Predicting safety culture: the roles of employer, operations manager and safety professional

Introduction: This study explores predictive factors in safety culture. Method: In 2008, a sample 939 employees was drawn from 22 departments of a telecoms firm in five regions in central Taiwan. The sample completed a questionnaire containing four scales: the employer safety leadership scale, the operations manager safety leadership scale, the safety professional safety leadership scale, and the safety culture scale. The sample was then randomly split into two subsamples. One subsample was used for measures development, one for the empirical study. Results: A stepwise regression analysis found four factors with a significant impact on safety culture (R² = 0.337): safety informing by operations managers; safety caring by employers; and safety coordination and safety regulation by safety professionals. Safety informing by operations managers (ß = 0.213) was by far the most significant predictive factor. Impact on industry: The findings of this study provide a framework for promoting a positive safety culture at the group level.     

Testing safety commitment in organizations through interpretations of safety artifacts

Problem

Safety culture relates to injuries and safety incidents in organizations, but is difficult to asses and measure. We describe a preliminary test of assessing an organization's safety culture by examining employee interpretations of organizational safety artifacts (safety signs).

Method

We collected data in three organizations using a new safety culture assessment tool that we label the Safety Artifact Interpretation (SAI) scale; we then crossed these data with safety climate and leadership evaluations.

Results

SAI were interpreted by employees in accordance with two conceptually distinct themes that are salient in the literature on organizational safety culture: safety compliance and commitment to safety. A significant correlation exists between SAI scores and the organizational safety climate. A similar (though insignificant) relationship was observed between SAI scores and leadership ratings.

Impact on industry

Employee perceptions and interpretations of safety artifacts can facilitate assessments of safety culture and can ultimately lead to understanding of and improvements in the level of organizational safety.     

Analysis of train derailments and collisions to identify leading causes of loss incidents in rail transport of dangerous goods in Canada

The Canadian railway industry has improved safety performance in the last decade as measured by freight loss incidents per billion gross ton-miles. Further improvements in safety performance require a deeper analysis of the leading causes to identify weaknesses in implementing safety systems. In this paper, we classify the causes of railway loss incidents using a Safety Management System (SMS) framework to identify system weaknesses. The role of human factors is further analyzed through the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) approach. For this, we utilized data from 42 main track derailments and collisions involving the transport of dangerous goods in Canada between 2007 and 2018, which have been investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada in detail. Associations between adjacent sub-categories of the HFACS framework are analyzed to identify any interdependency that exists between active and latent errors using a Chi-square test and Kruskal's lambda analysis. Furthermore, we implement the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method and the Analytical Network Process (ANP) to identify causal relationships between different sub-categories of the HFACS framework and calculate the weighted influence of each sub-category on main track derailments and collisions. Finally, a comparison is made between this work and others', which have analyzed human factors in the railway industry. There is good agreement between the results of these studies that highlight the importance of supervisory and organizational factors in the prevention of railway loss incidents. Based on these findings, we make recommendations to reduce railway loss incidents.     

Safety climate in university and college laboratories: impact of organizational and individual factors

INTRODUCTION: Universities and colleges serve to be institutions of education excellence; however, problems in the areas of occupational safety may undermine such goals. Occupational safety must be the concern of every employee in the organization, regardless of job position. Safety climate surveys have been suggested as important tools for measuring the effectiveness and improvement direction of safety programs. Thus, this study aims to investigate the influence of organizational and individual factors on safety climate in university and college laboratories. METHOD: Employees at 100 universities and colleges in Taiwan were mailed a self-administered questionnaire survey; the response rate was 78%. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that organizational category of ownership, the presence of a safety manager and safety committee, gender, age, title, accident experience, and safety training significantly affected the climate. Among them, accident experience and safety training affected the climate with practical significance. RECOMMENDATIONS: The authors recommend that managers should address important factors affecting safety issues and then create a positive climate by enforcing continuous improvements.     

