Organizational Safety Climate Research Articles

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and enacted PSC for workplace bullying and psychological health problem reduction

ABSTRACTBullying at work has profound effects on both the individual and organization. We aimed to determine if organizational psychosocial safety climate (PSC; a climate specific to worker psychological health) could reduce workplace bullying and associated psychological health problems (i.e., distress, emotional exhaustion, depression) if specific procedures were implemented (PSC enactment). We theorized that the PSC enactment mechanism works via psychosocial processes such as bullying mistreatment climate (anti-bullying procedures), work design (procedures reduce stress through work redesign), and conflict resolution (procedures to resolve conflict). We used two-wave national longitudinal interview data from 1,062 Australian employees (Australian Workplace Barometer project) and structural equation modelling to explore relationships over 4 years. PSC Time 1 predicted enacted PSC and reduced bullying 4 years later. PSC Time 1 was indirectly negatively related to poor psychological health Time 2 through enacted PSC and bullying. Bullying Time 1 also gave rise to procedures which in turn reduced bullying Time 2. Our findings suggest a multi-component approach to prevent or reduce bullying. Procedures (to reduce psychosocial hazards) that emerge in a high PSC context are more comprehensive than those triggered by bullying (reactive procedures), and can therefore be more effective in reducing worker mistreatment. Building PSC and a strong climate for psychological health, and enacting PSC is fundamental to bullying prevention.

Railway safety climate: a study on organizational development

The safety climate of an organization is considered a leading indicator of potential risk for railway organizations. This study adopts the perceptual measurement–individual attribute approach to investigate the safety climate of a railway organization. The railway safety climate attributes are evaluated from the perspective of railway system staff. We identify four safety climate dimensions from exploratory factor analysis, namely safety communication, safety training, safety management and subjectively evaluated safety performance. Analytical results indicate that the safety climate differs at vertical and horizontal organizational levels. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the multilevel safety climate in a railway organization, presents possible causes of the differences under various cultural contexts and differentiates between safety climate scales for diverse workgroups within the railway organization. This information can be used to improve the safety sustainability of railway organizations and to conduct safety supervisions for the government.

Thrill and adventure seeking in risky driving at work: The moderating role of safety climate

Introduction Within many industrialized countries, the leading cause of worker fatalities and serious injuries can be attributed to road trauma. In non-occupational research, high levels of sensation seeking personality, and specifically thrill and adventure seeking, have been associated with risky driving behaviors. In work driving literature, high organizational safety climate has been associated with reduced risky driving in work drivers. However, the extent that factors such as safety climate and thrill seeking interact in regard to work driving safety remains unclear, and the current research examined this interaction. Methods A total of 1,011 work drivers from four organizations participated in the research. Surveys were distributed online and hardcopies were sent via mail. The survey included measures of thrill and adventure seeking, safety climate and work-related driving behaviors, as well as questions relating to participant demographics and information about their work driving. Results The results demonstrated that safety climate significantly moderated the effect of thrill and adventure seeking trait on driving errors, driving violations, and driving while fatigued. Conclusion These results suggest that the development of a strong safety climate has the potential to improve work driving safety outcomes by reducing the impact of particular personality traits such as thrill seeking within an organizational context. Practical application To improve work driving safety, organizations and management need to develop strategies to encourage and foster positive work driving safety climate, particularly within work settings that may attract thrill and adventure seeking employees.

Perceptions of Safety Climate in the Air Traffic Control Facilities in China.

This paper uses survey to assess air traffic controllers’ perceptions of organization safety strategy and safety behavior outcome in China. The survey was taken from four Chinese air traffic control facilities across the country. The survey was constructed based on safety culture pyramid theory and measured safety behavior, safety climate, safety strategies, and safety value in organizations. This paper studies the safety culture in Chinese air traffic controllers as a whole group as well as compares the difference between different regions.

Effect of Self-efficacy and Organizational Safety Climate on the Role Definition of Safety Behavior

