Improve Safety Behavior Research Articles

Using benevolent leadership to improve safety behaviour in the construction industry: a moderated mediation model of safety knowledge and safety training and education

Objectives. Despite extensive regulatory reform, safety research and safety programmes over the past several decades, the construction sector remains notoriously dangerous in different regions across the world. Despite the fact that effective leadership is crucial for improving workplace safety behaviour (SB), there have been insufficient studies on how benevolent leadership (BL) affects such behaviour. Methods. Using a cross-sectional design, this research examines the influence of BL on employees’ SB. The mediating role of safety knowledge and the moderating role of safety training and education were also observed. Data obtained from 413 employees of construction firms in Turkey were used to verify the links. Results. BL has positive influences on employees’ SB and safety knowledge. Safety knowledge has a positive influence on SB and partially mediates the BL–SB link. At a low level of safety training and education, the BL–safety knowledge link is weaker for firms whose employees receive low safety training and education. At high levels of safety training and education, both the direct and indirect links between BL and SB are stronger for firms with high levels of safety training and education. Conclusion. The findings significantly extend safety literature through the lens of implicit followership theory.

The Influence of Safety Leadership and Safety Climate on Safety Behavior is Mediated by Safety Motivation in Sugar Factory Employees

The sugar industry has complex production processes and involves various risks, including the high potential for employee accidents. To reduce this risk, the implementation of an effective work safety programme is required. This reserach aims to analyse the effect of safety leadership and safety climate on safety behaviour mediated by safety motivation in sugar factory employees. The method used is quantitative with data collection through questionnaires. The population of this study were all sugar factory employees in Indonesia, with a sample of 100 respondents selected using random sampling technique. Data analysis was carried out using Path Analysis in the SEM-PLS programme. The results showed that Safety Leadership and Safety Climate positively influence the Safety Behaviour of sugar factory employees. In addition, Safety Motivation mediates the influence of Safety Leadership and Safety Climate on Safety Behaviour, which indicates that Safety Motivation can strengthen the influence of these two factors on the safety behaviour of sugar factory employees. This reserach provides important implications for sugar factory management to pay more attention to aspects of motivation and safety climate to improve safety behaviour in the workplace.

A Bayesian network model integrating organizational, individual and psychological factors for strengthening construction worker safety behavior

Objectives. Construction worker safety behavior (CWSB) may be affected by a confluence of multilevel and interrelated factors. Cultivating and maintaining CWSB is vital for improving construction safety. Current studies focus on organization-level or individual-level CWSB antecedents. However, few studies have examined the influence of psychological factors on CWSB, thereby reducing the joint effects of multilevel factors on CWSB. Methods. To determine effective strategies for strengthening CWSB, this study adopted the Bayesian network technique to explore the interrelationships between CWSB and its antecedent factors. A Bayesian belief network model was developed and trained with data collected from Chinese construction workers, which connected organizational, individual and psychological factors with CWSB. Results. According to the sensitivity analysis, safety knowledge, safety climate and psychological capital are the three most significant influencing factors for CWSB. A combined strategy that enhances safety knowledge, safety climate and communication competence simultaneously is the most effective option for strengthening CWSB. The validation and robustness of the network showed good accuracy for safety behavior judgment. Conclusion. This study proposes an alternative way to improve safety behavior by identifying its interactive causes and illustrates the importance of initiating systematic safety measures, which may help to mitigate the problem of safety plateau.

RETRACTED: Critical safety climate dimensions for improved safety behavior: perspectives of construction workers

Although extensive research has been conducted to explain the high accident rates in the Indian construction industry, studies focusing on the contributions of the prevailing safety climate as an enabler of such incidences remain sparse. Safety climate plays a crucial role in shaping workers’ safety behaviors. Therefore, eliciting the perspectives of construction workers concerning safety climate dimensions that are critical for engendering improved safety behavior will provide valuable insights into the dimensions required to sustain the desired safety performance levels on construction sites. This study adopted a sequential mixed-methods research design. Purposively selected respondents and interviewees were surveyed and interviewed at various intervals. The study established that safety climate dimensions, such as effective leadership, effective communication, consultation, training, resources, incentives, and recognition, are critical in improving safety behavior among construction workers. The results of this study have significant implications for practice and knowledge, as they provide an approach for assessing the impact of different safety climate dimensions on the safety behavior of construction workers in India. Understanding these dimensions will lead to a framework for managing these challenges and improving construction safety performance. The study reported in this paper remains one of the few studies seeking to explore the impact of safety-climate dimensions on worker safety behavior in the construction industry.

