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.     

The effect of aviation safety education on passenger cabin safety awareness

This paper examines the effect of aviation safety education on passenger cabin safety awareness in knowledge, attitude, and behavior (KAB). The educational value of KAB has been addressed in various fields such as AIDS prevention and campus safety. KAB has been applied in aviation safety related areas, especially in training, such as crew resource management training, pilot training, and mechanic training. However, KAB has not been implemented in aviation passenger education in cabin safety. This paper uses the construct of “aviation safety education”, which is intended to influence airline passenger knowledge of, attitude toward, and behavior about cabin safety awareness. Passenger surveys were done at two Taiwan airports. The results show that aviation safety education positively affects airline passenger cabin safety knowledge, attitude, and behavior. We recommend safety education that involves accurate instruction about emergency equipment procedures, situational awareness, emergency responses, and relevant cabin-safety regulations.Our findings indicated that an increase in cabin safety knowledge positively affected airline passenger behavior, which supported knowledge–behavior consistency. We also found that a positive attitude toward cabin safety positively affected airline passenger behavior, which supported attitude–behavior consistency. The hypothesis that cabin safety knowledge positively affected passenger attitude – knowledge–attitude consistency was not supported.     

Safety and Quality Issues as Part of a Holistic (i.e., Sociotechnological) Approach

Abstract

In the past, many so-called management concepts were not very successful because of their fragmented approach. This is also true for topics like safety and quality. Here, technical aspects often predominated while disregarding the equally important need for a change of attitude. On the other hand, awareness was created by timely limited programmes.

The paper deals with integrating quality and safety in holistic (management) concepts, which are described first before being discussed in detail.     

Investigation of stakeholders' awareness and adoption of Inherently Safer Design (ISD) principles in South African utility industry projects

The paper examines the level of awareness of stakeholders in adopting Inherently Safer Design (ISD) principles in the Project Life Cycle Management (PLCM) of South African Energy utility projects. It seeks to understand whether stakeholders in the latter stages of the Project Life Cycle are competent to make design change decisions on these projects. ISD principles are essentially useful for reducing risks and as such, safety experts have acknowledged it as an excellent approach in the design process. However, there are no known efforts to date that attempt to integrate ISD concepts into PLCM. This paper seeks to fill this gap. This study, through the review of extant literature establishes that ISD principles can be used in project procurement, and adopts a quantitative survey approach in obtaining information from stakeholders in the South African utility industry. Findings reveal that the principles of inherent safety are permeating into the management of South African utility projects but the level of awareness and its adoption are below optimal levels. It also emerged that there is a divergent awareness of ISD strategies amongst PLCM stakeholders and that the design engineers are better informed about the ISD approach of eliminating risks and hazards in the industrial systems studied than other stakeholders. The findings also indicate that the level of awareness of stakeholders of ISD principles is greater within earlier project phases. Based on these findings, the paper concludes that the hazards witnessed within the project execution and finalization phases could be as a result of the low levels of awareness, divergent views and lower use of ISD strategies by PLCM stakeholders. It is suggested that the level of awareness of the principles, concepts, basics and benefits of integrating ISD into PLCM be raised amongst stakeholders functioning within utility industry project procurement in South Africa and that design changes be limited to the earlier phases of utility project procurement.     

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.     

基于事故树的空中交通管制员情景意识分析

为更系统地研究管制员的情景意识,找出导致管制员情景意识丧失的主要因素,运用事故树分析法、采用自上而下的方式对管制员情景意识丧失的原因进行逐层分析,建立管制员情景意识丧失事故树模型。通过进一步计算事故树的最小割集和各基本事件的结构重要度,计算各基本事件的结构重要度系数,对比得出情景意识丧失的各个基本事件的重要程度及各事件之间的关系。结果表明,造成情景意识丧失事故的主要原因是轮班制度不合理、睡眠效率低及对特情不熟悉、飞行冲突预判能力弱。     

The influence of organizational factors on safety in Taiwanese high-risk industries

