Associations between risk perception and safety

The relationship between perception of risk and involvement in accidents is receiving increasing attention in the offshore oil industry. A self-completion questionnaire survey was carried out among employees on twelve offshore oil installations in 1994.¹ The number of respondents were 1138. Employee evaluations of the status of safety and contingency measures were affected by physical working conditions, attitudes towards safety and accident prevention work as well as management commitment and involvement in safety promotion. These factors were also related to job stress, perceived risk and risk behaviour. There was a significant positive correlation between perceived risk and risk behaviour, but risk perception was not found to predict risk behaviour. Risk behaviour affected accidents as well as near-misses. The possibility that safety cannot be improved by changing individual risk perception is discussed.     

Risk perception by offshore workers on UK oil and gas platforms

This paper reports the first investigation of risk perception by workers on offshore oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf, following changes in offshore safety legislation in the wake of the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. The Offshore Safety Case regulations (Health and Safety Executive, 1992, A Guide to the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations) put the onus on the operator to identify the major hazards and to reduce the risks to As Low As is Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). The regulations specifically state that Quantitative Risk Assessments (QRA) must be used when preparing the Safety Case. However, people do not use QRA when making everyday judgements about risk; they make subjective judgements known as risk perceptions, which are influenced by a number of different factors. This study was designed to complement the extensive QRA calculations that have already been carried out in the development of Safety Cases. The aim was to measure subjective risk perception in offshore personnel and examine how this relates to the more objective risk data available, namely accident records and QRA calculations. This paper describes the Offshore Risk Perception Questionnaire developed to collect the data and reports on UK offshore workers' perceptions of the risks associated with major and minor hazards, work tasks and other activities aboard production platforms.     

风险感知对非适应性应急疏散行为的影响

为研究安全风险感知对非适应性应急疏散行为的影响机制,提升应急疏散的安全性,进而保障公众生命财产安全,建立包含风险感知、心理韧性、安全氛围、群体恐慌和非适应性应急疏散行为5个变量的理论模型,采用问卷调查法研究5个变量之间的关系,应用AMOS软件搭建结构方程模型,并结合调研数据进行分析。研究结果表明：风险感知对发生突发事件后人的非适应性应急疏散行为产生主要正向作用,群体恐慌通过调节作用提高风险感知,也会对人的非适应性应急疏散行为产生相应正向影响;安全氛围和心理韧性通过风险感知的中介作用会,对人的非适应性应急疏散行为产生一定负向影响;可通过加强安全氛围建设、安全知识科普、提高现场管理人员能力等方法,减少突发事件中非适应性应急疏散行为的产生。     

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.     

The impact of risk tolerance,risk perception and hazardous attitude on safety operation among airline pilots in China

The present study integrates personality approach and social cognition approach to investigate the relationships between risk tolerance, risk perception, hazardous attitude and safety operation behavior in order to understand the mechanisms underlying pilots’ safety operation behavior in aviation. The study sample consisted of 118 commercial airline pilots from China Southern Airlines Ltd. The results show risk tolerance displays an indirect effect on safety operation behavior through influencing hazardous attitude; risk perception has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between risk tolerance and safety operation behavior. Based on the above, it can be concluded that the low risk tolerance primarily influences safety operation behavior indirectly through affecting hazardous attitude. With risk perception increasing, the negative effects of risk tolerance on safety operation behavior are gradually reduced. Practical implications for aviation safety campaigns are also discussed.     

Shift schedules on North Sea oil/gas installations: A systematic review of their impact on performance,safety and health

