Assessment of the perceived safety culture in the petrochemical industry in Japan: A cross-sectional study.

Michio Murakami,Erman Çakıt,Tadeusz Marek,Waldemar Karwowski,Omar Alrehaili,Atsuo Murata,Andrzej Jan Olak

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0226416

Abstract

This study assessed the perceived safety culture among five petrochemical production companies in Japan. Current effects of the perceived safety culture on employee safety motivation and performance were also examined. A total of 883 workers from the five petrochemical companies, which were located in the Chugoku region of Japan, provided valid responses to the survey distributed by email. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the personnel safety culture in these industries. The endogenous variables considered in this study included petrochemical safety culture, personnel error behavior and personnel attitudes toward violation behaviors. Petrochemical personnel safety motivation was a mediating variable. This study’s findings highlight the importance of the perceived safety culture as a significant component of the organizational culture that influences employee behaviors and safety attitudes. This study further verifies the significant impact of the perceived safety culture in this industry sector on improving petrochemical personnel safety motivation and performance. Future research should explore the differences between the subcultures that have formed under larger safety cultures within similar high-risk industries, such as construction, aviation, manufacturing and mining.

Highlights

In a recent study on managing the risks of organizational accidents, Reason (2016) argued that the same general safety principles and management techniques can be applied in various domains, such as banks, insurance companies, nuclear power plants, oil exploration, manufacturing companies, chemical process installations and other domains of industry, transportation and healthcare [1]
This study investigated the relationships between a perceived safety culture and employee attitudes toward violations, error behavior and safety motivation in selected petrochemical plants of Japan
The current research indicates that the perceived safety culture plays a role in petrochemical personnel safety motivation and safety performance

Summary

Introduction

In a recent study on managing the risks of organizational accidents, Reason (2016) argued that the same general safety principles and management techniques can be applied in various domains, such as banks, insurance companies, nuclear power plants, oil exploration, manufacturing companies, chemical process installations and other domains of industry, transportation and healthcare [1]. International Automatic Energy Agency defines a safety culture as “that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals, which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance” [2,3]. The most widely cited definition of an organizational safety culture was developed by the Health and Safety Commission (1993) and published in the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations report [6]. This report describes a safety culture as “the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies and patterns of behavior that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organization’s health and safety management.”. Prior research confirms that a safety culture fosters risk management and mitigation strategies based on an increased commitment to and knowledge of safety within an organization. The observed outcome has been an increased readiness for potentially dangerous situations [7,8,9]

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