
Results confirm that GHRM has a positive influence on corporate environmental sustainability and corporate environmental sustainability has a positive influence on organizational safety climate. Further, the results confirm that the organizational safety climate has a positive influence on employer branding. The results of partial least squares multi-group analysis show that difference between job experience influences employer branding. The results also lend support to the mediating effects of corporate environmental sustainability between GHRM and organizational safety climate, and the mediating effect of organizational safety climate between GHRM and employer branding.
Practical implications
The findings of the study guide policymakers and management of the textile industry to emphasize GHRM in order to make a working climate clean and safe. This working environment will be their competitive edge and a source of their organization branding.
Originality/value
HR literature has largely overlooked the physical work environment, instead focusing on psychological safety, for example (job stress, emotional exhaustion). This study presents a model demonstrating that a green work environment, fostered through GHRM practices enhances employer branding.
This research proposes a challenge to the singular notion of Workplace Safety Culture (WSC) recurrently popularised in Industrial Psychology and Human Factors scholarships. The investigation explores interconnections between workplace ‘masculine’ identities and institutional safety and risk-taking practices on a remote offshore oil and gas drilling platform: the ‘Point Delta’ oil installation operated by ‘DrillMech’ (both pseudonyms). While WSC is typically defined as the overarching safety attitude of an organisation or workplace locale, findings uncovered four workplace cultures of identity underpinned by four distinct ideologies of oilfield masculinity. Three cultures were symbiotic and performed safety practices to uphold their workplace identities. One culture resisted these cultures, performing risk-taking practices to legitimise their masculine workplace ‘oilman’ identity. Implications for safety culture theorising are discussed, primarily in the context of the inherent ‘blind spot’ of the homogenised ‘single culture’ approach that is ill-fitting for the complexities of contemporary modernity’s organisational reality. This approach fails to acknowledge the presence of multiple cultures of organisational identity with different safety and risk practices that resist condensing into a singular ‘safety culture’. Conclusions drawn suggest that the traditional singular notion of WSC is reductive; failing to account for the existence of multiple, distinct workplace cultures with varied safety and risk practices influenced by different identity ideologies. Regarding practice implications, outcomes highlight safety interventions in the workplace should be tailored to recognise and address diverse cultures and ideologies of identity present, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach to understand and build positive safety culture.
Background:
Workplace safety violation is a significant challenge for global enterprises. However, prior studies have generated inconsistent findings, which calls for a holistic framework to reveal the complex causality between antecedent conditions and workplace safety violations in high-risk industries.
Objective:
By embracing deterrence theory and social learning theory, this study aimed to examine how punishment (i.e., perceived punishment certainty and perceived punishment severity), shame (i.e., perceived shame certainty and perceived shame severity) and coworker safety violations (CSV) combine into configurational causes of employee safety violations (ESV).
Methods:
A two-wave sampling approach was used to obtain 370 usable samples from various high-risk industries in China. The confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test construct validity, and an emerging fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was conducted to explore the complex causality between ESV and its multiple antecedents.
Results:
The fsQCA results indicate that no single antecedent condition is necessary for predicting high ESV, but three distinct configurations of multiple antecedents equivalently lead to high ESV. Among all configurations, a lack of perceived punishment severity, a lack of perceived shame certainty and severity, and high CSV play important roles in explaining ESV.
Conclusions:
This study represents a pioneering endeavor utilizing fsQCA to explore how different combinations of punishment, shame and social learning antecedents contribute to high ESV, which goes beyond previous research focusing on antecedents independently and offers new insights into interconnected antecedents of ESV and their complex causality.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant impact on employees' work outcomes worldwide. However, it remains unclear whether some employees fared worse than others when facing work-related health threats and what role individual differences in vulnerability to disease played in shaping their work experiences. Integrating the evolutionary psychology perspective of the behavioral immune system with Job Demands-Resources Theory, we argue that a fundamental factor in how employees dealt with these threats was the extent to which they perceived themselves as vulnerable to infectious diseases. Employees with higher susceptibility to infectious diseases were predicted to experience heightened workplace safety concerns and engage less with their work. In addition, a health-oriented leadership style was expected to decrease employees' safety concerns and increase their work engagement, especially for the more vulnerable employees. To test hypotheses, we conducted a three-wave field survey and two vignette-based experiments on working adults in the United Kingdom at different stages of the pandemic. Results largely supported our predictions, revealing that employees who felt more vulnerable to infectious diseases were more concerned about their workplace safety, inhibiting their work engagement. We discuss these findings' theoretical and practical implications for promoting a safe and healthy post-pandemic workplace, especially for vulnerable employees.