A critical review of the feasibility of emerging technologies for improving safety behavior on construction sites

Introduction: Advancements in the modern construction industry have contributed to the development of a range of technology-based interventions to improve the safety behavior of front-line construction workers. Notwithstanding the extensive research on safety behavior, there is still a paucity of research on assessing technology interventions of safety behavior to provide an overview of their strengths and limitations. The present study aims to bridge this gap in the literature and identify the main trends of research. Method: A systematic review and critical content analysis are adopted to capture an overview of the state of knowledge on safety behavior technologies. As a result of searching Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases in the period from Jan 2010 to Feb 2023, a total of 359 potential studies went through the systematic screening process and finally, 48 representative studies were selected followed by an assessment of the feasibility and applicability of the safety behavior technologies. Results: It was found that safety behavior technology is characterized by seven technologies including virtual-reality simulation (T1), eye-tracking technology (T2), prediction modeling of safety behavior (T3), computer-based training (T4), drone/sensor-based hazard monitoring (T5), vision-based behavior monitoring (T6), and real-time positioning (T7). Conclusions: This research improves understanding of the status of safety behavior technologies and provides a critical review of their feasibility from the perspective of four assessment criteria including application, limitation, benefit, and feasibility. Practical applications: The categorizations of technologies add value to the body of knowledge in terms of generic requirements for their implementation and adaptation on construction sites.

Improving Behavioral-Based Safety Training in Using Verbal Commands Through a Theory-Driven and Feedback-Based Nonimmersive Virtual Reality Game: Development and Usability Study.

The construction, chemical, aviation, medical, and health care industries have used serious games for safety training. To our knowledge, serious games have not been developed focusing on behavioral change to improve safety through the use of verbal commands and instilling players with heightened awareness of their spatial proximity to other people in their surroundings. We aimed to develop a theory-driven serious game for improving safety behavior using verbal commands and validate the implementation of the theoretical frameworks used for game development. The game developed, KitchenSpeak, was a first-person character (FPC) game where users respond to in-game prompts to use loud verbal commands when they are approaching another employee's blind spot. In addition to using the SERES framework in guiding the general game design and development, and the Reflection, Engagement, Choice, Information, Play, Exposition (RECIPE) framework to inform the design of the game mechanics, we also applied gestalt laws of perception for graphic design to guide the design of the game's user interface. We conducted 2 evaluative tests (alpha and beta) to collect end user and stakeholder feedback on the implementation of the theoretical frameworks, as well as to collect relevant information for full-scale implementation and a future validation study. The alpha and beta tests had 8 and 40 participants, respectively. The alpha test results revealed that the theoretical frameworks were adequately applied; however, suggestions were also made to modify and improve the game. The beta test results suggested further improvements for the game design and found no differences in the perception of ease of play between participants with and without previous FPC gaming experience (P=.47; Kruskal-Wallis). Results suggested that the game met its design and theoretical requirements, and it would be easily playable by all players regardless of their previous experience in FPC games. A theory-driven and evidence-based FPC game titled KitchenSpeak was developed to teach the use of kitchen-speak terms in commercial kitchens. Evaluative tests were conducted to validate the implementation of the theoretical frameworks. Our main contributions are creating and validating game-based training to improve behavioral-based safety in the workplace and the incorporation of gestalt laws of perception for graphic design in the game's user interface.

