Management commitment to safety as organizational support: relationships with non-safety outcomes in wood manufacturing employees

INTRODUCTION: Employee perceptions of management commitment to safety are known to influence important safety-related outcomes. However, little work has been conducted to explore non-safety-related outcomes resulting from a commitment to safety. METHOD: Employee-level outcomes critical to the effective functioning of an organization, including attitudes such as job satisfaction and commitment to the organization, were included on surveys given to 641 hourly production employees at three wood products manufacturing facilities. Participants' were asked about perceptions of management commitment to safety and job-related variables such as perceived dangerousness of their position, organizational commitment, and withdrawal behaviors. Supervisors also rated the performance of each of their hourly subordinates. RESULTS: Results suggest that employee outcomes differ based on perceptions of management's commitment to safety. Specifically, management commitment to safety was positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job-related performance. We also found a negative relationship between commitment to safety and employee withdrawal behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that increasing employee perceptions of management's personal concern for employee well-being through a dedication to safety will result in positive outcomes beyond improved safety performance. These results also imply that there is a type of social exchange between employees and management that may affect employees similarly to perceived organizational support. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Results further reinforce the value of a commitment to safety by a firm's management. Organizations with a strong commitment to safety may enjoy not only a reduction in safety-related events but also increases in desirable employee attitudes and behaviors.     

员工对企业建立职业健康安全管理体系反应调查研究

为了解和评价企业建立OSHMS后,员工的主观反应和正、负两方面评价意见,对已建OSHMS 64家企业中的1602名职工(观察组)和未建OSHMS 的 61家企业中的1517名职工(对照组)做了标准化问卷调查,调查采用随机抽样、标准化问卷、统一调查程序和系统质量控制等技术方法.问卷中设置了经过专家筛选的12个问题,分A、B两组每组6个问题,其中5个为正面,1个为负面反应问题,依据回答问题的程度不同划出a、b、c和d四个级别,分别赋予不同分值.问卷调查结果表明:观察组在企业职工全员参与、职业安全卫生教育培训、作业环境整改和搞好安全生产信心与能力等多个方面都得到明显改善与提高,与未建OSHMS企业的对照组相比较,差异非常显著.同时分析结果也提示:企业推行OSHMS过程中可能增加员工心理压力和给工作带来一些不便,一小部分职工对职业安全健康管理工作发生的一些变化还不能完全适应,应引起注意.作者认为,企业通过建立和运行OSHMS可以提高企业安全生产管理水平和获得显著职业安全卫生绩效,企业职工在OSHMS建立后安全生产的意识能力和自信心都得到了明显加强.建议应进一步在企业推行应用并在实际工作中不断改进和完善.政府对于企业自主采取的先进的管理体系应予一定的支持和鼓励,如给与某些政策上的支持.     

Modeling attitudes and perceptions as predictors for changing safety margins during organizational change

This study describes the relations between different dimensions of leadership commitment, safety climate and attitudes toward change, and how these affect employee perceptions of safety during organizational change in a high risk environment. We collected data from a European national air navigation services provider during a volatile 3-year corporatization process that ended in the sudden collapse of a deliberate change implementation project. Surprisingly, despite visible signs of internal and external stress caused by the volatile and disruptive change process, we did not observe any change in the traditional safety metrics of incident and accident reporting during the study. The study is based on a large survey (n = 422) of individual attitudes and perceptions of safety climate, perception of leadership commitment to safety, attitudes to organizational change, and perception of safety. The data support the claim that perception of safety at least, in part, depends on individual perceptions of the leadership’s commitment to safety, and the safety climate in place at a given point in time. The model shows how employee perceptions of the leadership’s commitment to safety and safety climate are related to both attitudes toward change, and to perceived safety.     

