Dimensions Of Safety Climate Research Articles

5S impact on safety climate of manufacturing workers

Purpose – 5S is a commonly used Lean tool that focusses on creating an organized work environment, but the effects of 5S on safety climate are not as well studied. The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of a 5S event on safety climate. Design/methodology/approach – This pre-test post-test study examines the effect of implementing 5S on safety climate of the packaging area of a manufacturing plant. Two groups of employees (case and control groups) completed a safety climate questionnaire (Safety Climate Assessment Toolkit) prior to the 5S event, one month after, and two months after. Findings – Total safety climate significantly improved for the case group but remained unchanged for the control group over the study period. Specifically, management commitment and involvement dimensions of safety climate improved for the case group. Practical implications – These results show that two important aspects of safety climate (management commitment and involvement) can be significantly, positively influenced by successful 5S events, which may translate to improved safety overall. Originality/value – Prior literature on 5S speculates a positive impact of 5S on safety and safety climate, but this assertion is not well supported with empirical evidence. This study provides quantitative measurement of positive safety climate changes that resulted from a successful 5S event. The results provide additional incentive for management to continue 5S and other Lean activities with the possibility of also improving safety.

Assessment of patient safety climate in accident and emergency departments in Cyprus

Introduction: The aim of the study is to evaluate safety climate in the accident and emergency (A&E) departments in Cyprus. This would help for an assessment of the general patient safety environment and could be used as a starting point for the establishment of a quality management system, which ensures patient safety. Material and Methods: A sociological survey using Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was conducted with 284 employees (68%) working at the A&E departments in five public hospitals in Cyprus in 2013 and 2014. SAQ consists of 30 statements, examining safety climate in six domains: teamwork, safety, job satisfaction, working conditions, stress and perceptions of management, which respondents have to agree or disagree with. Results: Safety climate in the A&EDs in Cyprus is questionable since none of the safety climate dimensions received a positive assessment. Job satisfaction is highly rated, while stress recognition received the lowest assessment. Although the majority of the respondents declared that they would feel safe being treated at their hospital as patients, a few of the surveyed think that medical errors are handled appropriately. This study found a strong reverse correlation between work intensity and personnel`s general perceptions of safety climate. In those departments, which admit more patients per staff member annually, personnel`s perceptions of safety climate are more negative. Conclusion: The lack of adequate managerial support and commitment to safety issues can be considered as key determinants of the weak safety culture in the A&EDs in public hospitals in Cyprus.

Dimensions of Safety Climate among Iranian Nurses.

Background: Workplace safety has been a concern of workers and managers for decades. Measuring safety climate is crucial in improving safety performance. It is also a method of benchmarking safety perception. Objective: To develop and validate a psychometrics scale for measuring nurses' safety climate. Methods: Literature review, subject matter experts and nurse's judgment were used in items developing. Content validity and reliability for new tool were tested by content validity index (CVI) and test-retest analysis, respectively. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with varimax rotation was used to improve the interpretation of latent factors. Results: A 40-item scale in 6 factors was developed, which could explain 55% of the observed variance. The 6 factors included employees' involvement in safety and management support, compliance with safety rules, safety training and accessibility to personal protective equipment, hindrance to safe work, safety communication and job pressure, and individual risk perception. Conclusion: The proposed scale can be used in identifying the needed areas to implement interventions in safety climate of nurses.