Organizational theorists have recently begun to pay research attention to the workforces of emerging countries in Asia, especially the greater China regions. However, little research has focused on the influence of organizational factors on safety in these countries. This study hypothesized that organizational factors, characterized as safety leadership perspective (management commitment, blame culture) and safety climate perspective (harmonious relationships), would influence group-level safety management, which would in turn influence individual level safety awareness and practices. To test this hypothesis, a safety climate questionnaire was distributed to ten Taiwanese plants in high-risk industries. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the linkages among organizational level factors, work-group-level factors, and workers’ safety awareness and practices. We found that safety leadership style and organizational harmony in Taiwanese high-risk industries can exert significant influences on work-group processes, which in turn have greater effects on individual safety awareness and practices. These findings and implications can serve as a basis for safety improvement in areas of the greater China region.     

基于SPSS软件对大学生寝室用电安全意识的分析 ——以四川师范大学为例

为探究大学生寝室用电安全意识的现状及分析性别和年级两个变量对其的影响,本文采用问卷调查的方法对大学生进行调查。调查步骤分为预试问卷编制、预试、问卷可靠度分析、正式问卷确定和正式调查。利用SPSS24.0软件对调查结果进行独立样本t检验、单因子独立样本变异数分析(ANOVA分析)等操作,使分析结果更加科学和准确。最终得出结论:大学生寝室用电安全意识在安全认知知识方面较为深刻,在安全认知体验方面有一定的察觉能力,在安全认知监测方面还急需加强学习。另外,性别因素对安全意识有一定影响,年级因素对安全意识没有显著影响。并根据以上结论提出提了高大学生用电安全意识的对策。     

Improving situational awareness through the design of offshore installations

Maintaining the situational awareness of control room operators on offshore installations contributes to the timely diagnosis of conditions and making appropriate decisions. This is particularly important when dealing with events and incidents. Recent initiatives aimed at reducing operators’ exposure to the hazards of working on offshore installations may have a negative impact upon situational awareness within the control room environment.This paper discusses mitigation of the negative impact through the design and operation of the installation and control system; either by improving the general level of situational awareness or by specifically targeting the areas affected by these initiatives.     

Assessment of complex sociotechnical systems – Theoretical issues concerning the use of organizational culture and organizational core task concepts

This article studies organizational assessment in complex sociotechnical systems. There is a practical need to monitor, anticipate and manage the safety and effectiveness of these systems. A failure to do so has resulted in various organizational accidents. Many theories of accidents and safety in industrial organizations are either based on a static and rational model of an organization or they are non-contextual. They are thus reactive in their search for errors and analysis of previous accidents and incidents, or they are disconnected from the actual work in the organization by their focus on general safety attitudes and values. A more proactive and predictive approach is needed, that is based on an accurate view on an organization and the demands of the work in question. This article presents and elaborates four statements: (1) the current models of safety management are largely based on either a rational or a non-contextual image of an organization, (2) complex sociotechnical systems are socially constructed and dynamic cultures, (3) in order to be able to assess complex sociotechnical systems an understanding of the organizational core task is required, and (4) effectiveness and safety depend on the cultural conceptions of the organizational core task. Finally, we will discuss the implications of the proposed concepts for safety research and development work in complex sociotechnical systems.     

Ensuring patient safety through effective leadership behaviour: A literature review

Ensuring patient safety has always been important for critical care teams. Since team and leadership skills are increasingly recognised as important for the patient’s safety, a body of literature on leadership in critical care has emerged. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review on the findings of effective leadership strategies in critical care teams. We aim to contribute to a better understanding of factors influencing leadership behaviour that in turn effect team outcomes. An input–process–output model of leadership is used to systemise the findings. The results of this review clearly show that effective leaders play a pivotal role in promoting team performance and safety. Effective leadership is characterized by clear and unambiguous behaviour which is adaptable to situational demands and shared between team members. The review concludes with recommendations for future research directions.     