조직구성원이 자신의 직무 역할을 어떻게 정의하는가가 직무 수행에 중요한 영향을 미친다는 기존 연구에도 불구하고, 이러한 역할 정의의 선행변인에 대한 연구가 매우 부족하였다. 이에 본 연구는 직무수행 중에서도 작업장에서의 안전행동에 초점을 맞추고, 안전행동의 역할 정의에 영향을 주는 개인수준 변인과 조직수준 변인 간의 상호작용 효과를 다수준적 분석틀을 이용하여 살펴보고자 하였다. 구체적으로 안전행동을 안전준수, 안전도움, 안전주도 행동으로 다차원적 정의를 하고, 각 행동차원에 대한 역할 정의를 개인의 자기효능감과 조직수준의 안전풍토의 상호작용효과가 예측하는 모형을 검증하였다. 16개 제조업 공장의 종업원 642명이 응답한 설문자료를 다수준 모형으로 분석한 결과, 해당 안전행동 차원의 자기효능감이 높을수록 그 안전행동을 자신의 역할로 지각하는 정도가 높았다. 또한 안전도움과 안전주도 행동에 대해서는 자기효능감과 안전 행동 역할 정의의 관계가 조직의 안전풍토 수준에 의해 조절되는 것으로 나타났다. 즉, 안전행동역할 정의에 대한 자기효능감의 효과는 안전풍토가 높은 조직에 속한 개인들에게 더 높았다. 이러한 결과에 대한 이론적 그리고 적용적 시사점과 향후 연구에 대한 제안을 논의하였다.Despite previous findings that the role definition of an employee significantly influences his/her work performance, little research has been conducted to understand the antecedents of role definition. This study therefore examined whether the self-efficacy of an individual and the organizational safety climate jointly affect the role definition of multi-dimensional safety behavior. A multi-level modeling of survey data from 642 individual employees of 16 manufacturing organizations, showed that self-efficacy for safety behavior was positively related to the role definition of the behavior. Moreover, the relationship between self-efficacy and role definition of safety performance was moderated by organizational safety climate for helping and proactive safety behavior dimensions. That is to say, the effect of self-efficacy on role definition of the safety behavior was greater for individuals belonging to organizations with higher safety climate. Theoretical as well as practical implications of the current findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

How is Safety Climate Formed? A Meta-Analysis of the Determinants of Safety Climate

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to provide a comprehensive quantitative review of research to date on the antecedents of psychological and organizational safety climate. Building upon and exp...

Safe patient handling behaviors and lift use among hospital nurses: A cross-sectional study

PurposePatient handling is well known for the risk of musculoskeletal injury. Safe work practices are important to reduce risk of injury while performing patient handling tasks. This study investigated factors associated with safe patient handling behaviors and lift use among hospital nurses in the United States. MethodsThis study analyzed cross-sectional survey data from a statewide random sample of 221 hospital nurses in California who had patient handling duties. Safe patient handling behaviors and lift use were examined for the relationships with demographic characteristics, organizational safety practices, physical and psychosocial job factors, musculoskeletal symptoms, and perceptions about lift use and risk of injury. ResultsIn multivariable logistic regression, high safe patient handling behaviors were significantly associated with a positive organizational safety climate (Odds Ratio [OR]=2.76, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.51–5.03), people-oriented culture (OR=2.59, 95% CI 1.45–4.62), and ergonomic practices (OR=1.67, 95% CI 1.04–2.67). High lift use (>50% of the time when needed) were significantly associated with high lift availability (OR=3.1, 95% CI 1.06–9.01) and positive perceptions about lift use (OR=3.48, 95% CI 1.63–7.44). In bivariate analysis, high safe patient handling behaviors were associated with shorter height, non-White race, lower physical workload, lower job strain, higher job satisfaction, and less musculoskeletal symptoms. ConclusionsThe study findings underscore the importance of organizational safety practices and culture to promote safe work practices for patient handling injury prevention. Also, making lift equipment readily available and improving positive perceptions and experiences about lifts can be crucial to ensure the use of lift equipment.

The patient safety climate in healthcare organizations (PSCHO) survey: Short-form development.

Measures of safety climate are increasingly used to guide safety improvement initiatives. However, cost and respondent burden may limit the use of safety climate surveys. The purpose of this study was to develop a 15- to 20-item safety climate survey based on the Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organizations survey, a well-validated 38-item measure of safety climate. The Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organizations was administered to all senior managers, all physicians, and a 10% random sample of all other hospital personnel in 69 private sector hospitals and 30 Veterans Health Administration hospitals. Both samples were randomly divided into a derivation sample to identify a short-form subset and a confirmation sample to assess the psychometric properties of the proposed short form. The short form consists of 15 items represented 3 overarching domains in the long-form scale-organization, work unit, and interpersonal. The proposed short form efficiently captures 3 important sources of variance in safety climate: organizational, work-unit, and interpersonal. The short-form development process was a practical method that can be applied to other safety climate surveys. This safety climate short form may increase response rates in studies that involve busy clinicians or repeated measures.