Critical Success Factors for Behavior-Based Safety: A Study of Twenty Industry-wide Applications

One-on-one interviews and focus-group meetings were held at 20 organizations that had implemented a behavior-based safety (BBS) process in order to find reasons for program success/failures. A total of 31 focus groups gave 629 answers to six different questions. A content analysis of these responses uncovered critical information for understanding what employees are looking for in a BBS program. A perception survey administered to individual employees (n = 701) at these organizations measured a variety of variables identified in prior research to influence success in safety efforts. The survey data showed five variables to be significantly predictive of employee involvement in a BBS process: 1) perceptions that BBS training was effective; 2) trust in management abilities; 3) accountability for BBS through performance appraisals; 4) whether or not one had received education in BBS; and 5) tenure with the organization. Also, employees in organizations mandating employee participation in a BBS process (n=8 companies) reported significantly higher levels of: (a) involvement; (b) trust in management; (c) trust in coworkers; and (d) satisfaction with BBS training than did employees whose process was completely voluntary (n = 12 companies). In addition, employees in mandatory processes reported significantly greater frequency of giving and receiving positive behavior-based feedback.     

The relationship between employees' perceptions of safety and organizational culture

PROBLEM: With limited resources to help reduce occupational injuries, companies struggle with how to best focus these resources to achieve the greatest reduction in injuries for the optimal cost. Safety culture has been identified as a critical factor that sets the tone for importance of safety within an organization. METHOD: An employee safety perception survey was conducted, and injury data were collected over a 45-month period from a large ready-mix concrete producer located in the southwest region of the United States. RESULTS: The results of this preliminary study suggest that the reductions in injuries experienced at the company locations was strongly impacted by the positive employee perceptions on several key factors. Management's commitment to safety was the factor with the greatest positive perception by employees taking the survey. DISCUSSION: This study was set up as a pilot project and did not unitize an experimental design. That weakness reduces the strength of these findings but adds to the importance of expanding the pilot project with an appropriate experimental design. SUMMARY: Management leadership has been identified, along with several other factors, to influence employee perceptions of the safety management system. Those perceptions, in turn, appear to influence employee decisions that relate to at-risk behaviors and decisions on the job. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The results suggest that employee perceptions of the safety system are related to management's commitment to safety, which, in turn, appear to be related to injury rates. Management should focus on how to best leverage these key factors to more positively impact injury rates within their companies.     

A cross-validation of safety climate scale using confirmatory factor analytic approach

PROBLEM: Given the lack of a consistent factor structure of safety climate, this study tested the stability of a factor structure of a safety climate scale developed through an extensive literature review using confirmatory factor analytic approach and cross-validation. METHODS: A cross-sectional sample of 722 U.S. grain industry workers participated in the questionnaire survey. RESULTS: The safety climate scale developed through the generation of an item pool based on a table of specifications, subsequent scientific item reduction procedures, reviews from experts, and pilot test yielded adequate reliabilities for each dimension. Each item showed proper discriminative power based on both internal and external criteria. Criterion validity was manifested by the significant positive correlation of the scale with five criteria. Evidence of construct validity was provided by both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Both calibration and validation samples supported a consistent factor structure. Management commitment and supervisor support were found to influence other dimensions of safety climate. DISCUSSION: This study provides an insight into the primary reason why previous attempts have failed to find a consistent factor structure of safety climate: No specification of the influence of management commitment and supervisor support on other dimensions of safety in their models. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The findings of this study provide a framework upon which accident prevention efforts can be effectively organized and underscore the importance of management commitment and supervisor support as they affect employee safety perceptions.     

The development of an instrument measuring unintentional injuries in young children in low-income settings to serve as an evaluation tool for a childhood home injury prevention program

PROBLEM: Responding to the lack of standardized instrumentation, especially as applied in low-income contexts, the researchers decided that an instrument should be developed to serve as an evaluation tool for a childhood (unintentional) injury prevention program as well as a tool from which injury risks (poisonings, burns and falls) could be identified within households. METHODS: Cross-sectional samples of 521 households in four low-income sites in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, participated in the three phases of the study. The generation of an item pool based on a table of specifications, subsequent scientific item reduction procedures, reviews from experts and pilot tests were used to develop the scales for measuring the injury risks. RESULTS: The developed instrument complies with all the requirements for a valid and reliable measurement instrument. CONCLUSION: The instrument allows valid comparison of risks between communities, as well as before and after comparisons for an intervention program. IMPACT: The provision of this instrument may bring enormous benefits to research studies. It can also provide proactive, rather than reactive, information about injury risks before they develop into injuries and thus allows focusing of safety efforts for improvement of problematic areas in the households.     

