Safety climate and injuries: An examination of theoretical and empirical relationships.

Our purpose in this study was to meta-analytically address several theoretical and empirical issues regarding the relationships between safety climate and injuries. First, we distinguished between extant safety climate→injury and injury→safety climate relationships for both organizational and psychological safety climates. Second, we examined several potential moderators of these relationships. Meta-analyses revealed that injuries were more predictive of organizational safety climate than safety climate was predictive of injuries. Additionally, the injury→safety climate relationship was stronger for organizational climate than for psychological climate. Moderator analyses revealed that the degree of content contamination in safety climate measures inflated effects, whereas measurement deficiency attenuated effects. Additionally, moderator analyses showed that as the time period over which injuries were assessed lengthened, the safety climate→injury relationship was attenuated. Supplemental meta-analyses of specific safety climate dimensions also revealed that perceived management commitment to safety is the most robust predictor of occupational injuries. Contrary to expectations, the operationalization of injuries did not meaningfully moderate safety climate–injury relationships. Implications and recommendations for future research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

High-Performance Work Systems and Occupational Safety.

Two studies were conducted investigating the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and occupational safety. In Study 1, data were obtained from company human resource and safety directors across 138 organizations. LISREL VIII results showed that an HPWS was positively related to occupational safety at the organizational level. Study 2 used data from 189 front-line employees in 2 organizations. Trust in management and perceived safety climate were found to mediate the relationship between an HPWS and safety performance measured in terms of personal-safety orientation (i.e., safety knowledge, safety motivation, safety compliance, and safety initiative) and safety incidents (i.e., injuries requiring first aid and near misses). These 2 studies provide confirmation of the important role organizational factors play in ensuring worker safety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safety climate as a mediator between foundation climates and occupational accidents: A group-level investigation.

Building on recent work in occupational safety and climate, the authors examined 2 organizational foundation climates thought to be antecedents of specific safety climate and the relationships among these climates and occupational accidents. It is believed that both foundation climates (i.e., management-employee relations and organizational support) will predict safety climate, which will in turn mediate the relationship between occupational accidents and these 2 distal foundation climates. Using a sample of 9,429 transportation workers in 253 work groups, the authors tested the proposed relationships at the group level. Results supported all hypotheses. Overall it appears that different climates have direct and indirect effects on occupational accidents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Climate as a moderator of the relationship between leader-member exchange and content specific citizenship: Safety climate as an exemplar.

The present study integrates role theory, social exchange, organizational citizenship, and climate research to suggest that employees will reciprocate implied obligations of leadership-based social exchange (e.g., leader-member exchange [LMX]) by expanding their role and behaving in ways consistent with contextual behavioral expectations (e.g., work group climate). Using safety climate as an exemplar, the authors found that the relationship between LMX and subordinate safety citizenship role definitions was moderated by safety climate. In summary, high-quality LMX relationships resulted in expanded safety citizenship role definitions when there was a positive safety climate and there was no such expansion under less positive safety climates. The authors also found that safety citizenship role definitions were significantly related to safety citizenship behavior. Implications for both social exchange theory and safety research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Railing for Safety: Job Demands, Job Control, and Safety Citizenship Role Definition.

This study investigated job demands and job control as predictors of safety citizenship role definition, that is, employees' role orientation toward improving workplace safety. Data from a survey of 334 trackside workers were framed in the context of R. A. Karasek's (1979) job demands-control model. High job demands were negatively related to safety citizenship role definition, whereas high job control was positively related to this construct. Safety citizenship role definition of employees with high job control was buffered from the influence of high job demands, unlike that of employees with low job control, for whom high job demands were related to lower levels of the construct. Employees facing both high job demands and low job control were less likely than other employees to view improving safety as part of their role orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job insecurity and employability in fixed-term contractors, agency workers, and permanent workers: Associations with job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment.

This study investigates how job insecurity and employability relate to job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment in permanent workers, fixed-term contract workers, and temporary agency workers. The authors hypothesized that (a) job insecurity relates negatively to job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment, and this relationship is strongest in permanent workers and weakest in temporary agency workers; and that (b) employability relates positively to job satisfaction and negatively to affective organizational commitment, and this relationship is strongest in temporary agency workers and weakest in permanent workers. Hypotheses were tested in workers (permanent: n = 329; fixed term; n = 160; temporary agency: n = 89) from 23 Belgian organizations. The results show that job insecurity related negatively to the outcomes for permanent workers and temporary agency workers. This relationship was not significant for fixed-term contract workers. Employability related negatively to the outcomes for fixed-term contract workers and temporary agency workers, and this relationship was not significant for permanent workers. The 3 groups had different interpretations of what constitutes a stressor and about what signals a good employment relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

No security: A meta-analysis and review of job insecurity and its consequences.