Occupational Safety Culture Index (OSCI)——measuring the community and employees awareness,attitude and knowledge towards workplace safety and health in Hong Kong SAR

Promoting occupational safety and health in Hong Kong,Special Administrative Region of China is an important and ongoing mission. As the major organization with statutory responsibilities,the Occupational Safety and Health Council understand the importance to strengthen and cultivate our safety culture. It is widely believed that numbers of occupational related diseases and injuries could be prevented with the improvement of the awareness and attitudes of the employees and the public. Therefore,a comprehensive and in-depth study to monitor the occupational health and safety level and status of the community and working population is needed. Objectives: Our Council has developed the Occupational Safety Culture Index ( OSCI) to measure the current level of community and workplace safety and health awareness,knowledge and attitude. Benchmarking measures of the key safety performance indicators are to be derived thereof. Methods: A territory-wide random telephone survey was conducted to assess the community and employees’awareness,attitude and knowledge in 2008. A structured questionnaire was designed with the content validity and reliability assessed before the survey administration. A series of quality control approaches were also applied to assure the quality of the fieldwork and the reliability of the data. Results: 1,531 eligible participants’data were collected and computed into 2 types of composite indices,Occupational Safety Culture Index ( Community) ( OSCIC) and Occupational Safety Culture Index (Workplace) (OSCIW) . With the maximum score of index at 100,the overall score of OSCIC is 66. 9 and the OSCIW is 61. 3 in Hong Kong. Achievements: OSCI served as an effective management tool to measure the safety culture in Hong Kong. With a representative sample and high quality study control and validated assessment approaches,the OSCI and the sub-indices are reliable indicators to assess the effectiveness of safety culture enhancement strategy and the OSH intervention measures.     

Linking emotional intelligence to safety performance: The roles of situational awareness and safety training

Introduction: Safety outcomes in the workplace require individual employees to perform (behave) safely in everyday duties. While the literature suggests that emotional management capabilities or traits can be positively related to individual performance in certain conditions, it is not clear how they can influence safety-related performance in high-risk work contexts. Drawing upon trait activation theory, this paper aims to examine when emotional intelligence (EI) benefits employees’ safety performance. We propose that when employees receive inadequate safety training, EI is more likely to trigger their situational awareness and consequently promote their safety performance. Method: We collected time-lagged data from 133 full-time airplane pilots working in commercial aviation industry. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was conducted to test the moderating effect of safety training inadequacy on the EI–situational awareness relationship. The moderated mediation model, which involves conditional indirect effects of EI on safety performance via situational awareness across different levels of safety training inadequacy, was tested using the PROCESS-based bootstrap confidence interval. Results: Safety training inadequacy negatively moderated the relationship between EI and situational awareness, such that EI was significantly related to situational awareness only when safety training inadequacy was more salient. The more inadequate safety training was, the greater the indirect effect of EI on safety performance via situational awareness was. Conclusions: Inadequate safety training, as a negative situational cue, can activate individuals’ EI to drive their safety-related cognitions (e.g., situational awareness) and behaviors. Effective safety training may be able to complement employees’ low EI in shaping their situational awareness and safety behaviors. Practical Applications: Aviation managers should monitor the adequacy and effectiveness of safety training; this could make pilots’ situational awareness and safety performance depend less on personal attributes (e.g., EI), which organizations are less able to control. When training capacity is temporarily limited, priority might be given to those with low EI.     

Safety climate at agricultural cooperatives

Introduction: This study identifies determinants of safety climate at agricultural cooperatives. Methods: An extensive survey was designed to build upon past research done in collaboration with DuPont (Risch et al., 2014). In 2014 and 2015, the survey was administered to 1930 employees at 14 different agricultural cooperatives with 154 locations. Injury incidence data were also collected from each location to better understand the overall health and safety environment in this sector. An ordered probit model is used to identify variables that are associated with better safety climates. Results: Safety system components such as discipline programs, inspection programs, modified duty programs, off-the-job safety training programs, and recognition programs are positively related to individual safety climate for both managerial employees and nonmanagerial employees. Variables representing an employee’s agricultural background, distance between their workplace and childhood home, and formal education are not associated with managerial safety climate. However, agricultural background and childhood home distance are associated with nonmanagerial safety climate. Conclusions: Improving occupational health and safety is a priority for many agricultural cooperatives. Lower safety climate emerges as nonmanagerial employees have more experience with production agriculture and work nearer to their home community. Practical applications: Employees of agricultural cooperatives face a host of health and safety challenges that are likely to persist into the future. The safety system components associated with safety climate indicate that continuous feedback is important for improving occupational health and safety. Occupational health and safety programming should also acknowledge that many employees have experiences that influence their attitudes and behaviors.     