木材加工企业安全氛围对员工安全行为的影响因素研究

以黑龙江地区的20家较大型木材加工企业的调查数据为基础,通过设计企业安全氛围与员工安全行为关系的分析模型,对安全氛围与员工安全行为之间的相关关系进行实证分析。结果表明,木材加工企业中安全氛围与员工安全行为中的责任行为、学习行为存在中度关联;与员工安全行为中的互助行为存在中度关联;安全氛围中的领导承诺与员工安全行为中的分享行为存在低度关联,而安全氛围中的工作环境、安全意识与员工的分享行为不相关。因此企业安全氛围成熟度越高,对员工安全行为的影响作用也越大,同时明确了安全氛围对员工安全行为具有正向的预测作用。     

An experimental examination of implicit stress theory

Implicit theories lead individuals to make assumptions about one trait based on their knowledge of another trait. This study experimentally examined Implicit Stress Theory under conditions of high and low performance information. The objective was to test for evidence of Implicit Stress Theory in ratings of effectiveness, commitment, and burnout. Results indicated moderate support for Implicit Stress Theory such that raters evaluated employee burnout and commitment as higher when the employee was perceived to be working under stressful conditions. Interestingly, the data suggested stronger support (based on the proportion of variance explained) for an Implicit Performance Theory such that information regarding good performance was associated with higher levels of commitment and less burnout than poor performance.     

Determinants of safety outcomes and performance: A systematic literature review of research in four high-risk industries

IntroductionIn spite of increasing governmental and organizational efforts, organizations still struggle to improve the safety of their employees as evidenced by the yearly 2.3 million work-related deaths worldwide. Occupational safety research is scattered and inaccessible, especially for practitioners. Through systematically reviewing the safety literature, this study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of behavioral and circumstantial factors that endanger or support employee safety.MethodA broad search on occupational safety literature using four online bibliographical databases yielded 27.527 articles. Through a systematic reviewing process 176 online articles were identified that met the inclusion criteria (e.g., original peer-reviewed research; conducted in selected high-risk industries; published between 1980-2016). Variables and the nature of their interrelationships (i.e., positive, negative, or nonsignificant) were extracted, and then grouped and classified through a process of bottom-up coding.ResultsThe results indicate that safety outcomes and performance prevail as dependent research areas, dependent on variables related to management & colleagues, work(place) characteristics & circumstances, employee demographics, climate & culture, and external factors. Consensus was found for five variables related to safety outcomes and seven variables related to performance, while there is debate about 31 other relationships. Last, 21 variables related to safety outcomes and performance appear understudied.ConclusionsThe majority of safety research has focused on addressing negative safety outcomes and performance through variables related to others within the organization, the work(place) itself, employee demographics, and—to a lesser extent—climate & culture and external factors.Practical applicationsThis systematic literature review provides both scientists and safety practitioners an overview of the (under)studied behavioral and circumstantial factors related to occupational safety behavior. Scientists could use this overview to study gaps, and validate or falsify relationships. Safety practitioners could use the insights to evaluate organizational safety policies, and to further development of safety interventions.     

安全氛围三“心”模型的构建与检验

把安全氛围定义为一种知觉特性;在勒温的场理论基础上,通过对影响员工安全绩效的环境因素中的行为进行分析,构建安全氛围的通用模型,其包括3个因素:安全管理承诺、员工安全卷入和组织安全沟通;通过问卷调查的方法收集某石油化工公司两个生产厂一线职工的353份有效数据,探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析以及相关分析的结果分别说明,"三因素"模型具有较好的结构效度和预测效度。通过对3个因素的进一步分析,结合实践,提出安全氛围的三"心"模型:领导关心、员工上心、上下一心。要获得安全水平的持续提高,需要3个方面的共同努力。     

Rail ruminations for process safety improvement

Process safety practices have undergone multiple refinements over the past few decades, but major accidents continue to occur. Most organizations strive to improve performance by strengthening existing methods or by adopting new and/or different approaches. Central to these continual improvement efforts is the practice of applying lessons learned as a means to drive out potential risk exposures. Often, lessons learned may be transferred from other industries; indeed, high-performing organizations regularly benchmark practices outside of their immediate industry.In pursuit of continual process safety improvement, this paper examines risk management practices in the Rail Industry, and explores how methods intended for managing passenger and public rail safety may be transferred to drive continual improvement of process safety. Rail safety has its roots in engineered safety solutions; modern practices have additionally embraced the human aspects of safety performance. A selection of approaches for rail safety assessment and risk management are described in three areas considered fundamental to safety management: management of systems, management of technology, and management of human elements. In light of these examples, the authors provide views regarding how the field of process safety management may leverage the rail experience.     