Inquiry into channels of health and safety knowledge communication across the boundaries of the construction industry

Purpose Effective safety communication facilitates the sharing of relevant knowledge that helps to improve safety behaviours, such as superior hazard identification and compliance. This study aims to explore channels by which construction companies can effectively communicate health and safety (H&S) among communities of their operations. Design/methodology/approach Based on a quantitative research approach, this study addressed the knowledge gap through a cross-sectional survey of 250 contractors (comprising 155 building and 95 road contractors) involved in various projects in the Ghanaian construction industry. These contractors were selected by using a stratified simple random sampling technique. Data obtained from the survey was analysed through descriptive (i.e. frequencies, mean and standard deviation) and inferential (i.e. exploratory factor analysis) statistical analyses. Findings The findings from the mean scores revealed that all the 12 communication channels identified in the literature, confirmed through piloting and examined by the respondents, were important channels through which construction companies can effectively communicate H&S amongst communities of their operations. The exploratory factor analysis revealed a clustering of the 12 channels of communication into 5 components: “safety demonstration in the community”; “social media”; “mass media”; “community engagement”; and “opinion leaders”. Research limitations/implications This study offers construction project managers the means of managing one of the major stakeholders of a construction project (the community). It provides an actionable opportunity that can be leveraged strategically to integrate community members into projects to promote synergy and local content inclusion while gaining a peaceful atmosphere to achieve their project goals. Practical implications Practically, this study provides construction project managers with a means of managing one of the major stakeholders of a construction project (the community) and also demonstrates the integration of community members into projects to promote synergy and local content inclusion. This would give construction organisations a peaceful atmosphere to accomplish their project objectives. Social implications The social implication of this study is that the study offers society a means of creating safer Ghanaian communities by offering them the knowledge of identifying hazards and avoiding risky behaviours, creating a good safety atmosphere in these communities. Originality/value This study presents construction organisations with a unique opportunity to transfer and share novel external knowledge within a different social system (the community). It contributes to the state-of-the-art knowledge in H&S communication by providing channels through which H&S can be communicated in a developing country such as Ghana.

Causal inference of construction safety management measures towards workers’ safety behaviors: A multidimensional perspective

Workers’ unsafe behaviors are a major contributor to construction accidents. To improve safety behaviors, managers have developed comprehensive management measures. However, due to the complexity of workers’ unsafe behaviors, it is difficult to understand the specific impact mechanism of management measures on different types of unsafe behaviors, thus making it difficult to strengthen targeted management efforts. This research aims to uncover the impact mechanism of management measures on workers’ safety behaviors from a multidimensional perspective through a novel method of causal inference. A seven-week questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the multidimensional performance of managers’ and workers’ safety behaviors, getting a total of 5,608 valid questionnaires. Change rates and heatmaps were employed to illustrate the improvements and correlations of different management dimensions. Then, the Structural Causal Model-based causal inference was performed to quantitatively analyze the causal effect. The results show that the overall safety behaviors are improved significantly, and the correlations among management measure dimensions are strengthened after the interventions. Furthermore, it indicates that Objectives and Assessments, Safety Organization and Hazard and Emergency Management should be emphasized in the practice of safety management, as they have a continuous impact on workers’ safety behaviors. Meanwhile, while some management dimensions are improved, their impact on certain unsafe behaviors is still restricted in terms of stability and pertinence. These research findings contribute to the body of knowledge of construction safety management and benefit relevant practices by revealing the impact mechanism of management measures on workers’ safety behaviors in a detailed and comprehensive level.

Relationship between Safety Climate and Safety Behavior in Company X in Indonesia

Throughout 2019–2021, there was a considerable rise in total work accident cases in Indonesia, increasing from 210,789 to 234,370. According to the location of the incident, accident cases in the workplace also escalated from 139,999 to 144,929. The purpose of this study was to measure the maturity level of the safety climate at Company X in Indonesia and analyze its relationship with safety behavior. This was a quantitative study on a total of 200 respondents using a questionnaire as the data collection method. A structured questionnaire was used to capture the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, the safety climate, and safety behavior. Respondents participated in this study by responding to the items in the questionnaire distributed. The findings of this study indicated that the maturity level of the safety climate at Company X was at the adequate level with a very strong relationship between the sub-dimensional variables and safety climate. The relationship between safety climate and safety behavior was quite strong. This study emphasized that an increase in the level of safety climate could improve safety behavior. Therefore, increasing safety climate level is effective to reduce the incidence of occupational accidents.