Developing a Conceptual Model of Organizational Safety Risk:Case Studies of Aircraft Maintenance Organizations in Indonesia

Abstract In Indonesia, the rate of accident and serious incident of aircraft have reached alarming stage. National Transportation Safety Committee affirmed that human errors played the biggest role from period 2007 – 2013. Although there are several possible causes for human error, one of the most critical elements is the quality of Aircraft Maintenance Organization, especially the human resources.To get basic knowledge of human factor, the first step of this study is literature study. The literature reviews showed that there are at least four factors that influenced human errors. They are Organizational Design, Safety Climate, Safety Performance, and Safety Outcome. After the factors were discovered, the next step is choosing the methodology. Since most of the literatures used models to describe the situation, this study will use similar approaches. Ostroff et al Model (2003) and Christian et al Model (2009) are chosen among the model because they can represent the most accurate situations in Aircraft Maintenance Organization in Indonesia. To get an added value, after these two model are merged, Principle of Hoffman (2003) is used to give a better and upgraded model. The proposed model is then explained through six proposed hypotheses, in which two of them are the added values. To collect the suitable data for the model, the final step is deciding the operational variables which are described on the form of tables for each factor. Each variable is tested through sub-model. Method used for gathering data is questionnaire which uses Likert scale test. The result of Likert scale test and the sub-models will become the proposed model. The proposed model is expected to give Aircraft Maintenance Organization a better understanding on human error and make them focus their improvement on human factor more so that the rate of accidents and serious incidents in Indonesia can be reduced significantly.

Underlying influence of perception of management leadership on patient safety climate in healthcare organizations – A mediation analysis approach

We aim to draw insights on how medical staff's perception of management leadership affects safety climate with key safety related dimensions-teamwork climate, job satisfaction and working conditions. A cross-sectional survey using Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) was performed in a medical center in Taichung City, Taiwan. The relationships among the dimensions in SAQ were then analyzed by structural equation modeling with a mediation analysis. 2205 physicians and nurses of the medical center participated in the survey. Because not all questions in the survey are suitable for entire hospital staff, only the valid responses (n = 1596, response rate of 72%) were extracted for analysis. Key measures are the direct and indirect effects of teamwork climate, job satisfaction, perception of management leadership, and working conditions on safety climate. Outcomes show that effect of perception of management leadership on safety climate is significant (standardized indirect effect of 0.892 with P-value 0.002) and fully mediated by other dimensions, where 66.9% is mediated through teamwork climate, 24.1% through working conditions and 9.0% through job satisfaction. Our findings point to the importance of management leadership and the mechanism of its influence on safety climate. To improve safety climate, the implication is that commitment by management on leading safety improvement needs to be demonstrated when it implements daily supportive actions for other safety dimensions. For future improvement, development of a management system that can facilitate two-way trust between management and staff over the long term is recommended.

Disentangling the roles of safety climate and safety culture: Multi-level effects on the relationship between supervisor enforcement and safety compliance

Despite increasing attention to contextual effects on the relationship between supervisor enforcement and employee safety compliance, no study has yet explored the conjoint influence exerted simultaneously by organizational safety climate and safety culture. The present study seeks to address this literature shortcoming. We first begin by briefly discussing the theoretical distinctions between safety climate and culture and the rationale for examining these together. Next, using survey data collected from 1342 employees in 32 Italian organizations, we found that employee-level supervisor enforcement, organizational-level safety climate, and autocratic, bureaucratic, and technocratic safety culture dimensions all predicted individual-level safety compliance behaviors. However, the cross-level moderating effect of safety climate was bounded by certain safety culture dimensions, such that safety climate moderated the supervisor enforcement-compliance relationship only under the clan-patronage culture dimension. Additionally, the autocratic and bureaucratic culture dimensions attenuated the relationship between supervisor enforcement and compliance. Finally, when testing the effects of technocratic safety culture and cooperative safety culture, neither safety culture nor climate moderated the relationship between supervisor enforcement and safety compliance. The results suggest a complex relationship between organizational safety culture and safety climate, indicating that organizations with particular safety cultures may be more likely to develop more (or less) positive safety climates. Moreover, employee safety compliance is a function of supervisor safety leadership, as well as the safety climate and safety culture dimensions prevalent within the organization.

Multilevel Safety Climate and Safety Performance in the Construction Industry: Development and Validation of a Top-Down Mechanism.

