Safety climate: Leading or lagging indicator of safety outcomes?

This paper theorizes how and why safety climate can be conceived as both a leading and a lagging indicator of safety events (i.e., accidents, injuries). When safety climate is conceived as a leading indicator, a prospective design is utilized and safety climate data are correlated with accidents/injuries that occur in the future. When safety climate is conceived as a lagging indicator, retrospective designs are used in which safety climate data are correlated with prior accidents/injuries. We examine the research literature to reveal that safety climate has been investigated as both a leading and a lagging indicator, but it is usually only examined as one or the other within a given study and has been examined as a lagging indicator most frequently. Consistent with our theorizing, prospective designs yield stronger relationships than retrospective designs, suggesting that safety climate is a better leading indicator than lagging indicator; however, it is clearly both. Implications for safety climate research and study design are discussed.     

Leading and lagging: Process safety climate–incident relationships at one year

In order to evaluate the leading and lagging effects of process safety climate on incidents, we correlated safety climate survey data with organizational safety records from before and after the survey time period. We obtained data from a large, multinational organization with manufacturing operations involving a number of complex processes, chemicals, and hazardous substances. A total of 7728 employees from 62 sites responded to a safety climate survey in 2007. Individual responses were aggregated to the site-level and matched to site-level organizational records of process safety incidents 1 year before and 1 year after survey administration. Employees’ perceptions of good routine housekeeping were significantly related to environmental impact incidents as both a leading and a lagging indicator, as well as fires/explosions and property damage outcomes. Employees’ perceptions of systems to prevent backlogs and the extent to which health and safety problems are promptly corrected were also related to environmental releases and fires/explosions. Implications for process safety climate research, organizational survey strategies, and organizational climate change are discussed.     

Actual safety performance of the Malaysian offshore oil platforms: Correlations between the leading and lagging indicators

IntroductionThis study establishes the correlations between performance of a set of key safety factors and the actual lagging performance of oil platforms in Malaysia, hence the relevance of the key safety factors in evaluating and predicting the safety performance of oil and gas platforms. The key factors are crucial components of a safety performance evaluation framework and each key safety factor corresponds to a list of underlying safety indicators.MethodIn this study, participating industrial practitioners rated the compliance status of each indicator using a numbering system adapted from the traffic light system, based on the actual performance of 10 oil platforms in Malaysia. Safety scores of the platforms were calculated based on the ratings and compared with the actual lagging performance of the platforms. Safety scores of two platforms were compared with the facility status reports' findings of the respective platforms.ResultsThe platforms studied generally had good performance. Total recordable incident rates of the platforms were found to show significant negative correlations with management and work engagement on safety, compliance score for number of incident and near misses, personal safety, and management of change. Lost time injury rates, however, correlated negatively with hazard identification and risk assessment. The safety scores generally agreed with findings of the facility status reports with substandard process containment found as a contributor of hydrocarbon leaks.ConclusionsThis study proves the criterion validity of the safety performance evaluation framework and demonstrates its usability for benchmarking and continuous improvement of safety practices on the Malaysian offshore oil and gas platforms.Practical applicationsThis study reveals the applicability of the framework and the potential of extending safety reporting beyond the few conventional lagging safety performance indicators used. The study also highlights the synergy between correlating safety factors to streamline safety management on offshore platforms.     

Safety compliance and safety climate: A repeated cross-sectional study in the oil and gas industry

IntroductionViolations of safety rules and procedures are commonly identified as a causal factor in accidents in the oil and gas industry. Extensive knowledge on effective management practices related to improved compliance with safety procedures is therefore needed. Previous studies of the causal relationship between safety climate and safety compliance demonstrate that the propensity to act in accordance with prevailing rules and procedures is influenced to a large degree by workers' safety climate. Commonly, the climate measures employed differ from one study to another and identical measures of safety climate are seldom tested repeatedly over extended periods of time. This research gap is addressed in the present study.MethodThe study is based on a survey conducted four times among sharp-end workers of the Norwegian oil and gas industry (N = 31,350). This is done by performing multiple tests (regression analysis) over a period of 7 years of the causal relationship between safety climate and safety compliance. The safety climate measure employed is identical across the 7-year period.ConclusionsTaking all periods together, the employed safety climate model explained roughly 27% of the variance in safety compliance. The causal relationship was found to be stable across the period, thereby increasing the reliability and the predictive validity of the factor structure. The safety climate factor that had the most powerful effect on safety compliance was work pressure.Practical applicationsThe factor structure employed shows high predictive validity and should therefore be relevant to organizations seeking to improve safety in the petroleum sector. The findings should also be relevant to other high-hazard industries where safety rules and procedures constitute a central part of the approach to managing safety.     