Personality psychologists have analyzed the relationship between personality and safety behaviors in human society. Although Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate personality traits, the relationship between personality traits and safety abilities in LLMs still remains a mystery. In this paper, we discover that LLMs' personality traits are closely related to their safety abilities, i.e., toxicity, privacy, and fairness, based on the reliable MBTI-M scale. Meanwhile, the safety alignment generally increases various LLMs' Extraversion, Sensing, and Judging traits. According to such findings, we can edit LLMs' personality traits and improve their safety performance, e.g., inducing personality from ISTJ to ISTP resulted in a relative improvement of approximately 43% and 10% in privacy and fairness performance, respectively. Additionally, we find that LLMs with different personality traits are differentially susceptible to jailbreak. This study pioneers the investigation of LLM safety from a personality perspective, providing new insights into LLM safety enhancement.
Aim(s)
To investigate spillover effects of organizational support for patient and workplace safety on safety outcomes and to examine the mediating role of safety compliance in these relationships.
Design
A cross‐sectional, correlational survey design.
Methods
This study analysed data from 1255 nurses in 34 Korean hospitals. A structured questionnaire was used including items from the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and Safety Compliance scales. Data were collected between February and June 2022. We employed structural equation modelling (SEM) for analysis with a significance level set at 0.05.
Results
Organizational support for patient and workplace safety showed direct impacts on patient and workplace safety outcomes. Findings supported our hypotheses regarding spillover effects, as organizational support for patient safety was related to enhanced workplace safety and organizational support for workplace safety was associated with improved patient safety. SEM analysis showed safety compliance's mediating role. When the distribution of serial indirect effects was examined, three out of eight indirect pathways were statistically significant.
Conclusion
Improving organizational support for patient safety can lead to better workplace safety outcome, and enhancing support for workplace safety can result in better patient safety outcome. Given this mutually beneficial relationship, healthcare organizations should simultaneously promote safety in both areas rather than focusing on just one.
Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care
Study results highlight the need to recognize the interconnected nature of patient and workplace safety in order to achieve better overall safety outcomes.
Impact
This study shows that organizational safety efforts for patients and workers are interconnected and mutually beneficial. The study's results have both theoretical and practical implications in demonstrating that organizational support for both patient and workplace safety plays a strong role in promoting nurses' safety compliance and improving overall safety outcomes.
Reporting Method
STROBE checklist.
Patient Contribution
No patient or public contribution.
Z Bu çalışmada Burdur'da hizmet veren bir kamu hastanesinde görev yapan sağlık çalışanlarının kalite ve indikatör yönetimi, güvenlik iklimi ve güvenlik performansı düzeylerini belirlemek, sosyodemografik değişkenlere göre farklılıklarını tespit etmek ve kalite ve indikatör yönetimi, güvenlik iklimi ve güvenlik performansı arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemek amaçlanmıştır. Betimsel nitelikte olan çalışmanın evrenini Burdur ilinde bulunan bir kamu hastanesi çalışanları (doktor, hemşire, yönetici, tıbbi sekreter vd.) oluşturmaktadır.
Previous research on the motivational factors of safety performance has predominantly focused on one's willingness to directly enact safety behaviors or safety‐specific motivation. The current study extends beyond this view and examines an additional motivational force, altruistic motivation, as a main predictor of employees' safety performance at both individual and team levels. Further, we provide that servant leadership serves as a critical precursor of employee altruistic motivation. A sample of 416 nurses in 42 workgroups and their respective supervisors from a hospital in China completed a two‐wave survey. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that altruistic motivation was positively related to safety performance at both individual and team levels, with a stronger effect at the team level, supporting a proportional theory of homology. Multilevel mediation results showed that servant leadership was positively related to altruistic motivation, which in turn positively led to safety performance at both individual and team levels. These findings highlight both the theoretical and practical importance of encouraging altruistic motivation to improve workplace safety.