Effect of health, safety, and environment management system training on safety climate in a mine in Yazd Province, Iran

Background: Today, with the development of technology, the presence and role of human resources has been highlighted in industrial environments. Hence, the importance of safety culture is growing. Mining is the one of the most dangerous occupations. Therefore, this study was performed to determine the effect of health, safety, and environment management system (HSE-MS) on safety climate in one of the mines in Yazd Province, Iran, in 2014. Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of 32 employees of the operations unit working in one of the mines in Yazd Province. The standard 20-item Safety Climate Questionnaire (α = 0.77) which was valid and reliable was used to evaluate the safety culture at the unit. In this questionnaire, the items were scored based on a 5-point Likert scale. Data were collected before and 2 months after the HSE-MS training courses. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were willingness to participate in the project, at least 1 year of work experience, and the lack of specific and neurological diseases. The collected data were entered into SPSS statistical software. Results: In this study, 28.1 of the study population was single and 71.9 married. The average score of the safety climate dimensions of managerial commitment, safety communications, safe environment, responsibility of managers, perception of risk, job satisfaction, and knowledge and awareness of safety issues was 11.09 ± 2.66, 7.50 ± 2.36, 8.09 ± 1.92, 6.56 ± 1.58, 8.43 ± 1.56, 4.59 ± 1.58, and 4.25 ± 1.27, respectively. The dimension of understanding of risk and knowledge and awareness of safety issues were predictors of job satisfaction in workers. Conclusions: It can be concluded that attitudes of the examined miners toward safety climate were at a moderate level, and that the level of their attitudes increased after the HSE-MS training course. Therefore, safety climate can be greatly improved with HSE-MS training course.

Safety Culture in Cardiac Surgical Teams: Data From Five Programs and National Surgical Comparison

Little is known about safety culture in the area of cardiac surgery as compared with other types of surgery. The unique features of cardiac surgical teams may result in different perceptions of patient safety and patient safety culture. We measured and described safety culture in five cardiovascular surgical centers using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, and compared the data with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) 2010 comparative database in surgery and anesthesiology (all types). We reported mean scores, standard deviations, and percent positive responses for the two single-item measures and 12 patient safety climate dimensions in the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. In the five cardiac surgical programs, the dimension of teamwork within hospital units had the highest positive score (74% positive responses), and the dimension of nonpunitive response to error had the lowest score (38% positive responses). Surgeons and support staff perceived better safety climate than nurses, perfusionists, and anesthesia practitioners. The cardiac surgery cohort reported more positive safety climate than the AHRQ all-type surgery cohort in four dimensions but lower frequency of reporting mistakes. The cardiac anesthesiology cohort scored lower on two dimensions compared with the AHRQ all-type anesthesiology cohort. This study identifies patient safety areas for improvement in cardiac surgical teams in comparison with all-type surgical teams. We also found that different professional disciplines in cardiac surgical teams perceive patient safety differently.

Results of a community-based survey of construction safety climate for Hispanic workers.

Hispanic construction workers experience high rates of occupational injury, likely influenced by individual, organizational, and social factors. To characterize the safety climate of Hispanic construction workers using worker, contractor, and supervisor perceptions of the workplace. We developed a 40-item interviewer-assisted survey with six safety climate dimensions and administered it in Spanish and English to construction workers, contractors, and supervisors. A safety climate model, comparing responses and assessing contributing factors was created based on survey responses. While contractors and construction supervisors' (n = 128) scores were higher, all respondents shared a negative perception of safety climate. Construction workers had statistically significantly lower safety climate scores compared to supervisors and contractors (30·6 vs 46·5%, P<0·05). Safety climate scores were not associated with English language ability or years lived in the United States. We found that Hispanic construction workers in this study experienced a poor safety climate. The Hispanic construction safety climate model we propose can serve as a framework to guide organizational safety interventions and evaluate safety climate improvements.