중소규모 사업장에서 위험성평가 시행과 안전성과의 관계에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to conduct a study on the relationship between risk assessment signal and safety in small and medium-sized workplaces. While the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which will be applied to places of business with five or more employees, will be effected in January 2024, the accident rate in small- and medium-sized businesses is still high. Promoting safety behaviors and preventing accidents in small- and medium-sized businesses require analyzing the role of risk assessment, an integral part of the self-regulatory safety and health management system.
 In this regard, this study is aimed at examining the relationship between risk assessment and safety performance in small- and medium-sized businesses. The subjects of this study were 211 employees, working at small- and medium-sized businesses that hired less than 300 workers. The collected data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS 29 program, through frequency analysis and independent samples t test. The results revealed significant differences in the domains of safety climate and compliance, accident rates, safety as a top priority, and the level of risk behavior management in small- and medium-sized businesses, based on whether risk assessment was conducted or not. The businesses that conducted risk assessment, demonstrated a higher level of safety performance than those that did not. These findings confirmed that risk assessment is an effective system to improve safety behaviors and prevent accidents at small- and medium-sized businesses. Further research should be conducted on the implementation of risk assessment in small- and medium-sized businesses and their resultant safety performance, to encourage more companies to adopt this practice. This will also facilitate risk assessment to develop into an effective measure for preventing industrial accidents and protecting the health and lives of workers.

Enhancing coastal ecosystem resilience: Investigating the interplay between safety criteria and ferry employee's perceptions to address climate change impacts

Coastal ecosystems play an important part in mitigating the effects of climate change. Coastal ecosystems are becoming more susceptible to climate change impacts due to human activities and maritime accidents. The global shipping industry, especially in Southeast Asia, has witnessed numerous accidents, particularly involving passenger ferries, resulting in injuries and fatalities in recent years. In order to mitigate the impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between employees’ perceptions of safety criteria and their own safety behaviour on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. A straightforward random sampling technique was employed to collect data from 112 ferry employees aboard Malaysian-registered passenger boats by administering questionnaires. The findings shed light on the strong connection between providing safety instructions for passengers and safety behaviour among ferry workers. Safety instructions should contain climate-related information to successfully address the effects of climate change. The instructions might include guidance on responding to extreme weather events and understanding the potential consequences of sea-level rise on coastal communities. The ferry company staff should also expand their safe behaviour concept to include training and preparation for climate-related incidents. The need to recognise the interconnectedness between climate change, ferry safety and the protection of coastal ecosystems is emphasised in this study. The findings can be utilised by policymakers, regulatory agencies and ferry operators to design holistic policies that improve safety behaviour, minimise maritime mishaps and preserve the long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems in the face of difficulties posed by climate change.

Safety behavior in pesticide use among farmers of northern Greece: the role of information sources.

Farmers' compliance with common safety practices in pesticide use (i.e., keeping records of pesticide applications, reading the information of pesticide labels, and taking protective measures during pesticide handling) and the use of information sources about pesticides were studied in a simple random sample of farmers in Evros Province, northern Greece. According to the three common safety practices considered in the study, most farmers (56.9%) complied with safety practices. Nevertheless, a noticeable proportion of the farmers never kept records of pesticide applications (33.9%), never read the information of pesticide labels (20.2%), and never took protective measures during pesticide handling (24.8%). Farmers reported using up to six different sources of information about pesticides, but the majority (51.4%) reported using up to one source and almost one-third (33.9%) relied on own sources. The most common information source about pesticides was the staff of the agricultural supply stores, used by 88.1% of the farmers. Safety behavior was positively correlated with total sources of information (P < 0.01) and information by the agricultural supply stores (P < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that safety behavior was reduced in females, whereas it was increased in farmers with high education, high number of plots, and high level of information sources. Despite good levels of safety behavior by most farmers, keeping records of sprayings should be improved. Using multiple information sources about pesticides is crucial to improve safety behavior of farmers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Behavior-Based Safety on Rattan Workers at Trangsan Rattan Industry, Sukoharjo Regency Indonesia