The character of construction projects exposes front-line workers to dangers and accidents. Safety climate has been confirmed to be a predictor of safety performance in the construction industry. This study aims to explore the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between multilevel safety climate and safety performance. An integrated model was developed to study how particular safety climate factors of one level affect those of other levels, and then affect safety performance from the top down. A questionnaire survey was administered on six construction sites in Vietnam. A total of 1030 valid questionnaires were collected from this survey. Approximately half of the data were used to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the remaining data were submitted to structural equation modeling (SEM). Top management commitment (TMC) and supervisors’ expectation (SE) were identified as factors to represent organizational safety climate (OSC) and supervisor safety climate (SSC), respectively, and coworkers’ caring and communication (CCC) and coworkers’ role models (CRM) were identified as factors to denote coworker safety climate (CSC). SEM results show that OSC factor is positively related to SSC factor and CSC factors significantly. SSC factor could partially mediate the relationship between OSC factor and CSC factors, as well as the relationship between OSC factor and safety performance. CSC factors partially mediate the relationship between OSC factor and safety performance, and the relationship between SSC factor and safety performance. The findings imply that a positive safety culture should be established both at the organizational level and the group level. Efforts from all top management, supervisors, and coworkers should be provided to improve safety performance in the construction industry.

Work Value and Occupational Hazard as Correlates of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Among Employees of International Brewery Plc. Ilesa, Nigeria

The importance of organisational citizenship behaviour can never be over emphasised in organisation striving for competitive advantage. Thus, this study examined employees’ organisational citizenship behaviour in relation to factors such as perceived work value, occupational hazard and the combined influence of both factors on organisational citizenship behaviour among employees of International Brewery Plc, Ilesa, Osun State. This is with a view to determining factors that influence organisational citizenship behaviour among workers. Primary data were used for the study. The data were collected from the 269 respondents, which cut across eleven departments: Production, Distribution, Technical, Commercial, Research and Development, Security, Management Information, Quality Assurance, Human Resource, Personnel, Accounting and Audit and Financial department using stratified random sampling technique. Three standardized Psychological Scales were used in the study. These were the Work Value Facet of Personal Life Value Questionnaire (WVFPLV), Organisational Safety Climate Scale (OSCS), Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Checklist (OCB-C). Data collected were analyzed using the appropriate descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Results showed a significant relationship between work value and organisational citizenship behaviour among employees of International Brewery Plc, Ilesa {r (267)=0.350), P 0.05}. The study concluded that work value has and occupational hazard jointly determined organisational citizenship behaviour.

Safety in the c-suite: How chief executive officers influence organizational safety climate and employee injuries.

According to social learning theory, powerful and high status individuals can significantly influence the behaviors of others. In this paper, we propose that chief executive officers (CEOs) indirectly impact frontline injuries through the collective social learning experiences and effort of different groups of organizational actors-including members of the top management team (TMT), organizational supervisors, and frontline employees. We found support for our collective social learning model using data from 2,714 frontline employees, 1,398 supervisors, and 229 members of TMTs in 54 organizations. TMT members' experiences within a CEO-driven TMT safety climate was positively related to organizational supervisors' reports of the broader organizational safety climate and their subsequent collective support for safety (reported by frontline employees). In turn, supervisory support for safety was associated with fewer employee injuries at the individual level. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for workplace safety research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record

On the relationship between safety climate and occupational burnout in healthcare organizations

The important concepts of safety climate and occupational burnout have been widely addressed by healthcare professionals. However, few researchers conducted comprehensive and detailed studies to investigate the relationship between safety climate and burnout, especially in healthcare organizations. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate and establish a relationship between safety climate and occupational burnout. In addition, the relationship between job and socio-demographic characteristics (JSDC) with both safety climate and burnout is examined. In the present study a cross-sectional design was conducted using questionnaires to measure safety climate, occupational burnout and JSDC of nurses while descriptive, inferential statistics, path analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied to test the relationships between the three parameters. The findings show a significant relationship between safety climate and unit type, job satisfaction, job interest, and stress. Likewise, there is a strong relationship between the lack of personal accomplishment and job satisfaction, job interest and stress. Also, safety climate has a strong correlation with both the frequency and the severity of occupational burnout dimensions. The results of the SEM also support a negative correlation between occupational burnout and safety climate, where a decrease in the latter is associated with an increase in the former.

An investigation of safety climate in OHSAS 18001-certified and non-certified organizations

Many organizations worldwide have implemented Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001 in their premises because of the assumed positive effects of this standard on safety. Few studies have analyzed the effect of the safety climate in OHSAS 18001-certified organizations. This case–control study used a new safety climate questionnaire to evaluate three OHSAS 18001-certified and three non-certified manufacturing companies in Iran. Hierarchical regression indicated that the safety climate was influenced by OHSAS implementation and by safety training. Employees who received safety training had better perceptions of the safety climate and its dimensions than other respondents within the certified companies. This study found that the implementation of OHSAS 18001 does not guarantee improvement of the safety climate. This study also emphasizes the need for high-quality safety training for employees of the certified companies to improve the safety climate.