Meta-analytic techniques were used to estimate how job insecurity relates to its postulated outcomes. Consistent with the conceptual framework, the results indicate that job insecurity has detrimental consequences for employees' job attitudes, organizational attitudes, health, and, to some extent, their behavioral relationship with the organization. Moderator analyses suggest that these relationships may be underestimated in studies relying on single-item measures of job insecurity and that the behavioral consequences of insecurity are more detrimental among manual, as compared with nonmanual, workers. Recommendations made for future research include utilization of multidimensional measures, consideration of a broader spectrum of outcomes and moderators, and use of longitudinal designs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

莱钢推行32210安全管理模式

莱钢实施32210安全管理模式,采取＂三消除＂管理,消除管理缺失、人的不安全行为、物的不安全状态,提高现场本质安全化程度;夯实＂双基＂、＂双因素＂管理,强化应急管理,制定轻伤以上人身伤害事故为零的目标管理体系,实施零目标管理。通过模式实施,型钢炼铁厂安全绩效持续提升,连续多年实现了重伤以上人身伤害事故、重大设备事故、重大火灾事故和负主要责任的重大交通事故为零的目标。     

The effects of job insecurity on employee safety outcomes: Cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations.

Job insecurity research has focused primarily on attitudinal (e.g., job satisfaction), behavioral (e.g., employee turnover), and health outcomes. Moreover, research in the area of workplace safety has largely focused on ergonomic factors and personnel selection and training as primary antecedents of safety. Two cross-sectional structural equational modeling analyses and 1 longitudinal regression analysis of 237 food-processing plant employees unite these 2 disparate areas of research by exploring the relatively uncharted relationship between job insecurity and safety outcomes. Results indicate that employees who report high perceptions of job insecurity exhibit decreased safety motivation and compliance, which in turn are related to higher levels of workplace injuries and accidents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between safety climate and safety performance: A meta-analytic review.

The current study used meta-analysis to examine the criterion-related validity of the relationships between safety climate, safety performance (participation and compliance), and occupational accidents and injuries. Support was found for the study's hypotheses linking organizational safety climate to employee safety compliance and participation, with the latter demonstrating the stronger relationship; however, the subsequent links to accident involvement were found to be weak, suggesting limited support for a fully mediated model. The relationship between safety climate and accident involvement was found to be moderated by the study design, such that only prospective designs, in which accidents were measured following the measurement of safety climate, demonstrated validity generalization. The implications of the findings and suggestions for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Countering the Negative Effects of Job Insecurity Through Participative Decision Making: Lessons From the Demand-Control Model.

This study examined the effectiveness of increased organizational participative decision making in attenuating the negative consequences of job insecurity. Data were collected from 807 employees in 6 different companies. Analyses suggest that job insecurity is related to lower coworker, work, and supervisor satisfaction and higher turnover intentions and work withdrawal behaviors. However, employees with greater participative decision-making opportunities reported fewer negative consequences of job insecurity compared with employees with fewer participative decision-making opportunities. Results are interpreted using the demand-control model and suggest that organizations that allow greater employee participative decision making may experience fewer negative side effects from today's rising levels of employee job insecurity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial safety climate: Development of the PSC-12.

Psychosocial risks in the workplace have the potential for causing psychological and social harm that contributes toward the mental health disability burden. Psychosocial risks are influenced by macrolevel factors such as the psychosocial safety climate within the organization. This paper concerns the development and evaluation of a short instrument to measure psychosocial safety climate (PSC). PSC is conceived as an up-stream resource, and concerns senior management values and attitudes toward care and practices in relation to employee psychosocial well being. In a pilot sample (N = 78) we used an iterative procedure incorporating regression analysis to reduce 26 items down to a parsimonious 12 item, four-factor scale (PSC-12). The PSC-12 was then assessed using confirmatory factor analysis and the scale validated in a second representative sample of Australian workers (N = 398). The PSC-12 showed expected relationships with psychosocial risk factors (e.g., job demands, job resources), worker engagement and health, and work related outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction). We further confirmed the invariance of the factor coefficients and factor covariance across the two multioccupational samples using multigroup analysis. In a third organizational study (N = 16 teams, 106 health care workers) we found that PSC showed group like psychometric properties, and team level PSC was associated with individual level psychological distress and work engagement. PSC showed incremental value beyond a physical safety measure. The results provide initial indications that the PSC-12 can be used across a range of occupations, and within organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safety Climate Improvement: Case Study in a Chinese Construction Company

A positive safety climate can improve employees’ safety awareness and reduce workers’ unsafe behaviors. Having consistent key factors that comprise safety climate is paramount in facilitating the measurement and comparison of safety climate over time which helps identify effective approaches to improve safety performance. This paper examines the consistency of safety climate factor structure and safety climate improvements over time in a Chinese construction company. It adopts a case study approach and reports on using the same safety climate instrument to carry out two surveys, three years apart. The exploratory factor analysis showed that the obtained four-factor structure of safety climate remained consistent across the two surveys. Moreover, the confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the second-order factor of safety climate was unchanged. Statistically significant improvements were also found on all four identified factors. The governmental or organizational strategies and/or tactics that could stimulate positive improvements on safety climate factors (referred to as stimulators hereinafter) were then identified via interviews with safety management officers in the company. The most effective stimulators were found to include constituting the safety regulations and safety rules, as well as increasing the intensity of safety training and safety promotion. Implications on the consistent factor structure of safety climate and the stimulators are also discussed.     

