Safety Climate in Military Organizations: A Pilot Study of an Adjusted Multi-Domain Instrument

Abstract

The aim of this pilot study is to adjust the NOSACQ-50 to the work environment of military organizations. NOSACQ-50 is a validated tool successfully used in several organizational domains to measure occupational safety climate (OSC). In general, few studies have been published investigating OSC in military organizations. NOSACQ-50 consists of 50 items across 7 OSC dimensions, i.e. group members’ shared perceptions of: 1) management safety priority, commitment and competence; 2) management safety empowerment; 3) management safety justice; 4) workers’ safety commitment; 5) workers’ safety priority and risk non-acceptance; 6) safety communication, learning, and trust in co-workers’ safety competence; 7) workers’ trust in the efficacy of safety systems. To assess the relevance of the NOSACQ-50 items, a revised version of the instrument was sent to 11 military safety experts. In addition, 19 items pertaining to areas not covered by NOSACQ-50 were validated by the same experts. After contents validation, data from 517 participants from 4 garrisons were collected. The results showed that NOSACQ-50 had acceptable reliability scores (.70-.89.), and the factor structure was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Principal component analyses (PCA) of the supplementary 19 items showed that 12 items grouped into three dimensions (alpha .74-.91): Management enabling safety performance, personnel’s knowledge of and competence in national laws regulating safety and Unit ethics. In conclusion, preliminary results showed the adjusted NOSACQ-50 instrument could be used to measure OSC in military organizations. However, additional studies must be performed to improve and develop military specific dimensions not covered by NOSACQ-50.