Continuous production processes on North Sea installations necessitate extended work schedules; 2-week offshore tours (alternating with shore breaks), 12 h shifts and rapid day/night shift changes are inherent features of offshore work. These intensive rosters, worked in a demanding physical and psychosocial environment, are potential sources of fatigue and impaired performance among offshore personnel. This article focuses on offshore working time arrangements, and presents a systematic review of studies which examine offshore day/night shift patterns in relation to operational safety and individual health risks. Of the 53 studies retrieved, 24 met the review criteria.Field study findings are generally consistent in showing that sleep, alertness and performance are relatively stable across day-shift tours; initial night shifts are adversely affected by circadian disruption, but full physiological and psychological adaptation occurs within 5–6 days; re-adaptation to day shifts is slower, and varies widely across individuals; the offshore environment is conducive to night-shift adaptation, but interventions to facilitate re-adaptation have proved only modestly effective. Analyses of survey data and accident/sickness records identify offshore night work as a risk factor for impaired sleep, health problems, and injuries, but little is known about the long-term health effects of different offshore shift rotations.In conclusion, research methodology and findings, and working time issues of current concern to the offshore oil/gas industry, are discussed. Aspects of offshore work schedules that have been not been widely studied (e.g. overtime, irregular work patterns) are also highlighted, and research areas that would merit further attention are noted.     

Safety climate, attitudes and risk perception in Norsk Hydro

The aims of this paper are to test mental images of risk and to present some results of a survey of safety climate, employee attitudes, risk perception and behaviour among employees within the industrial company Norsk Hydro. Two mental images were tested. They are both based on the assumption that it is possible to make a distinction between cognitive and affective processes involved in risk perception. The first model was the ‘rationalistic’ approach, which assumes that the affective component of risk perception is influenced by cognitive judgements. The justification for the second model is found in Zajonc's [Zajonc, R.B., 1980. Feeling and thinking. Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist 35 (2), 151–175] conclusion that emotions are precognitive. In this model, entitled the ‘mental imagery’ approach, emotion is seen as the driving force affecting cognition of risk and safety. Employees at 13 plants have answered a self-completion questionnaire. The plants belonged to the agricultural, aluminium, magnesium and petrochemical divisions within Norsk Hydro. A total of 731 respondents replied to the questionnaire. The mental imagery approach was somewhat better fitted to the data than a rationalistic approach. Safety climate and employee attitudes towards safety and accident prevention contributed significantly to the variance in employee occupational risk behaviour. Worry and the extent to which the employee felt safe/unsafe was the most important predictor for the cognitive judgement of risk. Acceptability of rule violations seemed to be the most important predictor of behaviour, probably because acceptability also affected how often the respondents took chances and broke safety rules.     

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.     

Impact of safety attitude,safety knowledge and safety leadership on chemical industry workers’ risk perception based on Structural Equation Modelling and System Dynamics

In chemical industry, major accidents occur occasionally. Past research has demonstrated that risk perception was relevant to safety as it might affect the behavior, which could exert influence on the probability of accidents. It is important to adjust workers' risk perception to reduce accidents in chemical industry. To achieve this goal, some key influencing factors of workers’ risk perception of were identified from 3 aspects including safety attitude, safety knowledge and safety leadership. This was accomplished by gathering empirical data from 287 workers employed in 6 Chemical plants in Jiangsu, China. The model of influencing factors of risk perception for workers was established based on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), and the path coefficients and weights were analyzed by the SEM. On that basis, the System Dynamics (SD) model of risk perception for workers was established. The study findings revealed safety attitude and safety leadership have a direct positive impact on perception of risk probability and perception of risk severity, safety knowledge has a direct positive impact on perception of risk severity, while safety knowledge has no direct positive impact on perception of risk probability. The findings of the study can provide theoretical supports and method guidance for adjusting the risk perception of workers in chemical industry.     

