National culture and occupational safety – a comparison of worker-level factors impacting safety for Danish and Swedish construction workers

Abstract

Denmark and Sweden are societally and regulatory similar countries with large differences in occupational injury rates. Denmark has consistently had twice the rate of reported injuries compared to Sweden and a 45% higher rate of fatal injuries in the construction industry. The current study aims to further investigate the perceived underlying factors responsible for the difference in injury rate between Denmark and Sweden by examining the possible impact on safety climate and safety behaviour of cooperation, perceived organizational support, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), planning, safety motivation, and long-term orientation. The paper is based on a questionnaire study completed by 346 construction workers from 48 Swedish construction sites and 465 construction workers from 37 Danish construction sites. The results show that all six predictors were positively related with safety climate and/or safety behaviour in both countries. However, the level of the predictors was generally higher in Sweden, and there was a stronger positive relationship with the outcomes in Sweden than Denmark. Specifically, the valuation of cooperation and OCB, planning and long-term orientation were more dominant in Sweden. These differences illuminate some of the possible factors underlying the difference in injury rate between the Danish and Swedish construction industry.