Organizational Safety Climate Research Articles

Interprofessional collaboration mediates the relationship between perceived organizational learning and safety climate in hospitals: A cross-sectional study.

Organizational learning (OL) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) are said to enhance medical safety in hospitals, but the relationship between these variables has not been quantitatively tested. This study examines the mediating effects of IPC on the relationship between OL and safety climate (improvement, compliance, and patient/family involvement). An anonymous self-reporting questionnaire was administered to 1,495 healthcare workers from November 2021 to January 2022. The questions regarded the hospital's safety climate, OL, and IPC. A mediation analysis using structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the mediating role of IPC on the relationship between OL and the three safety climates. The indirect effect was estimated using 2,000 bootstrap samples. Responses from 643 healthcare workers were analyzed. The direct effects of OL were 𝛽 =.74, 75 (p <.001) on improvement and involvement and 𝛽 =0.1 (p >.05) on compliance. The indirect effects of IPC on improvement and involvement were 𝛽 =.14 (95%CI: .00 ∼ .06) and 𝛽 =.37 (95%CI: .04 ∼ .09), respectively. This study determined the mechanisms that enhance a hospital's safety climate, demonstrating that IPC mediates the relationship between OL and improvement and patient/family involvement. However, OL and IPC are not related to compliance.

Longitudinal investigation of restructuring, psychosocial safety climate and burnout in Australian universities during COVID-19 2020–2022

Australian universities have undergone considerable restructuring within the last few decades such as downsizing, unit amalgamations and adopting new digital work practices. This article draws together industrial relations and organisational psychology literature, exploring restructuring and effects within universities. It presents national data on university restructuring, levels of organisational psychosocial safety climate (PSC), and burnout from 2020 to 2022, from the workers’ perspective. Survey responses were collected across 39 Australian universities at 3 time points: 2020 (n = 2191), 2021 (n = 1731) and 2022 (n = 1373). A large proportion reported ‘high’ levels of restructuring at each data collection phase (2020 = 41%, 2021 = 56% and 2022 = 49%). A multi-level model showed that PSC is an organisational climate predictor of restructuring, and in turn, worker burnout. Hierarchical linear modelling of the longitudinal data revealed significant pathways and a good model fit. Findings suggest that organisations with poor climates for psychological health (i.e. low PSC) are more likely to restructure, which is then associated with higher levels of burnout. Primary-level PSC-focused interventions are needed to prioritise the psychological health of the workforce over persistent productivity concerns, which is the conventional driver of restructuring.

Political affiliation as a moderator of the relationship between organizational climate and COVID-19 vaccine readiness

RationaleOrganizations have a significant influence on their employees’ behavior and attitudes across a wide range of areas. A framework to bundle these effects is organizational climate. Here, we argue that in a highly polarized society, such as the United States, many types of organizational climate revolve around issues that are divided along partisan lines (e.g., diversity, sustainability, COVID-19). However, research on organizational climate has largely overlooked the idea that employees perceive these issues through a partisan lens. ObjectiveWe aim to address this gap by arguing that political affiliation constitutes a boundary condition for those types of organizational climates addressing partisan cleavages. In particular, we focus on the interplay of organizational climate and the partisan gap in COVID-19. We predicted that the effect of organizational COVID-19 safety climate on employees’ COVID-19 vaccine readiness is moderated by political affiliation. MethodsWe conducted a survey with 1158 U.S. citizens. To strengthen the generalizability of our findings, we took care to ensure that the gender and ethnicity distribution of our sample reflected the distribution of both variables in the U.S. population. ResultsAs predicted, results showed that the effect of organizational COVID-19 safety climate on employees’ COVID-19 vaccine readiness was moderated by political affiliation. Specifically, the relationship between organizational COVID-19 safety climate and COVID-19 vaccine readiness was more pronounced among Republicans than Democrats. ConclusionWe provide a new perspective on the interactive effects of organizational climate and political partisanship on attitudes to vaccines. Our research suggests that, when it comes to vaccine readiness, it is precisely those who are most vaccine-hesitant who are most affected by the organizations for whom they work.

Longer work experience and age associated with safety attitudes in operating room nurses: an online cross-sectional study

BackgroundPatient safety is fundamental when providing care in the operating room. Still, adverse events and errors are a challenge for patient safety worldwide. To avoid preventable patient harm, organisations need...