Proactive occupational safety and health management: Promoting good health and good business

This research assessed the impact of organisational approaches to occupational safety and health (OSH) management on organisational performance, safety climate, employee attitudes, health and well-being. Interviews with health and safety personnel, company directors and worker representatives were used to categorise the organisations according to their approaches to OSH management, using the Continuous Improvement Cycle model (Budworth and Khan, 2003). A cross-sectional survey of 2067 employees from these organisations examined the impact of company size, industrial sector and approach to OSH management on indicators of organisational performance and employee outcomes. A structured questionnaire assessed demographic characteristics, organisation and job tenure, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, intention to quit and job motivation, safety climate, self-reported absence, performance and work-related ill-health. Organisations were also asked to provide data on profit, performance, accidents and absence indices. Organisations adopting a proactive approach to OSH management reported higher profit margins and lower accident rates, however these differences were not statistically significant. Organisations classified as ‘very good’ were found to show significantly more positive safety climate perceptions across eight out of the nine safety climate dimensions. Employees in proactive organisations were significantly more committed to their organisations and showed greater job satisfaction than employees in organisations categorised as ‘yet to be fully engaged/complier’. Positive safety climate perceptions and organisational attitudes were associated with better self-reported physical and mental health. The findings add to the validation of the CIC model as an assessment and learning tool which may support the transition of organisations from reactive to proactive safety culture.

Measurement equivalence of a safety climate scale across multiple trucking companies

To promote and establish a safe environment in an organization, it is critical to get an accurate measurement and understanding of employees’ safety climate perceptions. The goals of the current study were (1) to assess the measurement equivalence (ME) of the safety climate scale for mobile lone workers developed by Huang et al. (2013, Transp. Res. Part F Traffic Psychol. Behav., 17, 5) across different trucking companies with different managerial and safety practices and (2) to adopt confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)‐based and item response theory (IRT)‐based ME testing techniques that allow for more reliable measurement of important psychological safety constructs and accurate use of the measure. ME refers to the extent to which scales or items have the same measurement implications, such as factor structure of the scale, amount of explained variance with the scale constructs, and item functioning parameters from IRT framework, and are interchangeable across measurement situations. Based on the shared mental model theory, social learning theory, and social exchange theory, ME of safety climate was examined across the eight trucking companies recruited in the Huang et al.'s study. A CFA‐based linear approach and an IRT‐based nonlinear approach were used. Results supported that the safety climate scale items and measurement constructs have consistent meaning across different trucking companies, and the safety climate scores based on the scales can be used for the comparison of safety climate levels across multiple trucking companies as well as safety climate interventions.Practitioner points Generalizability of psychological measurement tools, such as safety climate scales, can be examined with ME analysis based on CFA and IRT frameworks. Measurement equivalence of the trucking industry‐specific safety climate scale (Huang et al., 2013) was supported across multiple trucking companies, indicating that there may be common features of safety climate dimensions that are particularly relevant to the trucking industry. The trucking industry‐specific safety climate scale can be used to gauge the level of safety climate within a given trucking company and to make cross‐company comparisons.

Safety climate, safety behavior, and worker injuries in the Chinese manufacturing industry

It is estimated that over 10,000,000 occupational injuries occur in China each year. This study explored the relationships between four dimensions of safety climate (management commitment, safety supervision, coworker support, and safety training), three dimensions of safety behavior (safety compliance, personal protective equipment, and safety initiatives), and occupational injuries among Chinese manufacturing workers. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a sample of 3970 manufacturing workers from 42 companies in Zhongshan City, China. A structured questionnaire was used to capture participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, occupational safety climate, occupational safety behavior, and occupational injuries in the previous year. Path analysis was used to test the relationships between safety climate, safety behavior and injuries at each workplace. The results revealed significant associations between different safety climates, safety behavior, and unintentional injuries, and provided evidence that safety behavior strongly mediates the relationship between safety climate and unintentional injuries. Our study reinforces the empirical association of occupational safety climate and safety behavior with occupational injuries and identifies some effective measures to prevent and control injuries in Chinese workplaces.

Perceived Safety Climate and Organizational Trust: The Mediator Role of Job Satisfaction

ObjectivesThe goal of the current study is to emphasize the mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between the perception of safety climate and organizational trust and to highlight the impact of the safety climate dimensions on the organizational trust dimensions. ParticipantsThe present study was built collecting data from 147 participants from the health system. MethodologyThe design used in the study was transversal, predictive intragroup correlation type. ResultsJob satisfaction is a partial mediator in the relationship between the perception of safety climate and organizational trust.