Safety literature has traditionally focused on identifying and managing risk factors that lead to safety outcomes (e.g., injuries, accidents, death) at work. The current study takes a new perspective on employee safety and proposes that safety‐related experience has more general work implications. Drawing on theories of stress coping and workplace anxiety, we test a mechanism on how employees’ daily experiences of safety threats are related to their work behavior via negative emotional reactions. Specifically, we focus on employees’ experiences of safety violations on the way to work and at work during the ongoing struggles with COVID‐19. Our daily diary study (Level 1 N = 778, Level 2 N = 84; office workers in South Korea) shows that experiencing safety violations during the daily commute and at work is associated with increased state health anxiety at work, which then translates into work withdrawal on that day. Furthermore, we introduce organizational safety climate as an important mitigating factor of this stress‐coping process, as such a climate can emphasize management's commitment to safety.
The authors developed, tested, and replicated a model in which safety-specific transformational leadership predicted occupational injuries in 2 separate studies. Data from 174 restaurant workers (M age = 26.75 years, range = 15–64) were analyzed using structural equation modeling (LISREL 8; K. G. Jöreskog & D. Sörbom, 1993) and provided strong support for a model whereby safety-specific transformational leadership predicted occupational injuries through the effects of perceived safety climate, safety consciousness, and safety-related events. Study 2 replicated and extended this model with data from 164 young workers from diverse jobs (M age = 19.54 years, range = 14–24). Safety-specific transformational leadership and role overload were related to occupational injuries through the effects of perceived safety climate, safety consciousness, and safety-related events.
Research in the areas of organizational climate and work performance was used to develop a framework for measuring perceptions of safety at work. The framework distinguished perceptions of the work environment from perceptions of performance related to safety. Two studies supported application of the framework to employee perceptions of safety in the workplace. Safety compliance and safety participation were distinguished as separate components of safety-related performance. Perceptions of knowledge about safety and motivation to perform safely influenced individual reports of safety performance and also mediated the link between safety climate and safety performance. Specific dimensions of safety climate were identified and constituted a higher order safety climate factor. The results support conceptualizing safety climate as an antecedent to safety performance in organizations.
A survey of aircraft maintenance technicians with the Canadian Forces (N = 157) found support for a model of burnout and occupational risk assessment. The model depicted employees' assessment of occupational risk as a function of the prevalence and lethalness of workplace hazards, as well as of the amount of control employees experience over their interactions with these hazards. A confirmatory factor analysis, in which LISREL analysis was used, supported an integrated model of risk perception and burnout. In this model, the employee's sense of control in managing occupational hazards was pivotal in both the experience of exhaustion and being at risk at work. Safety training contributed to perceived control and technicians' sense of effectiveness at work. The extension of the burnout construct beyond the human service domain was considered by using the Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey (C. Maslach, S. E. Jackson, & M. P. Leiter, 1996).
Although there have been several attempts to address the conceptual ambiguities in the literature discussing organizational climate, organizational culture, and their interrelationship, there remains much confusion and a general lack of clarity about what these two constructs represent, as well as how they may interrelate. In order to provide some clarity, we provide a comprehensive review of both constructs and conclude with a model describing how organizational climate can be viewed as a bottom-up (i.e., flowing from employee perceptions) indicator of the underlying core values and assumptions that form the organization's culture. Recommendations for researchers seeking to investigate organizational climate and culture, as well as suggestions for future research, are discussed throughout the chapter.
Proposed as a theory of motivation, the basic tenet of conservation of resources (COR) theory is that humans are motivated to protect their current resources and acquire new resources. Despite its recent popularity in the organizational behavior literature, several criticisms of the theory have emerged, primarily related to the central concept of resources. In this review, we address concerns regarding the conceptualization, conservation, acquisition, fluctuation, and measurement of resources. We highlight gaps in the COR literature that can be addressed by integrating research from other areas of psychology and management. In this manner, we hope to push the COR literature forward by resolving several concerns and providing suggestions for future research that might address other concerns.
