Development of Safety Culture Assessment: A Case Study of Thai Truck Drivers

Abstract

Safety culture assessment is the instrument that can be used to capture employees’ perception about organizational safety culture in various dimensions. The main objective of this research was to investigate the constructs of multidimensional safety culture and consequently to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure Thai truck driver’s perception on safety culture level in the workplace. Safety culture assessment in this study was structured in four dimensions based on accident causation model as (1) organizational support to safety, (2) social support to safety, (3) preconditions for employee safety behavior, and (4) employee safety behavior. Item development was conducted through extensive literature reviews and interviews with subject matter experts using purposive sampling (e.g. 6 truck drivers, 3 logistics personnel, 2 safe-driving trainers, and 1 top management). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to identify sub-factors of each dimension. Eight sub-factors with total of 30 items were emerged as a result of EFA including management commitment to safety, safety rules and training, supervisor support, co-worker support, work conditions, personal conditions, attentive action to safety, and supportive action to safety. Consequently, Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to validate all the measurement constructs. The results suggested that the four-dimension safety culture model (30 items) had an acceptable fit with the data (RMSEA = 0.044, RMR = 0.020, CFI = 0.997, GFI = 0.989 and composite reliability = 0.8987). Therefore, the result supported the good reliability and validity of newly developed safety culture assessment. The paper also discussed possible future research as well as implications for utilizing safety culture assessment. Keywords: Safety Culture, Thai Truck Drivers, Accident Causation Model, Four-Dimension Safety Culture, Factor Analysis