Abstract
Recent research has shown that the reported participation of employees in voluntary safety activities is related to the prevention of accidents and injuries. Encouraging such participation, then, is beneficial to organizations. A key question, therefore, is why employees should choose to report that they engage in such activities: what is their motivation given such activities are not compulsory? We used social exchange theory (SET) and organizational support theory (OST) to develop a model linking perceived organizational support to reports of safety participation. SET postulates that the benefits given (by an organization) are reciprocated with potential benefits to the giver as a result. OST emphasizes that feeling obliged is a key part of why people reciprocate the perceived support they get from their organization. Voluntary safety activities have the potential to benefit an organization, so for the first time, we test whether there is a link between perceived organizational support and the reported participation of employees in such activities, and whether the relationship is mediated by felt obligation. We also test whether another key SET motivation to reciprocate, the anticipated reward, is involved in mediating the relationship. A structural equation model with a sample of 536 workers from a Belgian public company, involved in the production and distribution of safe drinking water and in waste water treatment, supported the hypotheses of the authors. The model showed that felt obligation mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support and safety participation reports, and that the anticipatory reward, in the form of perceptions that management was committed to safety, also mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support and safety participation reports. These processes were shown to be separable from employee job engagement and employee perspectives on whether or not voluntary safety activities were part of their job. The findings add to the understanding of why employees choose reported participation in voluntary safety behaviors and also, add to the literature on OST by demonstrating for the first time the involvement of felt obligation and perceived management commitment to safety as mediators between outcomes and perceived organizational support.
Highlights
Employees choosing to take part in voluntary safety activities, those beyond their job such as volunteering for safety committees or speaking out about safety when not required to do so, can be seen to be beneficial to their organization
Hofmann et al (2003) observed that employee perspectives were related to the quality of exchanges with their leaders, so it is reasonable to explore whether the relationship between POS and reported participation is mediated by safety role definitions: We hypothesize, that: H6: safety citizenship role definitions (SCRDs) will mediate the relationship between POS and reported participation in discretionary safety activities
Though, that felt obligation acts as a mediator between POS and SCRDs, with the expectation that: H7: Felt obligation will mediate the relationship between POS and SCRDs
Summary
Employees choosing to take part in voluntary safety activities, those beyond their job such as volunteering for safety committees or speaking out about safety when not required to do so, can be seen to be beneficial to their organization Employee reports of their involvement in such activities have been shown to prevent accidents and injuries (Curcuruto et al, 2015), and have been shown to decrease involvement in self-reported safety violations and increased future compliance with safety rules and procedures (Neal and Griffin, 2006; Chmiel et al, 2017; Laurent et al, 2018), which are associated with reductions in injuries and accidents (Clarke, 2006). We consider two other potential motivators from a social exchange perspective, namely, anticipatory reward and job engagement In examining these issues, we aim to advance and test a structural model that can account for the association of these factors simultaneously. We use structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques to achieve this aim
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