ACT method for safety training: An approach to improve on-site safety performance

Unsafe behavior is one of the main causes limiting the improvement of on-site safety performance. Safety training is an important means of preventing unsafe behavior. With changes in the scale of operations and employee characteristics, traditional training methods have largely failed to meet the practical demands. Therefore, to improve the effectiveness of safety training, this paper analyzes the shortcomings of the current training methods, demonstrates the potential value of accident cases for improving the training effect, and the advantages of 24Model for case analysis in safety training. Subsequently, this paper constructs a systematic training system with Accident-Cause-Training (ACT) as the training relationship chain, which runs the accident cases throughout the training process, 24Model is utilized to trace the unsafe behaviors that lead to accidents from the perspectives of organizational and individual level, and the training content is established according to the analysis results. This paper also conducts a case study to verify the operability of the ACT method, specifically, a training programme for limited space operations at a national-level oil and gas storage and transportation company is designed and implemented. Finally, by comparing the similarities and differences between the ACT method and other training methods from various perspectives, the universality and participation of the ACT method are proved, and the development trend of the ACT method is also discussed. It is believed that the proposed ACT method could enrich the types of safety training methods and provide an effective and scientific tool to enhance the safety performance of field operations.     

Empirical investigation of construction safety management activities and performance in Australia

The construction industry seems to suffer from a general inability to manage workplace health and safety to a level where an achieved improvement in safety performance by a way of pro-active measures can result in zero accidents. This paper investigates the effectiveness of safety management activities as currently adopted by Australian contracting organisations. A safety management survey has been conducted of contracting organisations operating in the State of Queensland, Australia. Based on a research model depicting statistical analysis techniques, a safety management index reflecting the intensity of level of safety management activities has been developed to provide a means whereby individual organisations can be assessed and graded on their safety management commitment and attitudes. The paper reports on a detailed empirical analysis carried out to examine the relationship between the intensity of safety management commitment and the overall safety performance, pro-activeness and record.     

煤矿井下安全系统脆弱性的系统动力学仿真研究

为了深入探讨煤矿井下安全系统脆弱性的影响机理,针对煤矿井下安全环境的复杂性和特殊性,建立了煤矿井下安全系统脆弱性的系统动力学仿真模型,采用变异系数法确定各影响因素的权重系数,通过文献调研和问卷调查,完成了煤矿井下安全系统脆弱性仿真。结果表明:设备系统对安全系统暴露度效果最显著;环境系统对安全系统敏感度效果最显著;员工系统和管理系统对安全系统适应度效果最显著。为了有效提升煤矿井下安全系统水平,煤矿企业需要通过改进设备系统（尤其是员工安全保障品）来降低安全系统暴露度,通过完善环境管理（尤其是尘毒治理情况）来降低安全系统敏感度,通过加强员工系统和管理系统（尤其是员工违规操作和安全监督检查）来提升安全系统适应度。     

The mediating role of psychological capital between perceived management commitment and safety behavior

Introduction: Among attempts that address high incidences of fatalities and injuries in coal mines, increasing attention has been paid to management commitment to complement the traditional focus on technological advances in safety management. However, more research is needed to explain the influence of perceived management commitment, with extant research drawing commonly on Griffin and Neal (2000) to focus on safety knowledge, skills, and motivation. This study draws on social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) to investigate psychological capital as a link between thought process and safety behavior. Method: This study uses survey data from 400 frontline workers in China’s coal mines to test hypotheses. Result: Results suggest that perceived management commitment to safety correlates positively with workers’ safety compliance and participation, and four constituents of psychological capital—self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience—explain the influence of perceived management commitment on safety compliance and participation. Practical Applications: Findings offer both researchers and practitioners an explanation of how perceived management commitment influences safety behaviors, and clarify the roles psychological capital constituents play in explaining the influence of perceived management commitment on safety compliance and safety participation.     

