Safety Leadership, Safety Attitudes, Safety Knowledge and Motivation toward Safety-Related Behaviors in Electrical Substation Construction Projects.

Abdulrahman M Basahel

doi:10.3390/ijerph18084196

Abstract

Poor safety conditions and performance are consequences of individual factors as well as organizational and group factors. However, little attention has been afforded to the sequential impact of these factors on safety-related behaviors (compliance and participation) in the Saudi Arabian electrical construction industry. This study examines the causal effects of leadership and attitudes on safety compliance and participation mediated by motivation and knowledge. The research collected 636 surveys in electrical construction projects for nine large contractors between November 2018 and July 2019 in Saudi Arabia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to determine the mechanism by which leadership and attitudes affected safety compliance and participation through motivation and knowledge. The results indicate that safety leadership and attitude factors as well as their interactions predicted safety motivation and knowledge. Additionally, these factors affected safety participation and compliance via workers’ motivation and knowledge. Safety motivation and safety knowledge positively affected workers’ participation and compliance. Management should encourage and regularly assess effective leadership and attitudes and developing motivation and knowledge among employees can improve organizations’ safety-related behavior performance.

Highlights

IntroductionA number of factors can affect safety performance in any type of organization
Factor loading analysis was conducted for all item measures of safety leadership, individual safety attitudes, safety motivation, safety knowledge and safety-related behaviors
A correlation was found between safety output measures and descriptive statistics

Summary

Introduction

A number of factors can affect safety performance in any type of organization. As of 2018, the number of occupational accidents due to safety matters was still high in Saudi Arabia [1]. The majority of these accidents were related to construction industry sectors and involved falling from heights (28.55%), collision with moving/stationary objects (25.21%), abrasive and friction issues (17.93%) and others (e.g., stress, overload, heat and fatigue; 28.31%) [1]. From the perspective of organizations, safety terms are almost universally left undefined, and a number of factors can lead to workplace accidents [2]. Safety at work is an issue that involves organizational/group factors (e.g., safety culture, policies, leadership and job characteristics) and individual factors (e.g., safety attitudes, knowledge, skills) [3,4]

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