Impact of safety climate on hazard recognition and safety risk perception

Abstract

Poor hazard recognition and the underestimation of safety risk can lead to catastrophic safety incidents. Unfortunately, past research has demonstrated that a large number of safety hazards remain unrecognized in construction workplaces. Likewise, evidence also suggests that the underestimation of safety risk is a widespread issue in the construction industry. Therefore, to improve safety performance, a proper understanding of workplace factors that affect hazard recognition and safety risk perception is fundamental. To begin achieving this goal, the current study evaluated the effect of safety climate – a validated leading indicator of safety performance – on hazard recognition and safety risk perception levels. This was accomplished by gathering empirical data from over 280 workers employed in 57 construction workplaces in the United States. More specifically, after gathering safety climate data from the participating workers, the workers were engaged in a hazard recognition and safety risk perception activity. The study findings revealed that workers representing workplaces with a more positive safety climate demonstrate higher levels of hazard recognition and safety risk perception. In addition, the effect of safety climate on safety risk perception was mediated by hazard recognition performance. In other words, safety climate affected hazard recognition performance, which in turn affected safety risk perception levels. Apart from the indirect effect of safety climate on safety risk perception through hazard recognition performance, safety climate also affected safety risk perception independently of hazard recognition performance. The findings of the study will be useful to practicing professionals seeking to improve safety performance in the construction industry.