Perceptions of safety climate across construction personnel: Associations with injury rates

Abstract

While there is a growing body of literature on assessing perceptions of safety climate, many of these studies report a company’s safety climate as a worker-based phenomenon. Discrepancies in perceptions of safety across different hierarchical groups in an organization may increase barriers to the development and implementation of effective ways to mitigate workplace hazards. This study examines and compares the perceptions of safety climate among three groups of construction personnel: (1) construction workers, (2) field supervisors, and (3) site managers; as well as evaluating the relationships among discrepancies in perceptions of safety and reported injury rates. The Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50), which consists of 50 items across seven dimensions, was used to assess safety climate perceptions across construction site personnel. In total, 266 workers, 55 supervisors and 32 site managers from 26 Colombian construction companies were surveyed. Results confirmed differences in overall perceptions as well as across safety climate dimensions. Managers reported higher safety climate scores than supervisors and construction workers. There were no statistically significant relationships between each group’s perceptions of safety climate and the company’s 3-year injury rate. However, worker-manager discrepancies in perceptions of safety were positively correlated with the 3-year injury rate of construction companies. Better understanding of the differences in perceptions of safety climate across construction personnel, may make it possible to design comprehensive safety interventions that involve managers, supervisors, and workers. Targeting each group with initiatives customized to bridge their particular gaps can identify opportunities to improve workplace safety and health.