Safety climate, perceived risk, and involvement in safety management

This article examines the relationship between safety climate, risk perception and involvement in safety management by first-line managers (FLM). Sixty-three FLMs from two French nuclear plants answered a questionnaire measuring perceived workplace safety climate, perceived risk, and involvement in safety management. We hypothesized that a positive perception of safety climate would promote substantial involvement in safety management, and that this effect would be stronger than the perceived-risk effect. We also expected that safety climate dimensions would have a different impact on involvement in safety management. Especially, we expected climate dimensions dealing with safety-related exchanges between managers and their supervisees to be more related to FLMs’ involvement in safety management. As expected, perceived risk, as well as safety climate, was related to FLMs’ involvement in safety management: the more they perceived risks as probable and serious for their supervisees, the more involved they got in safety management. Similarly, FLMs who perceived a good safety climate in their company reported getting more involved in safety management than did FLMs who perceived a poor safety climate. Moreover, the results showed that safety climate was the key variable because it completely mediated the effect of perceived risk on involvement in safety management. Another important result showed that immediate supervisor encouragement was more influential than senior management views on safety. Furthermore, the fact of being called upon by supervisees on safety issues prompted the FLMs to be more involved in safety management. Possible avenues for improving the involvement of FLMs in safety management are suggested.

Core Dimensions of the Construction Safety Climate for a Standardized Safety-Climate Measurement

AbstractThe prevalent disparity and divergence in the identification of safety-climate dimensions in the academia cause general confusion and inconvenience to both construction researchers and practitioners in terms of safety-climate measurement. Existing review studies identified several key dimensions or common features of safety climate, but only in a qualitative way. Whether these common features fit the reality and reflect the essence of construction safety climate is still to be verified by empirical studies. This research defined the core dimension and specific dimension of safety climate, identified the four most commonly used dimensions, and built a core dimension structure of safety climate accordingly. Empirical data collected from 21 Chinese construction enterprises were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. The proposed core dimension structure and the corresponding measurement scale were validated rigorously by structural equation modeling approaches. Furthermore, two specific s...

Development and Validation of a Safety Climate Scale for Manufacturing Industry.

BackgroundThis paper describes the development of a scale for measuring safety climate.MethodsThis study was conducted in six manufacturing companies in Iran. The scale developed through conducting a literature review about the safety climate and constructing a question pool. The number of items was reduced to 71 after performing a screening process.ResultsThe result of content validity analysis showed that 59 items had excellent item content validity index (≥ 0.78) and content validity ratio (> 0.38). The exploratory factor analysis resulted in eight safety climate dimensions. The reliability value for the final 45-item scale was 0.96. The result of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the safety climate model is satisfactory.ConclusionThis study produced a valid and reliable scale for measuring safety climate in manufacturing companies.

Hospital unit safety climate: Relationship with nurses' adherence to recommended use of facial protective equipment

BackgroundDespite the existence of formal guidelines for the acute health care sector, nurses' adherence to recommended use of facial protective equipment (FPE) to prevent occupational transmission of communicable respiratory disease remains suboptimal. In addition to individual factors such as knowledge and education, group factors such as shared perceptions of organizational support for safety may influence adherence. These group safety climate perceptions can differ depending on the pace and type of work, local leadership, and organizational structure of each unit.MethodsAn analysis of a data set from a cross-sectional survey of 1,074 nurses in 45 units of 6 acute care hospitals was conducted. Variance components analysis was performed to examine the variance in perceptions of safety climate and adherence between units. Hierarchical linear modeling using unit-level safety climate dimensions was conducted to determine if unit-level safety climate dimensions were predictors of nurses' adherence to FPE.ResultsFindings revealed statistically significant unit variances in adherence and 5 of the 6 unit-level safety climate dimensions (P < .05). Furthermore, a hierarchical model suggested that tenure and unit-level communication were significantly associated with increased adherence to FPE (P < .05).ConclusionUnit-level safety climate measures varied significantly between units. Strategies to improve unit-level communication regarding safety should assist in improving adherence to FPE.