Measuring safety climate in elderly homes

IntroductionProvision of a valid and reliable safety climate dimension brings enormous benefits to the elderly home sector. The aim of the present study was to make use of the safety climate instrument developed by OSHC to measure the safety perceptions of employees in elderly homes such that the factor structure of the safety climate dimensions of elderly homes could be explored.MethodIn 2010, surveys by mustering on site method were administered in 27 elderly homes that had participated in the "Hong Kong Safe and Healthy Residential Care Home Accreditation Scheme" organized by the Occupational Safety and Health Council.ResultsSix hundred and fifty-one surveys were returned with a response rate of 54.3%. To examine the factor structure of safety climate dimensions in our study, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using principal components analysis method was conducted to identify the underlying factors. The results of the modified seven-factor's safety climate structure extracted from 35 items better reflected the safety climate dimensions of elderly homes. The Cronbach alpha range for this study (0.655 to 0.851) indicated good internal consistency among the seven-factor structure. Responses from managerial level, supervisory and professional level, and front-line staff were analyzed to come up with the suggestion on effective ways of improving the safety culture of elderly homes. The overall results showed that managers generally gave positive responses in the factors evaluated, such as "management commitment and concern to safety," "perception of work risks and some contributory influences," "safety communication and awareness," and "safe working attitude and participation." Supervisors / professionals, and frontline level staff on the other hand, have less positive responses. The result of the lowest score in the factors - "perception of safety rules and procedures" underlined the importance of the relevance and practicability of safety rules and procedures.ConclusionThe modified OSHC safety climate tool provided better evidence of structural validity and reliability for use by elderly homes' decision makers as an indicator of employee perception of safety in their institution.Impact on industryThe findings and suggestions in the study provide useful information for the management, supervisors/professionals and frontline level staff to cultivate the safety culture in the elderly home sector. Most important, elderly homes can use the modified safety climate scale to identify problem areas in their safety culture and safety management practices and then target these for intervention.     

Offshore safety case approach and formal safety assessment of ships

PROBLEM: Tragic marine and offshore accidents have caused serious consequences including loss of lives, loss of property, and damage of the environment. METHOD: A proactive, risk-based "goal setting" regime is introduced to the marine and offshore industries to increase the level of safety. DISCUSSION: To maximize marine and offshore safety, risks need to be modeled and safety-based decisions need to be made in a logical and confident way. Risk modeling and decision-making tools need to be developed and applied in a practical environment. SUMMARY: This paper describes both the offshore safety case approach and formal safety assessment of ships in detail with particular reference to the design aspects. The current practices and the latest development in safety assessment in both the marine and offshore industries are described. The relationship between the offshore safety case approach and formal ship safety assessment is described and discussed. Three examples are used to demonstrate both the offshore safety case approach and formal ship safety assessment. The study of risk criteria in marine and offshore safety assessment is carried out. The recommendations on further work required are given. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: This paper gives safety engineers in the marine and offshore industries an overview of the offshore safety case approach and formal ship safety assessment. The significance of moving toward a risk-based "goal setting" regime is given.     

Safety climate and hydrocarbon leaks: An empirical contribution to the leading-lagging indicator discussion

Hydrocarbon (HC) leaks are important initiating events for major accidents in the oil and gas industry. This study explores the extent to which a safety climate indicator from a survey on working conditions undertaken in an oil and gas company (n = 2188) can be used as a leading and/or lagging indicator in relation to HC leaks on 28 offshore installations. It was found that more negative safety climate scores were associated with increasing numbers of HC leaks over a 12-month period following the survey. The safety climate indicator explained more of the variance in HC leaks than technical indicators. HC leaks in the 12-month period preceding the survey did also correlate significantly with the safety climate indicator. More HC leaks during this period were associated with worse scores on the safety climate indicator. Thus, the results support that the safety climate measure could serve as leading and lagging indicator for HC leaks. The results and their possible implications are discussed.     

The acceptance of personal protective equipment among Hong Kong construction workers: An integration of technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior with risk perception and safety climate

Introduction: The phenomenon that construction workers do not use personal protective equipment (PPE) is a major reason for the high occurrence frequency of accidents in the construction industry. However, little efforts have been made to quantitatively examine the factors influencing construction workers’ acceptance of PPE. Method: In the current study, a PPE acceptance model for construction workers (PAMCW) was proposed to address the noted need. The PAMCW incorporates the technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior, risk perception, and safety climate for explaining construction worker acceptance of PPE. 413 construction workers participated in this study to fill out a structured questionnaire. The PAMCW was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: Results provide evidence of the applicability of the technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior to the PPE acceptance among construction workers. The positive influence of safety climate and risk perception-severity on attitude toward using PPE was significant. Safety climate positively influences perceived usefulness. Risk perception-worry and unsafe was found to positively affect intention to use PPE. Practical Applications: Practical suggestions for increasing construction workers’ use of PPE are also discussed.     