铁路劳动安全面向二十一世纪若干问题的探讨

论述了铁路劳动安全面向二十一世纪的几个对策性措施：确立铁道安全的正确观念，开展铁路安全评估，推行铁路安全文化，规划建设铁路劳动安全社会化服务体系     

What does ‘safe’ look and feel like?

In this paper, the authors answer the question and help readers to form a view of ‘what does safe look and feel like’? Five important aspects of safety are addressed logically: Safety Culture, Safety Awareness, Safety Function, Processes, and Training. In each part, rather than just address what elements are involved and the importance of every element, this paper also provides general ideas and examples to help improve the level of safety. While safety culture is to a large extent influenced by the leadership; a best-in-class safety culture can be self-perpetuating particularly if the initial journey to best-in-class safety culture embeds the concepts of safety awareness, safety functions, processes and training in the organization. The paper provides an overview of safety related actions, tools, and processes that High Reliability Organizations follow, and should serve as a benchmark for other organizations of all sizes in search of safety improvement.     

What is most important for safety climate: The company belonging or the local working environment? – A study from the Norwegian offshore industry

Obtaining knowledge about factors affecting health, safety and environment (HSE) is of major interest to the petroleum industry, but there is currently a severe shortage of relevant studies. The aim of this study was to examine the relative influence of offshore installation (local working environment) and company belonging on employees’ opinions concerning occupational health and safety. We analyzed data from a safety climate survey answered by 4479 Norwegian offshore petroleum employees in 2005 on the dimensions “Safety prioritisation”, “Safety management and involvement”, “Safety versus production”, “Individual motivation”, “System comprehension” and “Competence” using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), effect size and mixed model. The companies differed significantly for “Safety prioritisation”, “Safety versus production”, “Individual motivation”, “System comprehension” and “Competence”. The local offshore installation explained more of the safety climate than the company they were employed in or worked for did.     

矿区铁路安全管理信息系统的研究

针对我国矿区铁路运输安全管理落后的现状,分析矿区铁路运输安全管理的主要特点,设计了矿区铁路安全管理信息系统的总体结构。以徐沛铁路运输系统为例,基于B/S模式开发了徐沛铁路安全管理信息系统,实现了对职工的安全培训考核、职工安全档案管理、运输事故信息的录入与统计分析、各类安全文档的管理、技术措施的审批和安全直通车的功能。该系统已在徐沛铁路运输安全管理中得到成功应用,也可应用于其他矿区铁路安全管理。     

安全文化在复杂社会技术系统安全控制中的作用

随着复杂社会技术系统的发展 ,安全文化对于系统的安全运行越来越重要。安全文化是人们关于安全问题的价值观、态度及行为方式的集合体。人们往往在态度与价值观层次上利用问卷调查的形式探讨安全文化的维度结构 ,从而指导实践。安全文化在个体层面上通过影响安全绩效的决定因素来影响安全绩效 ,而从组织事故发生的路径来看 ,不良安全文化影响各级防御措施中的人与设备 ,是造成各种潜在失效和现行失效的根因。系统的安全控制应该充分利用安全文化进行管理 ,积极地推动安全文化建设 ,引导组织控制向社会控制转变 ,并且合理地应用安全文化评估进行组织前馈 ,从而更好地预防事故的发生     