Safety climate,safety management practice and safety performance in offshore environments

Safety climate surveys were conducted on 13 offshore oil and gas installations in separate years (N=682 and 806, respectively), with nine installations common to both years. In addition, data on safety management practices were collected by questionnaire from senior management on eight installations in each year. The associations between management practices and climate scores with official accident statistics and self-reported accident involvement were tested via a series of hypotheses. Associations were found between certain safety climate scales and official accident statistics and also the proportion of respondents reporting an accident in the previous 12 months. Proficiency in some safety management practices was associated with lower official accident rates and fewer respondents reporting accidents.     

Safety performance measurement in collectivized oil companies in China: Contribution of leading indicators to lagging indicators

With the collectivization of the Chinese oil industry, oil companies have been expanding in size. However, the intensified differences in the safety performance of subsidiaries have severely hindered the collaborative management of the headquarters. Understanding the safety status of each member is urgent for parent companies and their subsidiaries to identify gaps and make improvements. A unified set of safety performance indicators and a practical measurement tool are essential for the Chinese oil industry. Hence, this study identified a set of safety performance indicators encompassing both leading and lagging indicators using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and entropy weight method (EWM) to reveal the critical factors affecting the safety performance of the oil industry. A total of 300 front-line workers from eight subsidiaries of an oil company participated in the survey. The identified indicators were preliminarily weighted using EWM. Then, DEA was employed to measure the safety performance of the eight subsidiaries, demonstrating that management commitment was the most crucial factor in distinguishing safety performance; safety culture was more differentiated than risk management. Safety performance was not entirely positively correlated with safety investments, but the reasonable allocation of safety resources played a vital role. In addition, the weaknesses in each subsidiary's safety management were identified, and the quantitative effects of each leading indicator on safety performance were obtained.     

Lagging or leading? Exploring the temporal relationship among lagging indicators in mining establishments 2006–2017

Problem: Safety management literature generally categorizes key performance indicators (KPIs) as either leading or lagging. Traditional lagging indicators are measures related to negative safety incidents, such as injuries, while leading indicators are used to predict (and therefore can be used to prevent) the likelihood of future negative safety incidents. Recent theory suggests that traditional lagging indicators also possess characteristics of leading indicators, and vice versa, however empirical evidence is limited. Method: The current research investigated the temporal relationships among establishment-level injuries, near misses, and fatal events using injury and employment data from a sample of 24,910 mining establishments over a 12-year period. Results: While controlling for employee hours worked, establishment-level reported injuries and near misses were associated with of future fatal events across the sample of mines and over the time period studied. Fatal events were also associated with increases in future reported near misses, providing evidence of a cyclic relationship between them. Discussion: These findings challenge the strict categorization of injuries, near misses, and fatal events as lagging indicators. Practical applications: Understanding the KPIs that should be used to manage organizational safety, and how they can be used, is of critical practical importance. The results of the current study suggest that, depending on several considerations, metrics tied to negative safety incidents may be used to anticipate, and possibly prevent, future negative safety events.     

Safety climate differences among job positions in a nuclear decommissioning and demolition industry: Employees’ self-reported safety attitudes and perceptions

This study examined group differences in safety climate among job positions in a nuclear decommissioning and demolition industry in the United States. Safety climate surveys were conducted at 10 locations. Survey responses totaled 1587 out of an available population of 3296 workers for an overall response rate of 48.1%. Significant differences (p < 0.05) in mean safety climate scores, factor scores, and item scores among job positions were observed. Most notably, foremen’s self-reported safety attitudes and perceptions indicate a lower safety climate and suggest the need to target safety improvements at this key organizational level.     