3D仿真游戏在煤矿安全生产培训管理系统中的应用

煤矿从业人员的安全素质与意识是决定煤矿安全生产的重要因素,教育和培训是提高煤矿从业人员素质与意识的有效手段,对煤矿安全生产具有非常重要的意义.川煤达竹公司运用现代信息技术手段,从系统理论出发,将煤矿生产过程作为一个完整的系统,从人、机、环境、管理四个系统要素着手,将3D仿真游戏应用于情景模拟培训,把从业人员培训分为情景式培训、互动式培训、视频式培训、手机短信培训和事故案例学习.提出人、机、环境系统协调的煤矿现代安全生产培训管理系统,有效提升了员工素质,实现了煤矿安全生产.     

基于集成法的道路交通安全评价

为了对道路交通安全进行较为客观的定量评价,将一种新的集成评价方法运用到评价中.该方法是包括德尔斐法、层次分析法、灰色聚类法、模糊评判、矩阵方法等一系列方法的综合应用.在该方法中,德尔斐法被用于建立道路交通安全的评价指标体系,层次分析法被用来确定各评价指标间的权重,灰色聚类法被用来对专家评分进行处理,模糊评判以及矩阵方法被用在整个运算过程中.不同的理论有不同的适用性,在道路交通安全评价中的不同阶段使用不同的理论,就能获得一个直观的评价结果.最后用一个算例说明了整个思路,并证明了该法是有效可行的,且有对历史样本数据无依赖、简单直观等优点.     

安全科学学及其应用探讨

为使安全科学学进一步具体化,明确阐述了安全科学学的定义、主要内容和可能的应用方面。研究表明:安全科学学是以安全科学为直接研究对象的科学;安全科学学的主要内容有安全科学的基本问题、基础理论和构建分类系统3个主要方面;安全科学的基本问题有基本概念、研究对象等10个,安全科学的基础理论主要有线性、非线性事故致因理论2类,根据安全科学的基本问题、基础理论构建出来的安全科学新分类系统由4个二级、13个三级及其下若干四级及五级分支学科组成。安全科学学对安全学科建设、安全实务都起着具体的支撑作用。     

National culture and safe work behaviour of construction workers in Pakistan

It is widely accepted that unsafe behaviour is intrinsically linked to workplace accidents. A positive correlation exists between workers’ safe behaviour and safety climate on construction sites. Construction workers’ attitude towards safety is influenced by their perception of risk, management, safety rules and procedures. Pakistan, a developing country, is currently experiencing a strong growth in its construction activities. Unfortunately, the enforcement of safety regulations in Pakistan is not widespread. Indeed, some relevant regulations are both outdated and irrelevant to daily construction operations. This paper investigates local construction workers’ behaviour, perception and attitude toward safety, and attempts to link the research findings to the influence of national culture. A three-part interview-based questionnaire survey has identified that the majority of workers have a good degree of risk awareness and self-rated competence. Additionally, workers’ intentional behaviour was empirically explained by their attitudes towards their own and management’s safety responsibilities, as well as their perception of the risk they are generally exposed to in their workplace. The paper also reveals that workers operating in a more collective and higher uncertainty avoidance environment, are more likely to have safety awareness and beliefs, which can exhibit safer on-site behaviour.     

The bumpy road to better risk control: A Tour d'Horizon of new concepts and ideas

How can we be sure that sufficient safeguards are in place and safety level is acceptable? As we heard Prof. Nancy Leveson stating at last year's MKOPSC symposium, even with all components functioning, dysfunctional component interaction can still be a cause of mishap. Human factor expert, Prof. Erik Hollnagel, asserts it in even stronger terms: the Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-off principle, or rather dilemma, contends that one can hardly do it perfectly well. Perfect thoroughness, certainly in complex situations, requires an amount of time with which efficiency will be in conflict. For improved situational awareness, sufficient resilience, and adequate risk control, we must adopt a top-down system approach. Hazard scenarios possible in the system, with all its entangled interactions of hardware, procedures, and humans shall be identified bottom-up and causal relations made clear. Fortunately, in recent years two potentially helpful tools have become available: Blended Hazid, a vastly improved, heavily computerized system approach making use of HazOp and FMEA, and Bayesian networks, a tool to model cause–effect structures allowing inclusion of uncertainty information. Bayesian networks as an infrastructure enable also the use of indicator values to relate the result of safety management effectiveness, which expresses itself as safety attitude of employees, competence, workload, and motivation, with their effects on error and failure probability. This paper will explain the directions these developments are advancing and the openings they provide for further process safety research and risk assessment, which when applied will result in improved process risk control.     