Statistical evaluation and analysis of safety intervention in the determination of an effective resource allocation strategy

This paper provides an analytical background for the development of an effective safety intervention program with the aim of minimizing incident rates. Safety intervention data were collected from the environmental health and safety department of an American-owned oil company in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. A safety model was developed to determine the safety intervention factors and interactions which minimize incident rates, with the aim of predicting a better resource allocation strategy. Five main safety intervention factors (factor A: leadership and accountability; factor B: qualification selection and pre-job; factor C: employee engagement and planning; factor D: work in progress; factor E: evaluation, measurement and verification) were highlighted and investigated to show their effects on incident rate performance. Analysis of variance test showed that four safety factors (A, C, D, and E) were significant. Statistical techniques such as response surface design plots were used to determine the resource allocation method. The developed safety model recommended the allocation of 16.66% of the available resources to the significant safety intervention activities in order to achieve the desirable incident rate. In order to reap the benefits of this research, it will be important to concentrate more efforts and resources on significant factors which have positive impacts in minimizing incident rates.     

工作不安全感对安全绩效的影响 ——基于某大型电力公司的实证研究

由于安全问题备受关注,采用问卷研究法,通过构建调节—中介模型探讨工作不安全感影响员工安全绩效的机制。对某大型电力公司329位员工进行问卷调查后发现,员工的工作满意感中工作不安全感对员工安全绩效的消极影响,情绪智力通过调节工作不安全感与工作满意感的关系削弱了工作不安全感对安全绩效的消极作用,即当组织变革给员工带来工作不安全感时,高情绪智力的个体会通过有效的情绪管理减少工作不满意感,进而缓冲工作不安全感对安全绩效的影响,而低情绪智力的个体会过于情绪化,使得工作不安全感显著影响工作满意感,进而使员工的安全绩效受到影响。     

Management practices as antecedents of safety culture within the trucking industry: similarities and differences by hierarchical level

PROBLEM: A homogeneous perception of safety is important for the achievement of a strong safety culture; however, employees may differ in their safety perceptions, depending on their position and/or hierarchical level within the organization. Moreover, there is limited information on the antecedents of safety culture. This study examines how safety training, driver scheduling autonomy, opportunity for safety input, and management commitment to safety influence individuals' perceptions of safety culture. METHOD: Data for this study were drawn from 116 trucking firms, stratified by three safety performance levels. The data were collected from drivers (lowest hierarchical level), dispatchers (medium hierarchical level), and safety directors (highest hierarchical level), regarding their perceptions of their respective corporate safety cultures. Perceptions of safety culture were analyzed through a linear regression using dummy variables to differentiate among the three hierarchical groups. The resulting model allowed for examination of the specific antecedents of safety culture for the three employee groups and the extent to which the hierarchical groups were in agreement with each other. RESULTS: Driver fatigue training, driver opportunity for safety input, and top management commitment to safety were perceived to be integral determinants of safety culture in all three groups. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Trucking firms seeking to strengthen employees' perceptions of safety culture might begin by improving these safety management practices while appreciating that they may have a different impact depending on the employee's hierarchical position (e.g., drivers' perceptions of safety culture are more influenced by top management commitment and driver fatigue training). A fourth safety practice examined, driver scheduling autonomy, was not found to be instrumental in shaping safety culture for any of the three hierarchical levels. Consistent with previous research, implementation of stronger safety cultures should result in fewer accidents.     

The safety observer effect: the effects of conducting safety observations

INTRODUCTION: Some research suggests that conducting safety observations of another's safety performance may serve as an effective tool in increasing the safety performance of the observer. The primary purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of conducting safety observations on the postural safety performance of observers engaging in an assembly task for short time periods. The secondary objectives of the study were: (a) to measure productivity, and (b) to measure the accuracy of participant safety observations. METHOD: An ABC (A: baseline, B: information, C: observation) multiple-baseline design counterbalanced across postural behaviors (back, shoulder, and feet position) was implemented with six participants. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Substantial improvements in postural safety occurred after participants conducted safety observations, and these improvements did not appear to negatively affect productivity. Results also suggest that there is no relation between the accuracy of an observer's safety observation and their subsequent safety performance. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: This research provides evidence that a safety observation process can function to increase safe postural behavior of observers. Thus, the implementation of such a process may contribute to the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders and related costs in the workplace.