According to national surveillance statistics, over 3 million employees are injured each year; yet, research indicates that these may be substantial underestimates of the true prevalence. The purpose of the current project was to empirically test the hypothesis that organizational safety climate and transactional supervisor safety leadership would predict the extent to which accidents go unreported by employees. Using hierarchical linear modeling and survey data collected from 1,238 employees in 33 organizations, employee-level supervisor safety enforcement behaviors (and to a less consistent extent, organizational-level safety climate) predicted employee accident underreporting. There was also a significant cross-level interaction, such that the effect of supervisor enforcement on underreporting was attenuated in organizations with a positive safety climate. These results may benefit human resources and safety professionals by pinpointing methods of increasing the accuracy of accident reporting, reducing actual safety incidents, and reducing the costs to individuals and organizations that result from underreporting. (PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
This study examined the underlying mechanisms through which transformational and transactional leadership influence employee safety behaviors. Linking leadership theory with self-regulatory focus (SRF) theory, we examined a model of dual effects of leadership on safety initiative and safety compliance behaviors as mediated by promotion and prevention self-regulations. We conducted an experimental study (N = 107), an online study (N = 99) and a field study (N = 798 employees and 49 managers). Results demonstrated that followers' situational promotion focus mediated the positive relationship between transformational leadership and safety initiative behaviors. Through all 3 studies, transactional active leadership was positively associated with followers' situational prevention focus, however, the association between followers' prevention focus and safety compliance behaviors was inconsistent, showing the expected mediation relationships in the experimental setting, but not in the online and field studies. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
In this article we examine the meaning of team process. We first define team process in the context of a multiphase episodic framework related to goal accomplishment, arguing that teams are multitasking units that perform multiple processes simultaneously and sequentially to orchestrate goal-directed taskwork. We then advance a taxonomy of team process dimensions synthesized from previous research and theorizing, a taxonomy that reflects our time-based conceptual framework. We conclude with implications for future research and application.
This study investigates safety climate as both a leading (climate → incident) and a lagging (incident → climate) indicator of safety-critical incidents. This study examines the "shelf life" of a safety climate assessment and its relationships with incidents, both past and future, by examining series of incident rates in order to determine when these predictive relationships expire.
A survey was conducted at a large, multinational chemical manufacturing company, with 7,467 responses at 42 worksites in 12 countries linked to over 14,000 incident records during the 2 years prior and 2 years following the survey period. Regressions revealed that safety climate predicts incidents of varying levels of severity, but it predicts the most severe incidents over the shortest period of time. The same is true for incidents predicting safety climate, with more severe incidents having a shorter predictive window. For the most critical relationship (climate predicting more severe incidents), the ability of a safety climate assessment to predict incidents expires after 3 months.
The choice of aggregation period in constructing incident rates is essential in understanding the safety climate-incident relationship. The common yearly count of incidents would make it seem that more severe incidents cannot be predicted by safety climate and also fails to show the strongest predictive effects of less severe incidents.
This research is the first to examine assumptions regarding aggregation periods when constructing safety-related incident rates. Our work guides organizations in planning their survey program, recommending more frequent measurement of safety climate.
To deliver high-quality, reliable, and consistent services safely, organizations develop professional standards. Despite the communication and reinforcement of these standards, they are often not followed consistently. Although previous research suggests that high job demands are associated with declines in compliance over lengthy intervals, we hypothesized—drawing on theoretical arguments focused on fatigue and depletion—that the impact of job demands on routine compliance with professional standards might accumulate much more quickly. To test this hypothesis, we studied a problem that represents one of the most significant compliance challenges in health care today: hand hygiene. Using longitudinal field observations of over 4,157 caregivers working in 35 different hospitals and experiencing more than 13.7 million hand hygiene opportunities, we found that hand hygiene compliance rates dropped by a regression-estimated 8.7 percentage points on average from the beginning to the end of a typical 12-hr work shift. This decline in compliance was magnified by increased work intensity. Further, longer breaks between work shifts increased subsequent compliance rates, and such benefits were greater for individuals when they had ended their preceding shift with a lower compliance rate. In addition, (a) the decline in compliance over the course of a work shift and (b) the improvement in compliance following a longer break increased as individuals accumulated more total work hours the preceding week. The implications of these findings for patient safety and job design are discussed.
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.
This study presents and tests an intervention to enhance organizational climate and expands existing conceptualization of organizational climate to include its influence on employee behaviors outside the organization's physical boundaries. In addition, by integrating the literatures of climate and work-family interface, the study explored climate spillover and crossover from work to the home domain. Focusing on an applied practical problem within organizations, we investigated the example of road safety climate and employees' and their families' driving, using a longitudinal study design of road safety intervention versus control groups. Results demonstrated that the intervention increased road safety climate and decreased the number of traffic violation tickets and that road safety climate mediated the relationship between the intervention and the number of traffic violation tickets. Road safety climate spilled over to the family domain but did not cross over to influence family members' driving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
Goal-setting and feedback techniques, previously used in a study to improve safety in the UK construction industry, were applied to a three-shift production plant, employing approximately 540 people. Critical safety behaviours were identified using accident records and ‘in-depth' interviews. Checklists of critical behaviours were developed for each of 14 departments in the factory. Forty-eight observers were trained to observe their colleagues' safety performance and complete the checklists. ‘Baseline’ measures were taken over a four- to six-week period. Participative goal setting was used to set safety improvement ‘goals’ for the critical behaviours, within each department. Performance feedback was presented graphically in each department on a weekly basis. The results indicate significant improvements in safety performance, with a corresponding reduction in the plant's accident rate. Paradoxically, a statistical inverse relationship was not obtained between safety performance and accident rates, although the importance of non-safety variables in accident causation was demonstrated.