You make me anxious! Witnessing safety violations during the daily commute and at work leads to employee work withdrawal

AbstractSafety literature has traditionally focused on identifying and managing risk factors that lead to safety outcomes (e.g., injuries, accidents, death) at work. The current study takes a new perspective on employee safety and proposes that safety‐related experience has more general work implications. Drawing on theories of stress coping and workplace anxiety, we test a mechanism on how employees’ daily experiences of safety threats are related to their work behavior via negative emotional reactions. Specifically, we focus on employees’ experiences of safety violations on the way to work and at work during the ongoing struggles with COVID‐19. Our daily diary study (Level 1 N = 778, Level 2 N = 84; office workers in South Korea) shows that experiencing safety violations during the daily commute and at work is associated with increased state health anxiety at work, which then translates into work withdrawal on that day. Furthermore, we introduce organizational safety climate as an important mitigating factor of this stress‐coping process, as such a climate can emphasize management's commitment to safety.

Examining the Relative Importance and Association between Safety Leadership Styles and Factors Affecting Organizational Safety Climate

This study identifies safety leadership factors affecting construction site safety and organizational safety climate, offering suggestions for adopting optimistic leadership styles and a zero-accident vision. The literature review is done exclusively for identifying factors and improving core knowledge. This study developed a questionnaire to examine the relationships between the organizational safety climate and the safety leadership styles. The questionnaire was distributed to construction companies from all over India. The statistical analysis encompassed 396 verified responses from the survey, yielding an impressive 79.20 percent response rate. The valid responses collected were analysed to find the relative importance index and the association between the categorical variables. The results showed that “personal safety knowledge” ranked the highest while performing the relative importance index analysis. Furthermore, the chi-square analysis found two pessimistic leadership styles, namely “laissez-faire leadership” and “management-by-exception”, significantly associated with the safety climate. The study implies that the target audience must avoid adopting the two pessimistic leadership styles to improve the organizational safety climate. This study examines the various safety leadership styles practised among construction professionals for the first time in India. Specifically, it identifies critical factors that affect the organizational safety climate and pessimistic leadership styles that diminish the safety outcomes of the construction site. The results act as an eye-opener for the targeted audience (like senior and middle-level management professionals, academicians, and upcoming researchers) to enhance the safety of construction sites by adopting optimistic leadership styles with an idea of a ‘zero accident’ construction premises.

The effect of safety climate in workplaces on productive organizational energy of employees: a research in textile industry

PurposeThe aim of this study is to reveal the effects of “safety climate” on “productive organizational energy”, based on the idea that higher energy and productivity will be seen in employees with the improved safety climate in the working environment.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, data were collected using an online questionnaire from 426 employees of small and medium-sized textile enterprises in the Organized Industrial Zone in the Turkish province of Gaziantep. The “easy sampling” method was applied, one of the sampling techniques not based on probability. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the effects of the “Management's perspectives and rules” and “Colleagues and safety trainings” sub-dimensions of the safety climate on the “emotional”, “cognitive” and “behavioral” components of productive energy.FindingsThe findings showed that the safety climate in the workplace positively and significantly affects the productive organizational energy of employees. In addition, it was observed that the management's perspective and rules had a higher impact on productive organizational energy in attitudes towards the safety climate and productive energies of these employees compared to safety pieces of training.Practical implicationsFirst of all, the result of this study and the positive results that the safety climate in organizations might cause have been noted. It has been demonstrated that the productive energies of the employees will increase if the necessary safety climate is established in the enterprises. In addition, despite the importance attached to the safety training of the employees, as a result of the analysis, it has been determined that the management's perspective and rules (ß = 0.61; p < 0.01) have a higher positive effect on the productive energy of the employees. If these situations are considered by the managers, it is expected that the occupational health and safety management strategies created for the employees will contribute to the formation of positive behaviors in the employees.Originality/valueThe driving force of the present study is that, to our knowledge, there has been no research on this issue related to employees who are mentioned as a critical force in solving productivity and whose number is about 26 million in Turkey's population.

Psychosocial safety climate: Measurement and relationship with well-being in a four-wave longitudinal study during remote work.