Safety Climate in Organizations

Safety climate is a collective construct derived from individuals' shared perceptions of the various ways that safety is valued in the workplace. Research over the past 35 years shows that safety climate is an important predictor of safety behavior and safety outcomes such as accidents and injury. We first review the conceptual foundations of safety climate and explore how the construct can be applied to different levels of analysis. We then review ways that safety climate influences individual processes of sense making, motivation, and work behavior. Next, we explore the impact of safety climate on organization-level outcomes related to both safety and productivity. We conclude with suggestions for future research and practice to support the overall safety of people and organizations.

Safety climate, worker health and organizational health performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between organizational safety climate and organizational health performance outcomes (i.e. absenteeism, presenteeism, health care utilization) mediated by individual worker health. The authors used three pathways to examine this relationship: a physical pathway starting with physical safety climate and mediated by musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), a psychosocial pathway starting with psychosocial safety climate and mediated by emotional exhaustion, and a combined pathway starting with psychosocial safety climate and mediated by both MSDs and emotional exhaustion. Design/methodology/approach Three mediational multilevel analyses were conducted using a sample of 8,761 employees working in 177 health care organizations. Findings Although the findings did not support the hypothesized physical pathway, they showed that the psychosocial pathway worked satisfactorily for two of the three health performance outcomes (absenteeism and presenteeism). The combined physical and psychosocial pathway explained differences in the third outcome: health care utilization. Originality/value This is one of the few studies to include both physical and psychosocial pathways that lead to employee health and organizational performance. The results underscore the importance of paying attention to psychological health and safety in the health care workplace. Not only for the psychological health of employees, but also to improve their physical health and subsequent organizational health performance.

Organisational safety climate and occupational accidents and injuries: an epidemiology-based systematic review

ABSTRACTIt is widely accepted among practitioners and researchers that a good safety climate results in improved safety. However, there is a lack of systematic and detailed reviews summarising and evaluating the scientific evidence underpinning the relationship between safety climate and injuries and accidents in a company. The current research addresses this gap and studies the association of safety climate with accidents and injuries at work. Nine databases were searched for quantitative studies. After eligibility and quality selection, 17 peer-reviewed papers were analysed. Quality assessment was developed applying the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies (STROBE) guidelines, together with 9 appraisal criteria from Berra and colleagues (2008), Downs and Black (1998) and the appraisal tool from the University of Cardiff Weightman, Mann, Sander, & Turley, (2004). An evaluation summary statement was then constructed analysing the strength of the evidence provided by each study. Although 15 of the 17 studies included in this review provided full or partial support for the association of safety culture with accidents/injuries at work, scientific evidence is still unclear on the causal relationship between these two variables. Research is needed, especially longitudinal and intervention studies, to demonstrate in detail this association, which has been widely accepted in the area of occupational health and safety.

Safety climate in the operating room: Translation, validation and application of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire

BackgroundSafety climate assessment is increasingly recognized as an important factor in healthcare quality improvement, especially in operating rooms (OR). One of the most commonly used and rigorously validated tools to measure safety culture is the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). This study presents the validation of the Operating Room Version of the SAQ (SAQ-OR) for use in Portuguese Hospitals. The psychometric properties of the translated questionnaire are also presented. MethodsThe original English version of the SAQ-OR was translated and adapted to the Portuguese setting by forward–backward translation method and applied in a central public hospital. Scale psychometrics were analyzed using Cronbach's alpha and inter-correlations among the scales. ResultsThe internal consistency test yielded values around 0.9 for all 73 items. The CFA and its goodness-of-fit indices (SRMR 0.05, RMSEA 0.002, CFI 0.90) showed an acceptable model fit. Inter-correlations between the factors safety climate, teamwork climate, job satisfaction, perceptions of management, and working conditions showed moderate correlation with each other. 82 valid questionnaires were analyzed revealing significant differences in communication ratings between different jobs, mainly between surgeons (4.2) and between nurses and surgeons (2.9). Working conditions and job satisfaction have the highest score with 3.8 and 3.5, respectively, and perceptions of management have the lowest score (2.8). ConclusionThe Portuguese translation of the SAQ-OR reveals good psychometric properties for studying the organizational safety climate, however larger and further studies are required to compensate the lack of subjects in some items. Like other studies, this scale seems to be an acceptable to adequate tool to evaluate the safety climate. Results allowed to conclude that working conditions and job satisfaction are satisfactory. However, there is latitude for improvement, especially in the involvement of the management bodies as this factor has the lowest score for the majority of healthcare professionals.