While previous research has identified that leaders' safety expectations and safety actions are important in fostering occupational safety, research has yet to demonstrate the importance of leader alignment between safety expectations and actions for improving occupational safety. We build on safety climate literature and theory on behavioral integrity to better understand the relationship between the leader's behavioral integrity regarding safety and work-related injuries. In a time-lagged study of 658 nurses, we find that behavioral integrity for high safety values is positively associated with greater reporting of fewer and less severe occupational injuries. The effects of behavioral integrity regarding safety can be better understood through the mediating mechanisms of safety compliance and psychological safety toward one's supervisor. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research on safety climate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
The article presents a randomized field study designed to improve safety climate and resultant safety performance by modifying daily messages in supervisor-member communications. Supervisors in the experimental group received 2 individualized feedback sessions regarding the extent to which they integrated safety and productivity-related issues in daily verbal exchanges with their members; those in the control group received no feedback. Feedback data originated from 7-9 workers for each supervisor, reporting about received supervisory messages during the most recent verbal exchange. Questionnaire data collected 8 weeks before and after the 12-week intervention phase revealed significant changes for safety climate, safety behavior, subjective workload, teamwork, and (independently measured) safety audit scores for the experimental group. Data for the control group (except for safety behavior) remained unchanged. These results are explained by corresponding changes (or lack thereof in the control group) in perceived discourse messages during the 6-week period between the 1st and 2nd feedback sessions. Theoretical and practical implications for climate improvement and organizational discourse research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
We link two influential organizational learning models---performance feedback and experiential learning---to advance hypotheses that help explain how organizations' learning from their own and others' experience is conditioned by their aspiration-performance feedback. Our focus is on learning from failure; this kind of learning is essential to organizational learning and adaptation, and a necessary complement to studies of learning from success. Our analysis of U.S. Class 1 freight railroads' accident costs from 1975 to 2001 shows that when a railroad's accident rate deviates from aspiration levels, the railroad benefits less from its own operating and accident experience and more from other railroads' operating and accident experiences. These findings support the idea that performance near aspirations fosters local search and exploitive learning, while performance away from aspirations stimulates nonlocal search and exploration, providing a foundation for constructing more-integrated models of organizational learning and change.
The frequency of occupational accidents in fishery is high in most fishery nations. Implementation of safety measures has, however, been limited. The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to explore Swedish fishermen's attitudes towards occupational risks and accident control. Information was acquired through a questionnaire distributed to a convenience sample of 92 fishermen. Indices were built, containing variables relevant to perceived risk levels in connection with work, perceived manageability of risks, activity in safety work, technical knowledge and individual attitudes towards risks. The results did not support earlier findings of low risk awareness and risk acceptance among fishermen. Perceived manageability of risks but not perceived risk level, accident experience or risk acceptance, were significantly associated with activity in safety work. The results suggest that safety work might benefit from efforts to develop fishermen's understanding of how the development of hazardous situations can be prevented or managed. The results do not support strategies for accident control in fishery based solely on increasing risk awareness.
This article presents a leadership-based intervention model designed to modify supervisory monitoring and rewarding of subordinates' safety performance. Line supervisors received weekly feedback based on repeated episodic interviews with subordinates concerning the cumulative frequency of their safety-oriented interactions. This information identified the priority of safety over competing goals such as speed or schedules. Section managers received the same information and used it to communicate (high) safety priority. They also were trained to conduct episodic interviews to provide intermittent feedback after intervention, turning safety priority into an explicit performance goal. Safety-oriented interaction increased significantly in the experimental groups but remained unchanged in the control groups. This change in safety-oriented interaction was accompanied by significant (and stable) changes in minor-injury rate, earplug use, and safety climate scores during the postintervention period.