Using a psychological contract of safety to predict safety climate on construction sites

Introduction: The fact that safety climate impacts safety behavior and delivers better safety outcomes is well established in construction. However, the way workers safety perception is inclined and developed is still unclear. Method: In this research, the influence of supervisors' developing safety climate and its impact on workers' safety behavior and their conceptualization of safety is explored through the lens of the ‘Psychological Contract’ (PC). More specifically, it is argued that ‘Psychological Contract of Safety’ (PCS) is a vital factor in explaining how workers attach meaning to a supervisor behavior. Extant research suggests: (a) safety climate is based on the perception of workers regarding safety; and (b) PCS is based on perceived mutual obligations between workers and supervisors. As a result, this research argues that if PCS or mutual obligations between workers and supervisors are fulfilled, then safety climate of the workers will be positively influenced. A model is presented depicting PCS as an alternative intervention in understanding how safety climate could be influenced and predicted by the level of fulfillment of mutual safety obligations. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) the model of the PCS is validated with data collected from a mega-construction project in Australia. Results: The results suggest that to have a positive and strong safety climate, top-level managers must ensure that mutual safety obligations between supervisor and workers are fulfilled. This enables the PCS to be introduced as a new ‘predictor’ of safety climate. Practical applications: The novel outcome of the research could be considered as a management intervention to modify supervisors' behavior to produce better safety outcomes.     

Inherent safety in offshore oil and gas activities: a review of the present status and future directions

Inherent safety is a proactive approach for hazard/risk management during process plant design and operation. It has been proven that, considering the lifetime costs of a process and its operation, an inherently safer approach is a cost-optimal option. Inherent safety can be incorporated at any stage of design and operation; however, its application at the earliest possible stages of process design (such as process selection and conceptual design) yields the best results.Although it is an attractive and cost-effective approach to hazard/risk management, inherent safety has not been used as widely as other techniques such as HAZOP and quantitative risk assessment. There are many reasons responsible for this; key among them are a lack of awareness and the non-availability of a systematic methodology and tools.The inherent safety approach is the best option for hazard/risk management in offshore oil and gas activities. In the past, it has been applied to several aspects of offshore process design and operation. However, its use is still limited. This article attempts to present a complete picture of inherent safety application in offshore oil and gas activities. It discuses the use of available technology for implementation of inherent safety principles in various offshore activities, both current and planned for the future.     

Effects of safety climate on safety norm violations: exploring the mediating role of attitudinal ambivalence toward personal protective equipment

Problem

Research on the role of organizational and psychosocial factors in influencing risk behaviors and the likelihood of injury at work showed that safety climate also has great impact on workers’ behavior. However, the mechanisms through which this impact operates are still partially unclear.

Method

In order to explore the role that attitudinal ambivalence toward wearing PPE might play in mediating the impact of safety climate on safety norm violations, a questionnaire was administered to 345 Italian workers.

Results

Three dimensions of safety climate (i.e., company safety concern, senior managers’ safety concern, supervisors’ attitudes towards safety) were found to be positively associated with the individual ambivalence level, whereas the fourth one (i.e., work pressure) was negatively correlated with it. In turn, low levels of ambivalence were associated with a lower tendency to break the safety norms, even though the perception of a good safety climate also maintained a direct effect on unsafe behaviors.

Impact on industry

Designers of training program for the prevention of work related injuries must pay great attention to the psycho-social factors (such as the effects of the safety climate perception by employees on their attitudes and behaviors), and include specific contents into the prevention programs in order to improve workers compliance with safety norms.     

From safety culture to safety orientation: Validation and simplification of a safety orientation scale using a sample of seafarers working for Norwegian ship owners

