The moderating effect of long-haul truck drivers’ occupational tenure on the relationship between safety climate and driving safety behavior

Abstract

This study aims to advance safety climate research by applying sociotechnical systems theory to investigate the moderating effect of occupational tenure (as an external influence) on the safety climate and driving safety behavior relationship. Safety climate research has largely focused on the internal work environment, but, from a systems perspective, long-haul truck drivers are highly influenced by the external environment of their organization because they are a distributed workforce. Although drivers are exposed to their company’s internal message that safety is important, their knowledge of the overall trucking industry and their experiences external to their company may interact with their perception of safety climate. The sample consisted of long-haul truck drivers from seven U.S. trucking companies. Results were consistent with those of prior research in that safety climate had a positive impact on driving safety behavior for long-haul drivers and safety behavior mediated the relationship between safety climate and near misses. Additionally, and unique to this study, driving safety behavior was less dependent on safety climate for drivers with longer occupational tenure compared to those with shorter occupational tenure, albeit with that moderator accounting for a small percentage of variance. Implications regarding examining safety climate and safety outcomes in the trucking industry, and also regarding external and internal organizational influences affecting safety climate, will be discussed.