Employee selection remains an integral role of industrial/organizational psychology. Modern demands on organizations have required adaptations on the part of those responsible for selection programs, and on researchers in evaluating the impact of these adaptations as well as their implications for how we view human potential. Many of these developments (web-based assessments, social networking, and globalization of organizations, for example) determine in great part the content and focus of many of the articles in this publication. The articles are organized into seven parts: (1) historical and social context of the field of assessment and selection; (2) research strategies; (3) individual difference constructs that underlie effective performance; (4) measures of predictor constructs; (5) employee performance and outcome assessment; (6) societal and organizational constraints on selection practice; and (7) implementation and sustainability of selection systems. While providing a comprehensive review of current research and practice, this publication aims to provide an up-to-date profile of each of the areas addressed and to highlight current questions that deserve additional attention from researchers and practitioners.
High Reliability Organizations (HROs) have been treated as exotic outliers in mainstream organizational theory because of their unique potentials for catastrophic consequences and interactively complex technology. We argue that HROs are more central to the mainstream because they provide a unique window into organizational effectiveness under trying conditions. HROs enact a distinctive though not unique set of cognitive processes directed at proxies for failure, tendencies to simplify, sensitivity to operations, capabilities for resilience, and temptations to overstructure the system. Taken together these processes induce a state of collective mindfulness that creates a rich awareness of discriminatory detail and facilitates the discovery and correction of errors capable of escalation into catastrophe. Though distinctive, these processes are not unique since they are a dormant infrastructure for process improvement in all organizations. Analysis of HROs suggests that inertia is not indigenous to organizing, that routines are effective because of their variation, that learning may be a byproduct of mindfulness, and that garbage cans may be safer than hierarchies.
Human error is implicated in nearly all aviation accidents, yet most investigation and prevention programs are not designed around any theoretical framework of human error. Appropriate for all levels of expertise, the book provides the knowledge and tools required to conduct a human error analysis of accidents, regardless of operational setting (i.e. military, commercial, or general aviation). The book contains a complete description of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), which incorporates James Reason’s model of latent and active failures as a foundation. Widely disseminated among military and civilian organizations, HFACS encompasses all aspects of human error, including the conditions of operators and elements of supervisory and organizational failure. It attracts a very broad readership. Specifically, the book serves as the main textbook for a course in aviation accident investigation taught by one of the authors at the University of Illinois. This book will also be used in courses designed for military safety officers and flight surgeons in the U.S. Navy, Army and the Canadian Defense Force, who currently utilize the HFACS system during aviation accident investigations. Additionally, the book has been incorporated into the popular workshop on accident analysis and prevention provided by the authors at several professional conferences world-wide. The book is also targeted for students attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University which has satellite campuses throughout the world and offers a course in human factors accident investigation for many of its majors. In addition, the book will be incorporated into courses offered by Transportation Safety International and the Southern California Safety Institute. Finally, this book serves as an excellent reference guide for many safety professionals and investigators already in the field. © Douglas A. Wiegmann and Scott A. Shappell 2003. All rights reserved.
Drawing on job demands and control theory, we propose a model demonstrating how client variability and safety climate influence occupational well-being in the nursing service environment. We surveyed 194 registered nurses regarding client variability, safety climate, and occupational strain in two large hospitals and obtained injury data for the six months after primary data collection. We found that unit-level safety climate moderated the partially mediated relationship between client variability and injury through occupational strain. Specifically, a stronger safety climate attenuated positive associations between client variability and occupational strain, occupational strain and injury, and client variability and injury.
Currently, the construction industry in Korea reports the highest frequency of industrial accidents, mostly among temporary workers. Domestic and international disaster-related reports indicate that temporary workers have high risk associated with working environments as a major cause of accidents. We established relationships between the individual and organizational factors that affect temporary workers’ safety behaviors using structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM is used to estimate simultaneously the cause-and-effect relationships between many independent variables and dependent variables. A questionnaire was administered to temporary construction workers, and the following results were obtained. First, personal characteristics had a partial effect on job stress and a direct effect on safety culture. Second, personal characteristics and job stress had a direct effect on self-perceived fatigue. Third, personal characteristics and safety culture had a direct effect on safety climate, and personal characteristics also had an indirect effect. Finally, personal characteristics had no direct effect on safety behavior, but did have indirect effects. Job stress had both a direct and indirect effect. Safety culture had no direct effect, but did have an indirect effect. Also, safety climate had a significant direct effect. These findings can be used as preliminary data to develop additional safety programs for temporary construction workers.