应急管理与安全科学的关系

为了辨识安全科学能够为解决应急管理重大实践问题所提供的学理支撑,本文首先从突发事件和管理两个维度剖析了应急管理的基本内涵,然后基于学科基本概念和基础理论分析了安全科学学科的当前局限及其与应急管理的内在联系,最后从巩固自身现有基础和应对相关新兴学科挑战两方面总结了推动安全科学学科发展的基础性工作,指明了在既有安全科学学科体系架构下建设应急管理学科的现实途径。研究表明,实现全主体、全灾种、全过程统合管理是应急管理的理想状态。目前,安全科学学科所研究的安全主要是生产安全,可以为应急管理提供的理论支撑集中在事故灾难类突发事件孕育发生演化的机理规律。澄清基本概念、夯实通用基础理论、调整学科体系架构是安全科学应对挑战健康发展的基础性工作。在安全科学的公共安全二级学科中设立应急管理三级学科,是应急管理学科建设发展的可行初始路径。     

国有煤矿企业“4+4+1”安全自主管理模式的构建与运行

针对国有煤矿企业安全生产形势严峻,现有安全管理模式并未有效遏制的现状,设计并提出"4+4+1"安全自主管理模式,从模式的构建和运行两方面进行研究,为构建煤矿安全生产长效机制提供一种新的思路。该安全自主管理模式的创新之处在于:转变管理观念,变重"管"为重"理";转变管理载体,变"硬件"为"软件";转变管理对象,变管"物"为管"人",有效提高职工的主人翁意识,增强其安全生产的主动性,提高管理的效率和效益。"4+4+1"模式的实质及目标表现为:以四大安全自主管理理念为先导,以"四自一保"为安全自主管理的运行机制,以"矿井保安"是安全自主管理的最高目标,对国有煤矿企业安全生产进行多层次、全方位的管理。     

浅析归因引起的安全感偏差

安全与安全感是两个不同的概念,安全是客观存在的状态,安全感是行为主体认为所处的状态是安全的.安全感在工作与日常生活中对个体行为的安全性发挥着重要作用,而个体的归因行为对安全感的判断产生巨大影响.应用归因理论,通过分析生产与日常生活中的典型案例,说明归因行为引起的安全感判断偏差所带来的危害,以从一个新的角度引起人们的重视;最后根据分析结果针对性地提出建议措施.总之,在从事行为活动时,人们必须增强安全意识,通过正确归因获得有益的安全感,以避免或减轻由于归因引起的安全感偏差而带来的危害.     

The missing link? Implications of internal,external, and relational attribution combinations for leader–member exchange,relationship work,self‐work,and conflict

Attributions are causal explanations made by individuals in response to important, novel, and/or unexpected events. Numerous attribution theories have examined how people use information to make attributions and how attributions impact an individual's subsequent emotions and outcomes. However, this research has only recently considered the implications of dyadic‐level attributions (i.e., relational attributions), particularly in the context of leader–follower relationships in organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this theoretical paper is threefold. First, we integrate research on attributional biases into the research on relational attributions. Second, we integrate and extend attribution theory to consider the implications of convergent and divergent internal, external‐person, external‐situational, and relational attributions for leader–member exchange (LMX) quality, relationship work, self‐work, and conflict. Third, we make the implicit ranking of attribution combinations and the resultant levels of relationship work explicit. In doing so, we contribute to attribution theory and research by proposing how attribution combinations produce positive and negative outcomes that are both intrapersonal and interpersonal. Further, we contribute to the LMX literature by explicating how leader–follower attribution combinations influence relationship quality.