Association between safety leading indicators and safety climate levels

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to evaluate the association of leading indicators for occupational health and safety, particularly safety inspections and non-compliances, with safety climate levels.MethodsNordic Occupational Safety Climate Assessment Questionnaire was employed to evaluate safety climate in cross-sectional design. The geographically diverse population of the inspection body made it possible to conduct the survey across 10 provinces in Iran. 89 completed questionnaires were obtained with a response rate of 47%. Except for management safety justice, the internal consistency of other six dimensions was found to be acceptable (α ≥ 0.7).ResultsMean scores of dimensions ranged from 3.50 in trust in the efficacy of safety systems (SD = 0.38) to 2.98 in workers' safety priority and risk non-acceptance (SD = 0.47). Tukey HSD tests indicated a statistically significant difference of mean scores among groups undergoing different number of safety inspections and those receiving different number of non-compliances (p < 0.05), with no significant differences based on safety training man-hours and sessions (p > 0.05). Spearman's rank-order correlation showed no relationship between work experience and number of non-compliances (correlation coefficient = − 0.04, p > 0.05) and between safety training man-hours and number of non-compliances (correlation coefficient = − 0.15, p > 0.05).ConclusionsOur results indicate that safety climate levels are influenced by number of safety inspections and the resultant non-compliances.Practical applicationsFindings suggest that safety non-compliances detected as a result of conducting safety inspections could be used to monitor the safety climate state. Establishing plans to conduct scheduled safety inspections and recording findings in the form of safety non-compliance and monitoring their trend could be used to monitor levels of safety climate.     

Organizational Climate Metrics as Safety,Health and Environment Performance Indicators and an Aid to Relative Risk Ranking within Industry

The chemical, pharmaceutical and other related process industries are characterized by inherently hazardous processes and activities. To ensure that considered risk management decisions are made it is essential that organizations have the ability to rank the risk profiles of their assets and operations. Current industry risk ranking techniques are biased toward the assessment of the risk potential of the asset or operation. Methodologies used to assess these risks tend to be engineering-based and include, for example, hazard identification and event rate estimation techniques. Recent research has associated lagging safety performance indicators with metrics of organizational safety climate. Despite the evidence suggesting their potential usefulness, organizational climate metrics have not yet been exploited as a proactive safety, health and environmental performance indicator or as an aid to relative risk ranking. This paper summarizes research that successfully produced a statistical model of organizational climate and its relationship to site significant injury frequency rates, allowing the relative risk ranking of sites based upon organizational climate metrics. The responses to an industrial organizational survey are examined for a pharmaceutical company's sites in the United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States. Projection to Latent Structures Analysis is performed on the survey responses. The resultant models are shown to be able to accurately model the site significant injury frequency rates. The organizational climate metrics that discriminate between the safety performance levels of different sites are identified.     

A safety culture maturity model for petrochemical companies in Brazil

A framework to measure safety culture maturity in the Brazilian oil and gas companies was formulated based on the model of Hudson (2001). Following a review of the safety culture literature, a questionnaire was designed to measure five aspects of organisational safety indicative of five levels of cultural maturity. The questionnaire was completed by the safety managers of 23 petrochemical companies based in Camacari, Bahia, Brazil and they were interviewed one month later. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested by asking the same questions in an interview and comparing the results (alternate forms reliability). The correlation coefficients between the questionnaire and interview scores on each dimension ranged from r = 0.7 to 0.9, demonstrating good reliability of the measures used. The research findings demonstrated that the 23 companies studied showed characteristics of different levels of safety culture maturity. Most scores were at the level of proactive. The model of Hudson (2001) and the revised framework and questionnaire were found to be practical to use, making it possible to identify levels of safety culture maturity in the context of the Brazilian petrochemical industry.     

Exploratory study on safety climate in Chinese manufacturing enterprises

This study was conducted in eastern cities of China; 1060 employees were sampled from 144 enterprises located in East China, and 796 (75.1%) responded validly. The level of safety climate of Chinese manufacturing enterprises as well as the differences in safety climate between large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were examined. This study revealed that the safety climate level that the employees’ perceived was rather low in Chinese manufacturing enterprises, and differences in terms of mean scores of total safety climate, factors composing the safety climate, and items to measure this climate between large enterprises and SMEs were statistically significant (at p < 0.05). Among all the factors, the largest difference between large enterprises and SMEs was the employees’ perception of safety training, followed by management support. It suggests that SMEs should pay more attention to safety training and management support to improve the safety climate.     

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.     

