Creating safer workplaces: assessing the determinants and role of safety climate

Details

• Personal Author:
  Butts MM ; DeJoy DM ; Schaffer BS ; Vandenberg RJ ; Wilson MG
• Description:
  PROBLEM: Although there has been considerable interest in safety climate, relatively little attention has been given to the factors that determine safety climate or to testing the hypothesized mediating role of safety climate with respect to safety-related outcomes. METHOD: Questionnaire responses were obtained from 2,208 employees of a large national retail chain in 21 different locations. RESULTS: After controlling for demographic variables, three factors: environmental conditions, safety-related policies and programs, and general organizational climate, accounted for 55% of the variance in perceived safety climate. Interestingly, organizational climate made a significant contribution to safety climate, even after controlling for the other more safety-relevant variables. Partial correlations showed that safety policies and programs had the largest observed correlation with safety climate, followed by two of the dimensions of organizational climate (communication and organizational support). Using Baron and Kenny's (J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 51 (1986) 1173) procedures, the principal effects of the various work situation factors on perceived safety at work were found to be direct rather than mediated by safety climate. Safety climate influenced perceived safety at work, but its role as a mediator was limited. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: These results are discussed in terms of other recent findings on safety climate and the growing interest in understanding management and organizational factors in the context of workplace safety. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Behavior Demography Epidemiology Occupational Health Safety Surveys And Questionnaires
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Safety Climate Behavior-patterns Demographic-characteristics Organizational Climate Questionnaires Safety-climate Safety-engineering Safety-practices Safety-research Safety Attitudes Safety Management Safety Performance Statistical-analysis

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• ISSN:
  0022-4375
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  81-90
• Volume:
  35
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041687
• Citation:
  J Safety Res 2004 Jan; 35(1):81-90
• Contact Point Address:
  David M. DeJoy, Workplace Health Group, Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, University of Georgia, 315 Ramsey Center, Athens, GA 30602-6522, USA
• Email:
  ddejoy@coe.uga.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• Performing Organization:
  University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc., Athens, Georgia
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19990930
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Safety Research
• End Date:
  20030929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9899fa011f2bf7fa087da83be78925d54acfb76fce0e23229f75cfe6843eed4219728bc30ef3587d61c9262800466c6e5f520dfcee9e5ed538d93ab3761e4a62
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194180/cdc_194180_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 162.85 KB ]