A preliminary study conducted on twenty-four rattan workers at the Trangsan Rattan Industry Center showed various types of occupational health and safety risks including respiratory disorder due to exposure of fine dust, hand tools usage , chemical hazards of using rattan coloring, and Muscoskeletal Disorders ( MSDS) due to improper working positions. This condition encourages research to improve safety behavior for workers by identifying factors related to unsafe behavior and implementing Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) for workers . The BBS approach was carried out with four stages, namely Define, Observe, Intervene, and Test (DOIT), while the level of worker behavior was calculated using the Safety Performance Index (SPI). There were ten unsafe actions that were targeted for intervention for hundreds of workers. Through an intervention program which was based on a motivational intervention approach, the value of SPI in the Trangsan Rattan Industry Center increased by 36.21%.

The Mediation Role of Safety Attitude in the Impact of Resilience on the Safety Behavior of Coal Miners in China.

Resilience can improve the adaptability of coal miners to high-hazard and high-stress environments. After facing setbacks or adversities, resilience can enable coal miners to recover from bad mental states and have an optimistic safety attitude and positive safety behaviors. However, how resilience affects safety behavior and the role of safety attitude in the relationship have not been clear. This study systematically reviewed previous research on resilience, safety attitude, and safety behavior. By recovering 639 valid questionnaires, the validity and reliability of the resilience scale, safety attitude scale, and safety behavior scale for coal miners were verified. Hierarchical regression analysis explored the relationships between resilience, safety attitude, and safety behavior. Studies have shown that resilience positively affects safety attitude and safe behavior. Safety attitude positively affects safety behaviors and plays a role as a partial mediator in the impact of resilience on safe behavior. The theoretical contribution is that the resilience of miners has a positive impact on safety behavior. Moreover, resilience can also act on safety behaviors through the partial intermediation of safety attitude. The practical contribution is that managers of coal mining companies can promote the resilience and safety attitude of coal miners to improve safety behaviors and prevent accidents.

학령기 아동안전교육 프로그램 효과에 관한 메타분석

Objectives This study analyzed the overall effect of safety education through meta-analysis targeting studies related to effective school-age safety education program. Methods When the safety education program was conducted as an experimental study for elementary school students with an experimental group and a comparative group, 13 papers published in Korea by 2020 were chosen for this reason. All 33 full studies' effect sizes were calculated, and a meta-analysis was carried out using statistical transformation. Results The school-age child safety education program was found to have a significant effect, and in particular, safety knowledge showed the highest effect size. Among the child safety education programs, the effectiveness of safety education was found in the following order: activity and participation-oriented programs; assimilation and reading utilization programs; lecture-oriented programs using audiovisual materials; and web-based programs. Conclusions By focusing on activities and participation-oriented programs for school-age safety education, the effectiveness of school-age safety education can be maximized through effective media selection in developing programs to improve safety behaviors and attitudes as well as children's safety knowledge.

The Integration of NOSACQ-50 with Importance-Performance Analysis Technique to Evaluate and Analyze Safety Climate Dimensions in the Construction Sector in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, one of the fastest-growing sectors is the construction industry. With the increasing numbers of accidents, it is worth reviewing the preventive solutions to the threats that have been identified. Therefore, the aim of this study was to apply the NOSACQ-50 survey to measure the safety climate (SC), and to dissect the strengths and weaknesses of each dimension in the survey using the importance-performance analysis (IPA) method. Based on the results, several strategies for improving the SC were recommended. A total of 296 construction workers were involved. According to the proposed method, the major strengths were management and worker commitment to safety, prioritizing safety during work, workers’ trust safety systems, and management competence in safety. The weaknesses were unstrict judgment in safety issues, the absence of workers’ suggestions in establishing safety rules, and near-miss incidents that went unreported. To mitigate these gaps, management should focus on strict judgement in safety-related issues, reporting all incident types, periodic meetings or reports with the workers, improved safety training, and checkup rounds. The outcomes of this study will assist organizations by providing a new validated SC assessment methodology that will help in determining aspects of strength and weakness that affect their SC, which will improve safety behavior and reduce accidents.