To create healthy workplaces, organizations need tools for assessing factors contributing to employee well-being. Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) refers to shared perceptions regarding the extent to which psychological health and safety are prioritized in organizations; it is operationalized in the PSC scale. We evaluated the factor structure of the Finnish version of the PSC-4 scale, its invariance across time and concurrent and predictive relationships with perceived stress, job exhaustion, and work engagement. Moreover, the mean-level changes in PSC and well-being during enforced remote work were studied. Participants were 442 higher education employees who completed a well-being survey four times between April 2020 and February 2021. The longitudinal factor structure of the PSC-4 and well-being indicators were investigated using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The statistical analyses supported the one-factor structure of the PSC-4 and its measurement invariance across time. PSC was negatively associated with concurrent stress and job exhaustion and positively associated with concurrent work engagement at each measurement. Moreover, PSC predicted subsequent stress between each time point. Cross-lagged effects were also evident for job exhaustion at T2-T3 and T3-T4 and for work engagement at T1-T2. The mean level of PSC decreased during enforced remote work. To conclude, the Finnish PSC-4 is a valid tool for evaluating perceived psychosocial safety climate in organizations. PSC predicted well-being over time and showed subsequent relationships with job exhaustion and work engagement, which is a new contribution to PSC theory and literature. Organizations need to design interventions to improve it, especially during stressful times.

The effect of benevolent leadership on safety behavior: A moderated mediation model

Introduction: While high quality leadership is of great importance for enhancing safety behavior in the workplace, there has been a lack of research on how benevolent leadership influences such behavior. Subordinates’ moqi (i.e., their unspoken understanding of the work expectations, intentions, and requirements of their superiors) and safety climate were introduced to examine this relationship. Method: Based on implicit followership theory, this study explores the relationship between benevolent (well meaning, kindly) leadership and employees' safety behavior, as well as the mediating role of subordinates' moqi and the moderating role of safety climate. 608 employees of a petroleum company in China were randomly selected as participants, and the data were collected in two stages. Results: The results showed that: (1) Benevolent leadership is positively correlated with employees' safety behavior. (2) Subordinates' moqi mediates between benevolent leadership and employees' safety behavior. (3) Safety climate moderates the mediating role of subordinates' moqi between benevolent leadership and employees' safety behavior. (4) The positive effect of subordinates' moqi on employees' safety behavior is enhanced under a positive safety climate. Conclusions: Benevolent leadership is an effective leadership style that enhances employees’ safety behaviors by promoting a moqi state between supervisors and subordinates. The invisible environmental climate, in particular, the safety climate, should be a key focus in the promotion of safety behaviors. Practical Applications: This study further broadens the research perspective of employee safety behavior from the perspective of implicit followership theory. It also provides practical guidance for improving employee safety behavior, namely selecting and cultivating benevolent leaders, enhancing subordinates' moqi, and actively fostering a positive organizational safety climate.

Difficult Times, Difficult Decisions: Examining the Impact of Perceived Crisis Response Strategies During COVID-19.

Crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, require rapid action to be taken by leaders, despite minimal understanding of the impact of implemented crisis management policies and procedures in organizations. This study's purpose was to establish a greater understanding of which perceived crisis response strategies were the most beneficial or detrimental to relevant perceptions and outcomes during the recent COVID-19 crisis. Using a time-lagged study design and a sample of 454 healthcare employees, latent profile analysis was used to identify strategy profiles used by organizations based on several policy/procedure categories (i.e., human-resource supportive, human-resource disadvantaging, behavioral/interactional human safety and protection-focused, and environmental and structural safety supports-focused policies and procedures). Results indicated that four perceived crisis response strategies were employed: (1) human resource-disadvantaging, (2) maximizing, (3) safety and human resource-supportive, and (4) inactive. Perceived crisis response strategy was linked to several employee well-being (e.g., work stress) and behavioral (e.g., safety behavior) outcomes via proximal perceptions (i.e., perceived organizational support, ethical leadership, and safety climate). Proximal perceptions were the most positive for employees within organizations that enacted safety and human resource-supportive policies and procedures or that utilized a maximizing approach by implementing a wide array of crisis response policies and procedures. This paper contributes to the literature by providing crucial information needed to reduce organizational decision-making time in the event of future crises.

