Safety management practices and safety behaviour: Assessing the mediating role of safety knowledge and motivation

Abstract

Safety management practices not only improve working conditions but also positively influence employees’ attitudes and behaviours with regard to safety, thereby reducing accidents in workplace. This study measured employees’ perceptions on six safety management practices and self-reported safety knowledge, safety motivation, safety compliance and safety participation by conducting a survey using questionnaire among 1566 employees belonging to eight major accident hazard process industrial units in Kerala, a state in southern part of India. The reliability and unidimesionality of all the scales were found acceptable. Path analysis using AMOS-4 software showed that some of the safety management practices have direct and indirect relations with the safety performance components, namely, safety compliance and safety participation. Safety knowledge and safety motivation were found to be the key mediators in explaining these relationships. Safety training was identified as the most important safety management practice that predicts safety knowledge, safety motivation, safety compliance and safety participation. These findings provide valuable guidance for researchers and practitioners for identifying the mechanisms by which they can improve safety of workplace.

Introduction

The root cause of a great majority of industrial disasters in the past can be traced back to the absence of an adequate safety management system. After examining the events before and after the Bhopal disaster, Bowander (1987) observed that three types of errors, human error, technological error and system error occurred simultaneously to trigger off the incident. He pointed out that safety team from the parent company headquarters had reported two years before the incident that safety management practices in the plant was poor. This raises many questions about the way in which safety management is handled in developing countries like India. Most of the authors (Bowander, 1987, Chouhan, 2005, Gupta, 2002) who studied the Bhopal gas leak accident unanimously agreed that programmes and policies for managing safety in workplace in major accident hazard process industries in developing countries are clearly inadequate and require modification. Even though numerous studies have been reported in safety management from various parts of the world, there is not much research evidence from India where safety management is yet to get the priority it deserves. This study attempts to examine the various safety management practices and their influence on safety performance in eight major accident hazard process industrial units in Kerala, a state in the southern part of India.

Research in the area of occupational safety became prominent during the past three decades. Its primary objective is to predict safety related outcomes such as accidents and injuries in order to provide valuable guidance for improving safety in organizations. This requires extensive knowledge, not only about the various aspects that influence safety but also as to how this influence occurs. The fact that organizational and social factors do influence safety performance led to extensive research in the field of safety culture and safety climate (e.g., Cox and Flin, 1998, Donald and Canter, 1994, Glendon and Stanton, 2000, Guldenmund, 2000, Hofmann et al., 1995, Lee and Harrison, 2000, Mearns et al., 2003, Pidgeon, 1998, Vinodkumar and Bhasi, 2009, Zohar, 1980). Even though a clear consensus is yet to evolve on the dimensions to be included in safety culture and safety climate, it is widely accepted that they are good predictors of safety related outcomes (e.g., accidents and injuries) in both Western and Eastern societies (e.g., Cooper and Philips, 2004, Dedobbeleer and Beland, 1991, Griffin and Neal, 2000, Siu et al., 2004, Zohar, 1980, Zohar, 2000).

Characterized by the shared perceptions of employees, safety climate can be seen as an organization's temporal “state of safety”, or, a snapshot of the prevailing state of safety in the organization at a discrete point of time (Cheyne et al., 1998). Some researchers believe that safety climate is a unidimensional latent variable (Neal et al., 2000), while others have claimed that it is multi-dimensional (e.g., Cooper and Philips, 2004, Dedobbeleer and Beland, 1998, Mohammed, 2002, O’Toole, 2002, Zohar, 1980, Zohar and Luria, 2005), although they do not agree on the number of factors that constitute it (Cavazza and Serpe, 2009). But one thing accepted by all is that safety management practices play a vital role in forming the safety climate in an organization. Safety climate therefore can be considered as a result of the interactions of factors such as safety management practices, behavioural and attitudinal factors of managers and workmen, work and general discipline in the organization and risk perception at work.

Recently, there has been growing interest in research looking at mediators in the organizational climate, safety climate and safety performance relationships (e.g., Neal et al., 2000, Siu et al., 2004, Huang et al., 2006, Wu et al., 2008, Cavazza and Serpe, 2009). These studies are based on the assumption that human beings strive to cohere with their environments. For instance, one would expect that if an organization has a supportive climate for safety, then individuals would seek to be productive organizational members by transferring the knowledge and skill that they learned from the various safety management practices implemented by the management to their jobs.