Effect of Risk Perception on Safety Behavior among Chinese Frontline Construction Workers: The Roles of Social Support and Job Satisfaction

There has been a great controversy about the impact of risk perception influence on safety behavior. This study aimed to go a step further understands how risk perception can affect safety behavior and of how job satisfaction and social support may influence that relationship, based on the job demandsresources theory. Using a questionnaire survey, we collected data from 356 frontline construction workers from 12 construction sites in Chengdu, China. Risk perception was found to be a “challenge demand” that improved safety compliance, and a “hindrance demand” that reduced job satisfaction. In contrast, risk perception had no direct influence on safety participation. Job satisfaction suppressed the relationship between risk perception and safety compliance, while it mediated the relationship between risk perception and safety participation. In addition, social support moderated the impact of risk perception on job satisfaction, while job satisfaction increased both safety compliance and participation. Therefore, managers can improve safety behavior by improving social support and job satisfaction among construction workers.

The influence of psychosocial safety climate on miners’ safety behavior: A cross-level research

Safety behavior is critical for workplace safety in a high-risk industry, but few studies have addressed how a psychosocial safety climate affects safety behavior. This study aims to validate the influence of psychosocial safety climate on safety behavior among Chinese underground coal miners’ and examine the mediating role of perceived organization support and mental health. We selected the1600 miners from 35 coal mines in Shanxi Province. The hierarchical linear model method was adopted in the research framework. The findings revealed that psychosocial safety climate cross-level positively affects safety behavior. The psychosocial safety climate impacts safety behavior through the mediating role of perceived organization support, mental health and chain mediation of perceived organization support and mental health. Coal managers should pay more attention to psychosocial safety climate construct, thus can enhance perceived organization support and protect mental health, which can improve safety behaviors.

Do Family Affairs Matter? Work–Family Conflict and Safety Behavior of Construction Workers

Despite the extensive literature on workplace safety, the effect of work–family conflict on safety behavior has received little attention. This study aims to examine why and how bidirectional work–family conflict—work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC)—influences the safety behavior of construction workers. We propose hypotheses on the relationship between work–family conflict and safety behavior, the mediating effect of work engagement, and the moderating effect of family supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB). Data collected from 172 Chinese construction workers were analyzed using structural equation modeling. It was found that WFC had negative effects on safety compliance and safety participation, while FWC was only negatively related to safety participation. Meanwhile, work engagement was found to mediate the relationships between WFC and safety participation and between FWC and safety behavior. Finally, FSSB buffered the negative relationship between WFC and safety participation via work engagement. This study extends understandings of the influence mechanism and governance path of work–family conflict on safety behavior in the construction context and provides implications for improving safety behavior from the perspective of work–family balance.

A Fuzzy-BN DEMATEL model for predicting safety behavior

Purpose: Safety behavior significantly affects safety performance in the workplace. This study aimed to develop a Bayesian network (BN) model for managing and improving safety behavior. Materials and methods: This study was carried out in the chemical industries in Iran. The data were gathered by a questionnaire consisting of thirteen variables including organization safety priority, systems design, safety communication, safety education, work strategy, human-system interaction, mental workload, environmental distractions, work pressure, fatigue, sleepiness, safety knowledge, and locus of control. The BN structure was created using the Fuzzy decision-making trial, evaluation laboratory method, and expert opinions. Belief updating was used to find out variables with the strongest effect on safety behavior. Results: Locus of control, organization safety priority, and safety knowledge were the best predictors of safety behavior. Moreover, it was found that improving organization safety priority and safety knowledge is the best intervention strategy to improve safety behavior significantly. Conclusions: BN is a powerful tool that can model causal relationships among variables. Improving organization safety priority and safety knowledge can lead to the maximum, possible level of safety behavior.