Exploratory analysis of the safety climate and safety behavior relationship

Problem: Safety climate refers to the degree to which employees believe true priority is given to organizational safety performance, and its measurement is thought to provide an “early warning” of potential safety system failure(s). However, researchers have struggled over the last 25 years to find empirical evidence to demonstrate actual links between safety climate and safety performance.Method: A safety climate measure was distributed to manufacturing employees at the beginning of a behavioral safety initiative and redistributed one year later.Results: Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that perceptions of the importance of safety training were predictive of actual levels of safety behavior. The results also demonstrate that the magnitude of change in perceptual safety climate scores will not necessarily match actual changes (r=0.56, n.s.) in employee's safety behavior.Discussion: This study obtained empirical links between safety climate scores and actual safety behavior. Confirming and contradicting findings within the extant safety climate literature, the results strongly suggest that the hypothesized climate-behavior-accident path is not as clear cut as commonly assumed.Summary: A statistical link between safety climate perceptions and safety behavior will be obtained when sufficient behavioral data is collected.Impact on Industry: The study further supports the use of safety climate measures as useful diagnostic tools in ascertaining employee's perceptions of the way that safety is being operationalized.     

Have government regulations improved workplace safety? : A test of the asynchronous regulatory effects in China's coal industry, 1995-2006

Problem

Empirical studies on the effectiveness of workplace safety regulations are inconclusive. This study hypothesizes that the asynchronous effects of safety regulations occur because regulations need time to become effective. Safety regulations will work initially by reducing the most serious accidents, and later by improving overall safety performance.

Method

The hypothesis is tested by studying a provincial level aggregate panel dataset for China's coal industry using two different models with different sets of dependent variables: a fixed-effects model on mortality rate, which is defined as fatalities per 1,000 employees; and a negative binominal model on the annual number (frequency) of disastrous accidents.

Results

Safety regulations can reduce the frequency of disastrous accidents, but have not reduced mortality rate, which represents overall safety performance.

Discussion and summary

Policy recommendations are made, including shifting production from small to large mines through industrial consolidation, improving the safety performance of large mines, addressing consequences of decentralization, and facilitating the implementation of regulations through carrying on institutional actions and supporting legislation.

Impact on industry

Until recently, about 4,000 coal miners perished annually in China, demonstrating that workplace safety in China's coal industry is an urgent and important issue. This research provides evidence that safety regulations have asynchronous effects and identifies the priorities in improving safety in China's current coal mining. This may assist the Chinese government to design more effective safety improvement policies and improve the effectiveness of safety regulations and safety performance.     

铁路安全与人为失误问题的研究

安全是铁路各项工作的基石。为了更好地保障铁路运输的安全运营 ,除采用先进科技成果和应用现代安全管理方法外 ,还应该不断地总结经验教训。笔者分析了两起典型的铁路重大事故 ,从而得出事故的主要原因在于人。人在能动地改造自然界的过程中 ,有时会产生一些重大失误 ,所以要有效地控制人的因素 ,从而提高安全管理中的“自控、他控、互控”手段。     

Occupational safety and health in Spain

Occupational Health and Safety in Spain has improved considerably over the last decade, most likely due to a new concept where an overall concept of safety culture is defined. Important changes in industrial safety, hygiene, and psychosocial factors present an optimistic panorama for the future of Spain. Despite this general improvement, according to the European Convergence Program, Spanish statistics still offer far from good safety results. In fact, according to 1997 official statistics, Spain had the highest incidence rate for nonfatal occupational accidents of all European Union (EU) countries, and occupied third place for fatal accidents. This paper summarizes the organizational structure of the Spanish National System of Health & Safety at Work, its effective health and safety laws, and statistics on the Spanish work environment obtained from III Spanish National Survey on Work Conditions (1997). The researchers hope that the findings of this work will have an impact on Spanish industry that will subsequently bring about improvements in work conditions and develop assessment and intervention models in occupational health and safety, from a theoretical position integrating environmental, human, and organizational factors.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of a logger safety training program

