The role of trust in occupational safety: research results

Abstract

This article presents the concept and results of a study on the effects of organizational trust on the safety level in an enterprise. The research results presented provide valid and reliable statistical evidence that employees’ trust in management is an important factor that significantly affects safety in a company. In particular, the research findings prove that employees’ trust in management affects safety outcomes indirectly (full mediation), due to the improvement in their engagement in safety citizenship behaviour (SCB); but also that better engagement in SCB should directly or indirectly contribute to the reduction of accident event occurrence through improvement in employees’ health and safety (H&S) regulation compliance (partial mediation). Moreover, the research findings prove that improvement in perceived management commitment in H&S will additionally strengthen positive relationships between trust in management and SCB engagement (interaction effect).