Measuring safety performance is becoming increasingly important in many high-risk industries such as atomic power, the chemical industry, offshore oil production, air traffic control and construction. Much has been done to study the antecedents/factors that shape the safety culture and safety climate in these types of industries, but almost no research has been conducted into another high-risk industry – shipping. Based on the safety orientation model (SOM) and a review of items and scales used in surveys of safety climate and safety culture, a safety orientation scale (SOS) was developed and refined through the use of multivariate statistics. This study was conducted with a sample of seafarers sailing on Norwegian-owned vessels. A total of 2558 questionnaires were returned from 141 vessels and 16 shipping companies, giving a calculated response rate of 70%.The study showed that replicating previous studies on the sample of seafarers demonstrated a large degree of stability in scales and items across both industries and nations.Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is the most commonly adopted approach to the development of scales of safety climate and culture scale reported in the literature, and factor retention seems to be the most important decision in EFA. In the present study several rules to determine the number of factors and items retained are applied, and a comparison is made of a short form of latent root criterion (SFLRC) and parallel criterion (PC). SFLRC is found to be the superior method for the present data set.Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) did not support the preliminary SOM of 12 dimensions (13 dimensions, since one of the 12 dimensions was split during the CFA procedure); however, a re-specification of the model on the basis of the CFA for four different behavioural measures gave a simplified and well-defined model with seven factors and 22 items.     

Parental risk perceptions of childhood pedestrian road safety

Problem: Pedestrian injury is a major hazard to the health of children in most developed countries, including Australia. In a previous study it was found that parental road risk perception is a significant factor associated with their modeling of safe behavior as pedestrians. This study aimed to investigate factors that affect parental road risk perception. Method: This cross-sectional population-based randomized telephone survey aimed to study factors associated with risk perception on pedestrian road safety among parents with young children aged 4–12 years. Results: Five factors were found to be significantly associated with parental risk perception. They included age of child, sex of parent, employment of parent, living environment, and previous injury experience. The results suggested that the age of the child contributed greatest to the variance explained by the regression model. However, other factors remained significant even after adjusting for each other. Discussion: Results were discussed in light of the design and development of childhood pedestrian road safety campaigns. Impact on industry: Parental risk perceptions determine their safe road modeling behavior. In this study, significant factors that affect parental road risk perception have been identified. The information obtained can be used in the design of road safety programs that aim at changing the road risk perception of parents.     

Quantification of risk perception: Development and validation of the construction worker risk perception (CoWoRP) scale

Introduction: The construction sector is leading in the number of accidents and fatalities; risk perception is the key to driving these numbers. Previous construction safety studies on risk perception quantification have not considered affective risk perception of construction workers or conducted comprehensive reliability and validity testing. Thus, this study aims to fill this need by developing a psychometrically sound instrument – the Construction Worker Risk Perception (CoWoRP) Scale – to assess the risk perception of construction workers. Method: Four phases of scale development, namely, item development, factor analysis, reliability assessment, and validity assessment were conducted with the collection and testing of data from a group (n = 469) of voluntary construction workers in Hong Kong. Results: The CoWoRP Scale with 13 items was shown to have acceptable test–retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, as well as content, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity. Also, the CoWoRP Scale was affirmed to have three dimensions of worker risk perception, namely risk perception – probability, risk perception – severity, risk perception – worry and unsafe. These three dimensions of worker risk perception were negatively correlated with their risk-taking behavior. Conclusions: The CoWoRP Scale is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring the risk perception of construction workers and is expected to facilitate the construction safety studies that take risk perception of construction workers into account. Practical applications: The CoWoRP Scale could serve as an aptitude test to identify the characteristics of construction workers most likely to perceive lower risk in risky work situations. In turn, this information could help safety management provide safety training programs to those workers to enhance their risk perception and thereby minimizing their risk-taking behavior, reducing unnecessary training costs, and improving the construction safety performance.     

基于RBI技术的海上平台延期服役静设备定量化安全评估技术

针对海上延期服役平台静设备的安全风险评估与控制问题,应用RBI风险评估技术的评估理论和方法对海上延期服役平台静设备的定量化安全管理方法进行了实践和探索,并选择某延期服役平台进行风险分析相关结论的工程验证。其具体过程是运用定量RBI技术,首先根据工艺流程和介质特点对海上平台静设备分别进行了物流回路和损伤回路的划分,并以此为基础对延期服役平台静设备的安全风险进行定量评估,进而得出各静设备单元的失效可能性、失效后果及风险等级,最后通过得出的损伤模式、损伤机理及对应的腐蚀速率,从而制定针对性的检测策略。将利用这些检验策略所检测出的真实情况与分析结论进行对比,最终验证了RBI技术在延期服役平台静设备风险评估方面具有很强的适用性。