INTRODUCTION: Logger safety training programs are rarely, if ever, evaluated as to their effectiveness in reducing injuries. METHOD: Workers' compensation claim rates were used to evaluate the effectiveness of a logger safety training program, the West Virginia Loggers' Safety Initiative (LSI). RESULTS: There was no claim rate decline detected in the majority (67%) of companies that participated in all 4 years of the LSI. Furthermore, their rate did not differ from the rest of the WV logging industry that did not participate in the LSI. Worker turnover was significantly related to claim rates; companies with higher turnover of employees had higher claim rates. Companies using feller bunchers to harvest trees at least part of the time had a significantly lower claim rate than companies not using them. Companies that had more inspections per year had lower claim rates. CONCLUSIONS: High injury rates persist even in companies that receive safety training; high employee turnover may affect the efficacy of training programs. The logging industry should be encouraged to facilitate the mechanization of logging tasks, to address barriers to employee retention, and to increase the number of in-the-field performance monitoring inspections. Impact on industry There are many states whose logger safety programs include only about 4-8 hours of safe work practices training. These states may look to West Virginia's expanded training program (the LSI) as a model for their own programs. However, the LSI training may not be reaching loggers due to the delay in administering training to new employees and high levels of employee turnover. Regardless of training status, loggers' claim rates decline significantly the longer they work for a company. It may be that high injury rates in the state of West Virginia would be best addressed by finding ways to encourage and facilitate companies to become more mechanized in their harvesting practices, and to increase employee tenure. Increasing the number of yearly performance inspections may also be a venue to reduce claim rates. Future research could investigate in better detail the working conditions of West Virginia loggers and identify barriers to job tenure, particularly for workers whose primary job task is chainsaw operation. A larger-scale study of the effect of performance monitoring inspections on claim rates is also warranted.     

在《授予博士、硕士学位的学科专业目录》中设立“安全科学与工程”一级学科的论证报告

由于过去我国工业基础较薄弱 ,矿业领域的安全问题较多等缘故 ,在《授予博士、硕士学位的学科专业目录》中 ,“安全技术及工程”作为二级学科、专业被列在一级学科“矿业工程”的名下。随着我国工业的不断发展 ,各领域中存在的安全问题日益突出 ,并且随着安全学科的创立与发展 ,仍将“安全技术及工程”列在“矿业工程”名下已不适应目前的形势要求。笔者就“安全科学与工程”名称的内涵、单设一级学科 (专业 )的必要性和可行性 ,以大量的论据 ,充分地阐述了应在《授予博士、硕士学位的学科专业目录》中 ,设立“安全科学与工程”一级学科。     

The safety policies and practices of community multi-purpose recreation facilities

This research investigated the under-explored area of safety in multi-purpose recreation facilities (MPRFs). Facility managers and other managerial staff (key informants) from four MPRFs in Victoria, Australia participated in semi-structured interviews. Safety was considered important from Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S), business viability and legal liability perspectives but not from a health promotion or public health point of view. Most implemented injury prevention measures required gymnasium and pool staff or users to change their behaviours. Awareness of safety standards was higher for some operational areas (e.g. aquatics, child-care) than others (e.g. gymnasium, group fitness activities). Key informants struggled to keep abreast of legislation changes and they relied on commercial, regulatory, and industry information sources rather than evidence of best practice. Reported factors influencing safety in MPRFs were classified into three types: internal (e.g. training, culture); external (e.g. weather, demographic change); and governance (e.g. insurance, industry standards). Comprehensive, relevant and accessible industry safety standards, which focus not only on OH&S but equally on health promotion principles and public health perspectives linked to injury prevention, are required. Training is needed to reflect these broader and equally important perspectives. Health/injury, fitness/recreation and insurance sector links should be improved to ensure a consistent, sustainable approach to safety.     

基于北斗高精度定位的工务现场作业全过程安全监测系统研究

为了保障在铁路快速发展的同时,确保铁路工务安全和行车安全,基于工务现场作业过程的控制,提出了利用北斗高精度差分定位、大数据等技术,研究建立针对现场每个作业个体的工务作业全过程安全监测系统。结果表明:通过对现场每名作业个体的高精度、智能化管理,有效规范了现场人员的作业行为,增强对现场安全风险和隐患的预判和规避能力,保障了铁路从业人员人身安全。