The incident command system (ICS) is a particular approach to assembly and control of the highly reliable temporary organizations employed by many public safety professionals to manage diverse resources at emergency scenes. Our inductive study of a fire department's use of the ICS identified three main factors enabling this distinctively bureaucratic system to produce remarkably flexible and reliable organizations for complex, volatile task environments. This research suggests the possibility of new organizational forms able to capitalize on the control and efficiency benefits of bureaucracy while avoiding or overcoming its tendencies toward inertia.
Over the last several years, the conventional view of self-efficacy as a positive influence on performance has been called into question. Researchers have identified a negative relationship between self-efficacy and performance when examined via within-person analyses, even in the presence of large positive between-person relationships. The current study proposes that the within-person relationship between self-efficacy and subsequent performance is moderated by one's degree of prior success or failure. Using a multitrial task, support was found for the proposed model. Following poor or substandard performances, self-efficacy was positively related to subsequent performance. However, following more successful prior performances, self-efficacy was negatively related to subsequent performance. Implications of these findings for theory and research on work motivation are discussed.
Many major theories of organizational stress (OS) reflect basic principles of cybernetics, most notably the negative feedback loop. However, these principles are rarely examined in empirical OS research, which focuses predominantly on simple bivariate relationships embedded in OS theories. This problem may reflect an implicit rejection of cybernetic principles on conceptual grounds, the absence of specific propositions regarding these principles, methodological difficulties, or some combination of these factors. In any case, the result is a gap between theoretical and empirical OS research, which severely hinders the accumulation of knowledge in this area. This article is intended to narrow this gap by presenting an integrative cybernetic theory of stress, coping, and well-being in organizations, deriving propositions from this theory, and discussing methodological issues in testing this theory.
Safety is a growing area of study for organizational scholars and is increasingly becoming more paramount for organizations. In this chapter we present a broad review of occupational safety with particular attention paid to identifying characteristics of individual employees and contextual features that predict safety. This review culminates by proposing that scholars and practitioners need to focus on both the individual employee and the contextual environment in which he or she works to create an overall safety-conscious workforce.
Although occupational accidents are common in fishery, safety work is often not given priority by the fishermen. The aims of this study were to test a group-based intervention for increased activity in safety work through group discussion of accident/incident experience; to study occurred incidents/accidents and how such events were managed; and to study intervention effects on activity in safety work, risk acceptance and perceived manageability of risks. A sample of men from five crews (11 men) of Swedish fishermen participated. The study had a one group pre-test–post-test design for questionnaire data. The emphasis was on qualitative information collected during the intervention and interviews. The results indicated that accident causes could be appraised as being unmanageable even when technical solutions were possible. Psychological factors may cause incidents not to be documented or discussed. Incident experience seldom leads to preventive measures. Interaction between structural, social and psychological factors seemed to explain this. Questionnaires, observations and interview data suggested that some increase in safety work took place during the intervention. After the discussions the participants perceived risks to be less manageable. The study indicated that, although sensitive to dropout, participative safety interventions in fishery are feasible and may be effective. A longer or more intensive intervention may be necessary in order to progress from problem orientation to action orientation.
Senior managers’ safety commitment is emphasised in the safety literature as a crucial influence on organisational safety. Yet there is little understanding of the characteristics that underpin their ability to engage in behaviours that demonstrate safety commitment. This study investigates the contribution of problem-solving, social competence and safety knowledge to such behaviours. Senior managers (N = 60) from European and North American air traffic management organisations participated in interviews consisting of open questions designed to trigger safety knowledge and descriptions of behaviours that demonstrate safety commitment as well as scenarios designed to trigger problem-solving and social competence. Reliable scores were generated through systematic scoring procedures involving two independent coders. The results indicated that problem-solving, namely the number of issues and information sources considered when understanding problems and generating ideas to solve a problem were positively related to demonstrations of safety commitment. The ability to perceive others was also found to correlate with safety commitment, whereas safety knowledge was not associated with behaviours that demonstrate safety commitment. It is proposed that training and guidance designed for senior managers should focus on their problem-solving abilities and perception of others in order to support them in demonstrating safety commitment.