Does lean management improve patient safety culture? An extensive evaluation of safety culture in a radiotherapy institute

PurposeThe importance of a safety culture to maximize safety is no longer questioned. However, achieving sustainable culture improvements are less evident. Evidence is growing for a multifaceted approach, where multiple safety interventions are combined. Lean management is such an integral approach to improve safety, quality and efficiency and therefore, could be expected to improve the safety culture. This paper presents the effects of lean management activities on the patient safety culture in a radiotherapy institute. MethodsPatient safety culture was evaluated over a three year period using triangulation of methodologies. Two surveys were distributed three times, workshops were performed twice, data from an incident reporting system (IRS) was monitored and results were explored using structured interviews with professionals. Averages, chi-square, logistical and multi-level regression were used for analysis. ResultsThe workshops showed no changes in safety culture, whereas the surveys showed improvements on six out of twelve dimensions of safety climate. The intention to report incidents not reaching patient-level decreased in accordance with the decreasing number of reports in the IRS. However, the intention to take action in order to prevent future incidents improved (factorial survey presented β: 1.19 with p: 0.01). ConclusionsDue to increased problem solving and improvements in equipment, the number of incidents decreased. Although the intention to report incidents not reaching patient-level decreased, employees experienced sustained safety awareness and an increased intention to structurally improve. The patient safety culture improved due to the lean activities combined with an organizational restructure, and actual patient safety outcomes might have improved as well.

On the CUSP: Stop BSI: Evaluating the relationship between central line–associated bloodstream infection rate and patient safety climate profile

Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) remains one of the most common and deadly hospital acquired infections in the United States. Creating a culture of safety is an important part of healthcare-associated infection improvement efforts; however, few studies have robustly examined the role of safety climate in patient safety outcomes. We applied a pattern-based approach to measuring safety climate to investigate the relationship between intensive care unit (ICU) patient safety climate profiles and CLABSI rates. Secondary analyses of data collected from 237 adult ICUs participating in the On the CUSP: Stop BSI project. Unit-level baseline scores on the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety, a survey designed to assess patient safety climate, and CLABSI rates, were investigated. Three climate profile characteristics were examined: profile elevation, variability, and shape. Zero-inflated Poisson analyses suggested an association between the relative incidence of CLABSI and safety climate profile shape. K-means cluster analysis revealed 5 climate profile shapes. ICUs with conflicting climates and nonpunitive climates had a significantly higher CLABSI risk compared with ICUs with generative leadership climates. Relative CLABSI risk was related to safety climate profile shape. None of the climate profile shapes was related to the odds of reporting zero CLABSI. Our findings support using pattern-based methods for examining safety climate rather than examining the relationships between each narrow dimension of safety climate and broader safety outcomes like CLABSI.

La décision d’aptitude au travail des téléconseillers : à propos de 150 cas

It is estimated that over 10,000,000 occupational injuries occur in China each year. This study explored the relationships between four dimensions of safety climate (management commitment, safety supervision, coworker support, and safety training), three dimensions of safety behavior (safety compliance, personal protective equipment, and safety initiatives), and occupational injuries among Chinese manufacturing workers. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a sample of 3970 manufacturing workers from 42 companies in Zhongshan City, China. A structured questionnaire was used to capture participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, occupational safety climate, occupational safety behavior, and occupational injuries in the previous year. Path analysis was used to test the relationships between safety climate, safety behavior and injuries at each workplace. The results revealed significant associations between different safety climates, safety behavior, and unintentional injuries, and provided evidence that safety behavior strongly mediates the relationship between safety climate and unintentional injuries. Our study reinforces the empirical association of occupational safety climate and safety behavior with occupational injuries and identifies some effective measures to prevent and control injuries in Chinese workplaces.