An evaluation of violence prevention education in healthcare

BackgroundAn issue of international concern, violence towards healthcare workers from patients and visitors negatively affects the safety and health of workers and the quality of care they deliver. The principal intervention to address violence has been violence prevention (VP) educational programs for healthcare workers. Evaluating the overall effectiveness of VP education has been difficult due to pervasive underreporting of incidents, the complexity of healthcare settings, and the varying reasons for violence. MethodsA theory-driven, realist evaluation was conducted to examine the conditions under which VP education is effectively learned and applied in emergency department (ED) settings. Nine research sites included three rural, three community and three urban, tertiary care hospital EDs. Data from individual and focus group interviews with 136 participants was used to test a program theory (PT) of why and how VP education works, for whom, under what circumstances. ResultsThe initial program theory of VP education was based on a realist literature review and input from content experts. Qualitative data from the evaluation refined the initial program theory, yielding 15 explanations for how and why educational and workplace contexts influence ED workers' learning and application of VP knowledge and skills—ultimately reducing the risk of violence. While the explanations result from individual worker’s perspectives of VP education, they are situated in a broader context of organizational safety climate including organizational leaders’ response to employees’ experiences with violence and feelings of physical and psychosocial safety. ConclusionsThis research provides practical evidence for healthcare stakeholders to inform education, policy and practice decisions to increase the VP education effectiveness.

The Influence of Organisational Safety Climate Factors on Offsite Manufacturing Safety Performance

The construction industry consistently reports higher fatality and injury rates due to its inherent dynamic nature. As an alternative to traditional construction, offsite manufacturing (OSM) has become a construction method that presents many benefits including optimised schedule, quality control, waste reduction and improved site safety. Contrastingly, recent statistics on OSM indicated that in the USA for instance, the number of safety incidents were higher compared to traditional construction. There is a suggestion that organisations simply shift site-based construction activities to a factory. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence of organisational safety climate on OSM safety performance. Initially, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify organisational safety climate factors. Following this, 131 questionnaires were collected from Australian OSM practitioners. Finally, a Pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the influence of organisational safety climate on OSM safety performance. Findings asserted that safety communication has the greatest impact on safety performance. Contrary to traditional construction practice, greater influence from managers was identified over supervisors towards safety performance. The novelty of this research lies in its attempt to comprehend the association between organisational safety climate and safety performance, which may make contribution to OSM safety knowledge and practice.

The impact of various safety leadership styles on construction safety climate: A case of South India

The Indian construction industry is the second-largest job-providing sector in the country, which comprises many investments. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) report, India is a significant contributor to construction site accidents and fatalities among world nations. The poor Safety Leadership (SL) style and the diminished leader’s commitment to quality safety outcomes have caused misfortunes in construction sites. This paper aims to identify the impact of various safety leadership styles on the Organisational Safety Climate (OSC) predictors and propose a conceptual model explaining the relationship between SL styles and OSC. The study identifies six leadership styles from the works of literature: Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), Distributed leadership, Contingent reward, Laissez-faire leadership, Management-by-exception, and Superior’s empowerment leadership. Structured questionnaires were circulated for data collection among construction professionals working in metropolitan cities in south India. The collected data were analysed using the stepwise regression analysis and Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis to identify the SL styles influencing OSC predictors. The findings revealed that four out of six SL styles are optimistic. On the other hand, two of them are pessimistic, namely laissez-faire leadership and management-by-exception leadership style, which leads to an increase in construction site misfortunes. The outcome of this study helps the top-level management personnel build and develop a positive safety leadership trait to achieve quality safety outcomes of the construction organization.

Role of COVID-19 Risk Perception and Organizational Safety Climate in Preventing COVID-19 Among Taiwanese University Students.

Role of COVID-19 Risk Perception and Organizational Safety Climate in Preventing COVID-19 Among Taiwanese University Students.