This paper presents a meta-analysis-based technique to estimate the effect of common method variance on the validity of individual theories. The technique explains between-study variance in observed correlations as a function of the susceptibility to common method variance of the methods employed in individual studies. The technique extends to mono-method studies the concept of method variability underpinning the classic multitrait-multimethod technique. The application of the technique is demonstrated by analyzing the effect of common method variance on the observed correlations between perceived usefulness and usage in the technology acceptance model literature. Implications of the technique and the findings for future research are discussed.
Perceptions related to work safety are examined in relation to their ability to account for variation in employee attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors indicative of vocational adjustment, after objective indicators of safety risk have been taken into account. Results, based on a sample of 1167 railroad employees, indicate that objective risk factors typically accounted for 1–3% of the variation in outcome indicators, with perceptions of work safety explaining between 1 and 20% of additional variation. The importance of safety perceptions as a predictor of employee outcomes is discussed.
The stated purpose of the investigations that invariably follow industrial, transportation, and mining disasters is to learn from those tragedies to prevent future tragedies. But does prior experience with disaster make organizations more capable of preventing future disasters? Do organizations learn from disasters experienced by other organizations? Do organizations learn differently from rare disasters than they do from common minor accidents? In its present state, the organizational safety literature is poorly equipped to answer these questions.
The present work begins to address this gap by empirically examining how prior organizational experience with disaster affects the likelihood that organizations will experience future disasters. It approaches the issue in the context of fatal U.S. coal mining accidents from 1983 to 2006. The analysis demonstrates that organizations do learn to prevent future disasters through both direct and vicarious experience with disaster. It also indicates that the mechanisms through which organizations learn from disasters differ from those through which they learn from minor accidents.
As the importance of social psychological factors in health has been increasingly recognized, a premium has been increasing
recognized, a premium has been placed on the elucidation of theoretical models of preventive health behavior. Two of the more
comprehensive and extensively investigated models advanced are the Health Belief oodel and Protection Motivation Theory. In
the present article, the organization and research of the two frameworks are compared. In addition, several interesting features
of Protection Motivation Theory that have been highlighted by recent research are discussed.
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.
Representing one type of team cognition, team mental models (TMMs) are organized mental representations of the key elements within a team’s relevant environment that are shared across team members. Although introduced amid considerable confusion concerning their nature and potential usefulness, there has been a proliferation of published studies over the past decade that have directly measured TMMs using a variety of methodologies and research designs. Capturing these exciting research developments, the purpose of this review was to inventory what has been accomplished thus far and to offer an agenda for the next wave of research. Specifically, we overview the conceptual underpinnings of TMMs, discuss measurement issues, and review the empirical record related to the outcomes, antecedents, and longitudinal work on TMMs. We conclude by highlighting fruitful opportunities for further research.
The introduction of information technology based on digital computers for the design of man-machine interface systems has led to a requirement for consistent models of human performance in routine task environments and during unfamiliar task conditions. A discussion is presented of the requirement for different types of models for representing performance at the skill-, rule-, and knowledge-based levels, together with a review of the different levels in terms of signals, signs, and symbols. Particular attention is paid to the different possible ways of representing system properties which underlie knowledge-based performance and which can be characterised at several levels of abstraction-from the representation of physical form, through functional representation, to representation in terms of intention or purpose. Furthermore, the role of qualitative and quantitative models in the design and evaluation of interface systems is mentioned, and the need to consider such distinctions carefully is discussed.
Fire-fighting and rescue work are arranged in such a way that various kinds of accidents and catastrophes can be handled. In an understaffed situation, such as a strike, this goal may not be met. The objective of this study was to investigate factors associated with perceived physical work capacity, stress, sleep disturbance, and occupational accidents among firefighters who remained at work during an extended strike. A cross-sectional questionnaire study was carried out among 543 firefighters (83% of the target group) in 71 fire brigades in Finland. After the strike had lasted for 9 to 11 weeks, most of the firefighters perceived their physical work capacity to be rather good or very good. Stress increased along with a decreasing number of personnel in a crew (OR= 2.3, CI= 1.0–5.3, for less than 75% of a normal crew vs. normal crew) and with decreasing number of personnel in a shift (OR= 2.4, CI= 1.1–5.4, for less than 25% of normal shift vs. normal shift). Sleep disturbance was reported to occur as soon as the total working time exceeded 50 h/week. Working more than 70 h/week increased the risk of occupational accidents almost 4-fold compared with working no more than 50 h/week. These results suggest that exceptional situations, such as a strike, are a challenge to human capacity. With time, increased stress and sleep disturbance may lead to serious consequences.