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

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

Development of the German version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: Dimensionality and psychometric properties

Despite the importance of safety climate assessment in healthcare, the psychometric properties of existing safety climate surveys have seldom been tested. We developed a German version of the HSOPSC and investigated its dimensionality and predictive validity. In adapting the survey we differentiated between the two management levels (hospital, unit) by duplicating dimensions of the HSOPSC. Based on a sample of n = 568, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses (CFA, EFA) were applied. Relationships between safety climate and outcome variables were investigated by regression analyses. CFA did not replicate the proposed factor structure, supporting evidence from other European countries. EFAs revealed eight factors (instead of twelve proposed for the original instrument) and allowed for differentiating between management levels (hospital, unit). For physicians and nurses, different predictors were identified for overall safety climate perception. Further cross-cultural investigations of dimensionality are necessary for international comparisons of safety climate in healthcare. Our results highlight the importance of capturing the impact of different management levels, especially in large hospitals, and differences between professional groups in order to design interventions accordingly.     

Between a rock and a hard place: Accident and near-miss reporting on offshore service vessels

Reporting accidents and near misses is an important aspect of safety management. This study explores reporting in contract work, exemplified by offshore service vessels, and the associations with external and internal organisational factors. The empirical foundation for the study is a questionnaire survey (N = 1108). Reporting was negatively related to high efficiency demands from external actors and low quality of feedback to the reporting community. These factors were more strongly related to reporting than internal factors within the safety climate construct. Short-term contract engagement was also negatively associated with reporting. The results could reflect the organisational complexity that characterises much contract work. The study implies that attempts to increase the level of reporting in contract work should not be limited to focusing on internal organisational factors. Framework conditions and signals from external actors regarding the actual priority accorded to safety should also be considered.     

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.     

The association between subcontractor safety management programs and worker perceived safety climate in commercial construction projects

Problem: Safety management programs (SMPs) are designed to mitigate risk of workplace injuries and create a safe working climate. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the relationship between contractors’ SMPs and workers’ perceived safety climate and safety behaviors among small and medium-sized construction subcontractors. Methods: Subcontractor SMP scores on 18 organizational and project-level safety items were coded from subcontractors’ written safety programs and interviews. Workers completed surveys to report perceptions of their contractor’s safety climate and the safety behaviors of coworkers, crews, and themselves. The associations between SMP scores and safety climate and behavior scales were examined using Spearman correlation and hierarchical linear regression models (HLM). Results: Among 78 subcontractors working on large commercial construction projects, we found striking differences in SMP scores between small, medium, and large subcontractors (p < 0.001), related to a number of specific safety management practices. We observed only weak relationships between SMP scales and safety climate scores reported by 746 workers of these subcontractors (β = 0.09, p = 0.04 by HLM). We saw no differences in worker reported safety climate and safety behaviors by contractor size. Discussion: SMP only weakly predicted safety climate scales of subcontractors, yet there were large differences in the quality and content of SMPs by size of employers. Summary: Future work should determine the best way to measure safety performance of construction companies and determine the factors that can lead to improved safety performance of construction firms. Practical applications: Our simple assessment of common elements of safety management programs used document review and interviews with knowledgeable representatives. These methods identified specific safety management practices that differed between large and small employers. In order to improve construction safety, it is important to understand how best to measure safety performance in construction companies to gain knowledge for creating safer work environments.     

The nature of safety culture: a review of theory and research

This paper reviews the literature on safety culture and safety climate. The main emphasis is on applied research customary in the social psychological or organisational psychological traditions. Although safety culture and climate are generally acknowledged to be important concepts, not much consensus has been reached on the cause, the content and the consequences of safety culture and climate in the past 20 years. Moreover, there is an overall lack of models specifying either the relationship of both concepts with safety and risk management or with safety performance. In this paper, safety culture and climate will be differentiated according to a general framework based on work by Schein (1992 Schein) on organisational culture. This framework distinguishes three levels at which organisational culture can be studied — basis assumptions, espoused values and artefacts. At the level of espoused values we find attitudes, which are equated with safety climate. The basic assumptions, however, form the core of the culture. It is argued that these basic assumptions do not have to be specifically about safety, although it is considered a good sign if they are. It is concluded that safety climate might be considered an alternative safety performance indicator and that research should focus on its scientific validity. More important, however, is the assessment of an organisation's basic assumptions, since these are assumed to be explanatory to its attitudes.