Safe Working Environments: The Foundation of Patient Safety

Patient safety is a primary concern in the medical and healthcare industry. The safety climate (or culture) of a hospital is determined by the overall perception of its safety policies and the safety-related behaviors of medical staff that affect the quality of care provided by the organization and risk of occupational injury. The perceptions of nurses related to the hospital safety climate relate positively to their behavior in the workplace. An organization's safety culture determines the risk of patient care. Patankar and Sabin (2010) identified safety values, safety leadership, safety climate, and safety performance as important factors affecting the development and improvement of an organization's safety climate. Several papers in the literature have examined the characteristics (Lin et al., 2017), influencing factors (Wagner et al., 2020), outcomes (Arzahan et al., 2022), and improvement strategies (Lee et al., 2019) related to hospital safety climates. The occupational safety of medical staff and their compliance with safety regulations relate closely to patient safety and care outcomes (Hessels & Larson, 2016). The most frequently used outcome indicators of hospital safety culture are mortality rate, length of stay, infection rates, and patient satisfaction. However, unsafe medical environments and work stress may hinder the compliance of medical staff with safety behaviors and affect the value they place on these behaviors. Furthermore, perceiving a working environment as "unsafe" induces physical and mental health problems and dissatisfaction, leading to work stress and causing occupational injuries, physical and mental health issues, increased turnover, and decreased work satisfaction (Arzahan et al., 2022; Kalteh et al., 2021). The working environment of nurses is highly complex and uncertain, and considered to be one of the most hazardous occupational settings. However, guaranteeing a safe and friendly working environment is the responsibility of every organization and also a basic employee right. The International Council of Nurses (International Council of Nurses, 2017) advocates that every nurse has the right to work in a healthy and safe environment that minimizes the risks of injury and illness. Therefore, patient health outcomes should not be the only focus when discussing hospital safety culture, and more attention should be paid to promoting a safe working environment for medical staff as well. In their study conducted in Taiwan, Lin et al. (2022) proposed that the safety climate of hospitals covers six dimensions. Three of these, including "experience of clinical jobs hindering the use of personal protective equipment," "perception of comfort using personal protective equipment," and "easy usage of personal protective equipment", have not been addressed in studies conducted elsewhere. These three dimensions, which all relate directly to work environment safety, earned relatively low mean scores from the nurses surveyed, with "comfort in using personal protective equipment" earning the lowest mean score of all. Although the safety of working environments in medical organizations includes many dimensions (International Council of Nurses, 2017), including biological (infection risk), chemical (chemotherapy drugs), ergonomic (improper design, lifting), physical (radiation, needle stick injuries), and psychological (workload, workplace violence), the accumulated evidence provides insights that administrators may use to further improve hospital safety environments. Lin et al. (2022)'s investigation of nursing management practices related to hazardous antineoplastic drugs found the availability of adequate and appropriate personal protective equipment to be essential to promoting a safe working environment. During the current coronavirus disease pandemic, the three Taiwan-specific dimensions related to personal protective equipment have great value in helping nurse administrators foster and assess the safety climate in their hospitals. In addition to showing that nurses use personal protective equipment for self-protection and the protection of clients, these dimensions also provide to nurse administrators specific directions for creating a safe working environment by providing to nurses adequate, comfortable, and easy-to-use personal protection equipment.

Communication Overload in Hospitals: Exploring Organizational Safety Communication, Worker Job Attitudes, and Communication Efficacy

ABSTRACT Hospitals represent complex organizations where a range of hospital workers, from physicians to administrators, encounter a deluge of information they must quickly process and act upon. New technologies implemented to streamline patient care, like electronic health records and wearable technologies, have both enhanced and complicated communicative exchanges between hospital workers and their organizations. Hospital workers feeling over saturated with workplace communication, and thus unable to effectively manage or interpret workplace messages, experience what has been labeled communication overload, which can negatively impact worker productivity and concentration. This study examines hospital workers (N = 303) in a Midwestern U.S. healthcare network, and uses structural equation modeling to offer a preliminary theoretical model that demonstrates the effects and outcomes of communication overload in high-risk organizations. The model offers theoretical implications through depicting communication overload as indirectly related to burnout, job satisfaction, and organizational identification through participation in decision-making and organizational safety climate. Results suggest that even if communication overload is an expected state in high-risk organizations, managers can prevent its negative effects on workers’ job attitudes by providing workers opportunities to get involved in organizational decision-making and constructing a robust organizational safety climate. Finally, we suggest pairings of organizational safety communication channels and sources through which high quantities of safety information can be communicated without communicatively overloading workers.

"I Was Given Three Marks and Told to Buy a Porsche"-Supervisors' Experiences of Leading Psychosocial Safety Climate and Team Psychological Safety in a Remote Academic Setting.