Creativity for the rest of us:Examining status and creativity in a successful safety climate

This research examines how certain dimensions of safety climate influence the creativity of high and low status employees working in 21 outpatient hemodialysis clinics in the United States. Three s...

Patientensicherheit in der Hausarztpraxis

So far, there has been a lack of systematic data regarding critical incidents and safety climate in Swiss primary care offices. Therefore, a survey was conducted amongst physicians and nurses ("MPA") working in Swiss German primary care offices leading to a subsequent project on the telephone triage. Using a standardised questionnaire, healthcare professionals in primary care offices have been surveyed to determine safety risks and safety climate in their offices. The questionnaire consisted of safety-climate items as well as descriptions of 23 safety incidents. These incidents were rated in terms of frequency (appearance in the office during the past 12 months) and severity (harm associated with the last occurrence in the office). In addition, physicians and nurses answered an open-ended question referring to patient safety risks they would wish to eliminate in their offices. In the subsequent project, interviews and group discussions have been conducted with physicians and nurses in order to perform a process analysis of the telephone triage and to develop a tool that may help primary care offices to strengthen telephone triage as a secure process. 630 physicians and nurses (50.2% physicians, 49.8% nurses) participated in the study. 30% of the physicians and 17% of the nurses observed at least one of the 23 incidents in their offices on a daily or weekly basis. Errors in documentation were reported most frequently. As regards severity, the triage by nurses at the initial patient contact, errors in diagnosis, failure to monitor patients after therapeutic treatment in the office, and errors regarding the medication process were shown to be the most relevant. Most frequently participants wanted to eliminate the following risks to patient safety in their offices: medication (28% of all mentions), medical procedures in the office (11%) and telephone triage (7%). Participation in team meetings and quality circles proved to be relevant predictors of the safety climate dimension "team-based error prevention". Differences between occupational groups were found regarding safety incidents as well as safety climate. The results of this study show the telephone triage to be a relevant area of patient safety in primary care that has not been focused on so far. In order to enhance safety of the triage process a new project was initiated. The result of the project is a triage guide for primary care offices. This guide supports physicians and nurses in a joint and critical examination of office structures and processes related to telephone triage. The systematically observed differences between occupational groups indicate that the entire office team need to be involved when analysing safety risks and taking action to improve patient safety. Only in doing so, risks can be identified comprehensively. Moreover, measures can be taken that are relevant to and supported by all healthcare professionals working in a primary care office. This approach of involving the entire team forms the basis for the guide on telephone triage.

A means for measuring safety climate in the university work setting

To address the risks inherent to various occupations, risk management programs are typically put in place that include worker training, engineering controls, and personal protective equipment. Recent studies have shown that such interventions alone are insufficient to adequately manage workplace risks, and that the climate in which the workers and safety program exist (known as the “safety climate”) is also an important consideration. While safety climate studies have been reported for several industrial settings, published studies on assessing safety climate in the university work setting in the US are absent. Universities are particularly unique workplaces because of the potential exposure to a diversity of agents representing both acute and chronic risks. In addition, principal investigators within these universities operate independently often with minimal administrative oversight making it difficult to build strong a strong safety culture. The goal of this research study was the development and implementation of a measurement tool of safety climate specifically in the university work setting. At five universities, 971 participants completed an online questionnaire to measure the safety climate. The safety climate scores across the five universities ranged from 3.57 to 4.16 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 indicating very high perceptions of safety at these universities. The two lowest overall dimensions of university safety climate were “recognition of safety performance” and “department and supervisor's safety commitment”. The results underscore how the perception of an organization's safety climate is significantly influenced at the local level. The safety climate questionnaire developed for this study may be used in the future to measure safety climate in the university work setting.