Safety at work: A meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes.

In this article, we develop and meta-analytically test the relationship between job demands and resources and burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes in the workplace. In a meta-analysis of 203 independent samples (N = 186,440), we found support for a health impairment process and for a motivational process as mechanisms through which job demands and resources relate to safety outcomes. In particular, we found that job demands such as risks and hazards and complexity impair employees' health and positively relate to burnout. Likewise, we found support for job resources such as knowledge, autonomy, and a supportive environment motivating employees and positively relating to engagement. Job demands were found to hinder an employee with a negative relationship to engagement, whereas job resources were found to negatively relate to burnout. Finally, we found that burnout was negatively related to working safely but that engagement motivated employees and was positively related to working safely. Across industries, risks and hazards was the most consistent job demand and a supportive environment was the most consistent job resource in terms of explaining variance in burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes. The type of job demand that explained the most variance differed by industry, whereas a supportive environment remained consistent in explaining the most variance in all industries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Multilevel Model of Safety Climate: Cross-Level Relationships Between Organization and Group-Level Climates.

Organizational climates have been investigated separately at organization and subunit levels. This article tests a multilevel model of safety climate, covering both levels of analysis. Results indicate that organization-level and group-level climates are globally aligned, and the effect of organization climate on safety behavior is fully mediated by group climate level. However, the data also revealed meaningful group-level variation in a single organization, attributable to supervisory discretion in implementing formal procedures associated with competing demands like safety versus productivity. Variables that limit supervisory discretion (i.e., organization climate strength and procedural formalization) reduce both between-groups climate variation and within-group variability (i.e., increased group climate strength), although effect sizes were smaller than those associated with cross-level climate relationships. Implications for climate theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic and environmental influences on perceptions of organizational climate.

Assessed genetic and environmental influences on perceptions of organizational climate by using a 4-group twin design. Data were obtained as part of the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. The Work Environment Scale (WES) was used to evaluate perceptions of organizational climate. A measure of job satisfaction was also used to evaluate the effects of genes and environments on job attitudes. Maximum likelihood estimates of genetic and environmental influence suggested significant genetic effects for Supportive Climate, 1 factor resulting from a factor analysis of the WES, but not for a 2nd factor, Time Pressure. Significant environmental effects were found for both Supportive Climate and Time Pressure. Genetic effects were not significant for job satisfaction. The relevance of findings to organizational climate research and personnel selection are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Layoffs and tradeoffs: Production, quality, and safety demands under the threat of job loss.

Employees often face a conflict between production targets, quality assurance, and adherence to safety policies. In a time when layoffs are on the rise, it is important to understand the effects of employee job insecurity on these potentially competing demands. A laboratory experiment manipulated the threat of layoffs in a simulated organization and assessed its effect on employee productivity, product quality, and adherence to safety policies. Results suggest that student participants faced with the threat of layoffs were more productive, yet violated more safety rules and produced lower quality outputs, than participants in the control condition. Implications for organizations contemplating layoffs and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safety behavior: Job demands, job resources, and perceived management commitment to safety.

The job demands-resources model posits that job demands and resources influence outcomes through job strain and work engagement processes. We test whether the model can be extended to effort-related “routine” safety violations and “situational” safety violations provoked by the organization. In addition we test more directly the involvement of job strain than previous studies which have used burnout measures. Structural equation modeling provided, for the first time, evidence of predicted relationships between job strain and “routine” violations and work engagement with “routine” and “situational” violations, thereby supporting the extension of the job demands-resources model to safety behaviors. In addition our results showed that a key safety-specific construct 'perceived management commitment to safety' added to the explanatory power of the job demands-resources model. A predicted path from job resources to perceived management commitment to safety was highly significant, supporting the view that job resources can influence safety behavior through both general motivational involvement in work (work engagement) and through safety-specific processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safety in work vehicles: A multilevel study linking safety values and individual predictors to work-related driving crashes.

Although work-related driving is associated with high accident rates, limited research has investigated the factors influencing driving crashes in the work setting. This study explored multilevel influences on self-reported crashes in the workplace by surveying a sample of work-related drivers (n = 380), their workgroup supervisors (n = 88), and fleet managers (n = 47). At the driver level of analysis, safety motivation predicted self-reported crashes. In turn, drivers' perceptions of their fleet managers' safety values (but not drivers' perceptions of their supervisors' safety values), their own attitudes, and their own efficacy beliefs predicted motivation to drive safely. Furthermore, the influence of supervisors and fleet managers interacted such that drivers were more motivated to drive safely if they perceived both their supervisor and fleet manager to value safety. This study also explored the cross-level relationships between supervisors' and fleet managers' perceptions of organizational safety values and drivers' perceptions of managerial safety values and found a relationship between fleet managers' perceptions of organizational safety values and drivers' perceptions of fleet managers' safety values. These results illustrate that perceptions of workplace safety values are transmitted across levels of the organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)