This study examines leading psychosocial safety climate (PSC) within the organization and psychological safety in teams in remote work conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These topical working life phenomena have an essential role in health, well-being and productivity in today’s working life, but they have rarely been studied in remote work context. A total of 26 supervisors and leaders at three Finnish universities participated in semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, resulting in four main categories: supportive and challenging aspects of leading psychological safety and well-being, supportive and challenging aspects of organizational psychosocial safety climate leadership, support for working as a supervisor, and characteristics specific to working in academia. The results indicate that leading psychological safety remotely requires more time, deliberation and intentionality than when working face to face, and that the role of remote interaction is underlined in it. As to PSC, it is important to improve the cohesion in leading psychological safety and health in academic organizations. How PSC is led in the organizations affects not only the general psychosocial working conditions, but also the possibilities for good leadership of psychological safety in smaller units in the organization. The study makes a novel contribution especially in understanding (1) leadership of PSC and psychological safety in remote work conditions, and (2) the reciprocal relations between leading psychological safety and well-being at the organizational level and the team level.

A tale of six climates: Reflections and learnings after the development of six industry-specific safety climate scales

Introduction: Researchers are finding merits in utilizing industry-specific safety climate scales that capture the nuances of context, and tend to show stronger associations with safety behavior and outcomes like incidents. Yet, to date, guidance around the practicalities of developing and validating such industry-specific scales is lacking in the safety science literature. Method: In this paper we outline our experiences developing six industry-specific safety climate scales and highlight strengths and limitations of our approach. We also briefly review the industry-specific safety climate literature and offer highlights for consideration when developing such scales. Our method to develop industry-specific safety climate scales followed an established best practice structure: literature review of existing published industry scales, collation and review of existing scale items, consultation interviews with industry experts, item drafting, exploratory and confirmatory statistical analyses, and finally, a real-world ecological validity test. Results: Our research highlighted the diversity of safety climate dimensions (both the conceptual and content domains of each dimension) when it is considered at an industry level. Also, the literature reviews revealed a dearth of industry-specific safety climate scales in the areas we engaged with, so our project filled a glaring gap in research and practice. Best practice safety climate scale development methods are provided to stimulate further research. Conclusions: We conclude with reflections on the nature of safety climate within and across industries, and offer suggestions for future lines of research across other contexts (e.g., national culture, geography, and regulatory settings). We suggest that industry-specific safety climate scales have a specific use case, such as identifying specific areas to improve and evaluating the impact of safety interventions. Practical Applications: This article provides applications for both applied researchers (to improve capabilities in safety climate scale development) and practitioners who wish to measure organisational safety climate and design effective interventions. Engaging with regulators to build safety climate scales is powerful because their personnel have rich experiences to share across multiple workplaces. Organisational researchers can engage with survey panels to build robust scales. Finally, industry-specific nuances can lead to richer insights into an organisation’s safety climate.

Organisational Safety Climate, Professional Driver Behaviours, and Crashes Among a Mixed Group of Professional Drivers

The current study compared different driver groups and investigated the relationship between safety climate, driver behaviours, and crashes in a mixed group of professional drivers in Turkey. Two hundred and sixty drivers completed the scales developed explicitly for professional drivers, Transportation Companies’ Climate Scale and Occupational Driver Behaviour Questionnaire, along with the demographic form. Freight drivers scored higher on risky driver behaviours than passenger vehicle drivers. Organisational safety climate predicted driver behaviours. When the organisations are more sensitive regarding work and time pressure issues (low level of pressure), drivers are less likely to speed, violate the rules, and get tired. Additionally, risky driver behaviours were related to more crashes. Specifically, driving while tired positively predicted crashes after controlling for the effects of age and annual mileage. Altogether, a favourable safety climate predicted safer driving behaviours, which was found to be related to fewer crashes. The results were discussed in detail.

Analysis of safety climate effect on individual safety consciousness creation and safety behaviour improvement in shipping operations

ABSTRACT Unsafe acts of ship officers have been a direct cause of many maritime accidents. In the maritime industry, much effort has been made to prevent unsafe acts and to improve safe behaviours of ship officers. The positive effect of organizational safety climate on human behaviour has been well documented in the literature. Within this context, this paper aims to pioneer the development of the measurement constructs of safety climate in shipping operations and analyze its impact on safety consciousness and behaviour of ship officers. Using primary data collected from 284 deck officers and captains, an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation model are used to reveal the relationship among the constructs of safety climate, safety consciousness and safety behaviour. The research results show that (1) safety climate generates a direct positive effect on safety consciousness and behaviour; (2) safety consciousness has a positive effect on safety behaviour; and (3) safety consciousness acts as a mediator between safety climate and safety behaviour. Its managerial implications and practical contributions lie in the provision of useful insights on how ship managers can effectively gain the improved safety behaviours of ship officers by appropriate introduction of safety climate and consciousness.