Understanding compliance with safe work practices: The role of ‘can‐do’ and ‘reason‐to’ factors

Abstract

This study addresses the psychological mechanisms that lead to compliance with safe work practices among electrical workers. Compliance with safe work practices can be challenging as it involves substantive cognitive effort and often takes place in the presence of multiple competing demands and situational constraints. Guided by expectancy‐value theory, we advance theorizing on compliance by conceptualizing it as a task choice. Our key proposition is that compliance is motivated by the unique and interactive effects of "can‐do" (i.e., self‐efficacy) and "reason‐to" (i.e., perceived usefulness and perceived low cost) psychological states. Distal individual (i.e., safety knowledge and sensation seeking personality) and organizational (i.e., psychological safety climate) antecedents also were considered. Data from a sample of 386 Australian electrical workers in which the focal variables were assessed at Time 1 and compliance with safe work practices was assessed three months later at Time 2 confirmed the hypothesized relationships. A compensating interactive effect between self‐efficacy and perceived usefulness also was found. When self‐efficacy was high, perceived usefulness no longer had a significant positive relationship with compliance. Overall, this study demonstrates that expectancy‐value theory provides a meaningful explanation for the underlying psychological mechanisms that lead to safety compliance. Managers and safety practitioners should focus on cultivating self‐efficacy and utility perceptions when enforcing compliance with safe work practices.Practitioner points This research examined psychological states of a cognitive nature that encourage electricians’ compliance with safe work practices. Self‐efficacy was found to have the strongest positive association with compliance, and to a lesser extent, perceived usefulness. When feelings of confidence in being compliant were high, perceived usefulness no longer had a significant positive relationship with compliance, suggesting a compensating effect.