Development of the Considerate and Responsible Employee (CARE) scale

Abstract

This paper reports the development of the Considerate and Responsible Employee (CARE) scale, which was designed to measure workers' attitudes towards their co-workers' safety. Study 1 generated a pool of statements (e.g. workers should assist each other with tasks to ensure safety) and used a self-administered questionnaire to obtain ratings for each statement from 105 workers acquired by haphazard sampling from a variety of occupations. Item-total correlations were used to select 21 items for the CARE scale. Internal consistency, measured by coefficient α, was .91. Factor analysis indicated that the scale was best described by a general factor. CARE scale scores were significantly related to measures of group cohesion and co-worker satisfaction. Study 2 replicated the CARE scale's high internal consistency and its relationship with co-worker satisfaction using a questionnaire completed by 28 workers from a meat processing plant. Study 3 examined the test-retest reliability of the CARE scale using 40 workers from an aluminium plant. The response rate across the three studies ranged from 27 to 47%. The results are discussed in terms of the use of the CARE scale to manage safety