Neal et al. (2000) took safety climate as a single factor containing management values, communication, training, and safety systems and studied the mediating role of safety knowledge and motivation on the relationship between safety climate and safety behaviour. Seo (2005) operationalized perceived safety climate as management commitment, supervisor support, co-worker support, employee participation, and competence level in the study looking for mediators in safety climate safety performance relationship. Huang et al. (2006) included management commitment to safety, return to work practices, post-injury administration and safety training as the constituents of safety climate while analyzing the mediating role of safety control on the relationship between safety climate and safety performance. Siu et al. (2004) took safety attitudes and communication as the factors in safety climate while assessing the mediating role of psychological strain in the safety climate safety performance relationship. In another study, Wu et al. (2008) opined that safety climate constitute of CEO's safety commitment, managers’ safety commitment, employees’ safety commitment, emergency response and perceived risk. In the study of Cavazza and Serpe (2009), the mediating role of attitudinal ambivalence of employees towards personal protective equipments on the relationship between safety climate and unsafe behaviour was investigated. This study considered company safety concern, senior managers’ safety concern, work pressure and supervisors’ attitude towards safety as the dimensions of safety climate. It is evident from these studies that the choice of safety climate dimensions can partially be determined by practical interest (Huang et al., 2006).

Since most of the above studies took safety climate as a single measured variable or as a latent variable, the individual effects of the most important constituent of safety climate, namely, employees’ perception of the safety management practices was never investigated. There is very few research evidence relating perceived safety management practices to safety performance, directly or indirectly. It is evident that there is a gap in the literature in this area of research. Therefore, the present study intends to investigate the role of safety knowledge and motivation in the relationship between perceived safety management practices and self-reported safety behaviour. This study is based on the assumption that the level of safety management practices as perceived by employees form only a part of safety climate. A safety management system reflects the organization's commitment to safety, and it has an important influence on employees’ perceptions about the importance of safety in the company. Since safety management practices can be considered as indicators of safety culture of upper management and favourable safety management practices are expected to result in improved safety climate, the mechanism with which they influence safety performance is worth investigating.

Safety management relates to the actual practices, roles and functions associated with remaining safe (Kirwan, 1998). It is usually regarded as a sub-system of the total organizational management and is carried out via the organization's safety management system with the help of various safety management practices. Safety management systems are mechanisms that are integrated in the organization (Labodova, 2004) and designed to control the hazards that can affect workers’ health and safety. Safety management practices are the policies, strategies, procedures and activities implemented or followed by the management of an organization targeting safety of their employees. They are the essential elements permitting an effective management of safety in firms and are designed to comply with the existing legislations applicable to the organization. The extent to which these practices are implemented in an organization will be manifested through various actions and programmes of the management and will be clearly visible to an insider like an employee. Safety management system (and its practices) can be regarded as an antecedent of the firm's safety climate.

In hypothesizing the constituents in safety management, those safety management practices should be included that could commonly be perceived by the employees and those should also have a pertinent role in shaping the safety environment. There have been numerous attempts to identify specific safety management practices that predict safety performance. Cohen (1977), Cohen et al. (1975), DePasquale and Geller (1999), Griffiths (1985), Harper et al. (1997), Shafai-Sahrai (1971), Shannon et al., 1996, Shannon et al., 1997, and Smith et al. (1975) revealed that organizations with lower accident rates were characterized by a few of the following factors: safety officers held high rank; management showed personal involvement in safety activities; superior training for new employees; frequent training for existing employees; display of safety posters for identifying hazards; well defined procedures for promotion and job placements; daily communication between workers and supervisors about health and safety; frequent safety inspections; higher priority for safety in meetings and decisions concerning work practice; thorough investigation of accidents; more frequent attendance of senior managers at health and safety meetings and empowerment of the workforce. Vredenburgh (2002) included worker participation, safety training, hiring practices, reward systems, management commitment and communication and feedback as the safety management practices in the study of hospital environment.

In one of the first investigations of safety climate, Zohar (1980) found that management's commitment to safety is a major factor affecting the success of an organization's safety programmes. The safety commitment of the management must result in an observable activity on the part of the management and must be demonstrated in their behaviour as well as their words (Hofmann et al., 1995). Employees’ perception will reflect how employees believe that safety is to be valued in the organization (Griffin and Neal, 2000). In high risk environments like chemical industries, management commitment has been repeatedly highlighted (Cox and Flin, 1998, Flin et al., 1996, Cox and Cheyne, 2000). Following Vredenburgh (2002), this study also includes management commitment as one of the management practices, and is measured using items related to management's priority for safety, corrective actions, safety manager attending safety meeting, accident/near miss investigation, and providing adequate personal protective equipments.

A key element in every successful organization, in any successful accident prevention programme and in any occupational safety and health programme is effective safety training. It improves behavioural skills, related knowledge and/or attitudes. Safety training also provides the means for making accidents more predictable. To improve the level of safety and health for all employees, organization should institute a systematic, comprehensive safety and health training programme for new employees, provide a mentor for these employees and use a buddy system to help orient new employees in the safety, health and quality systems (Vredenburgh, 2002). The studies of Lee (1998), Ostrom et al. (1993), Tinmannsvik and Hovden (2003), Cohen et al. (1975), Smith et al. (1975) and Zohar (1980) have found that those companies with lower accident rates were characterized by good safety training for employees. Therefore, safety training is considered as a management practice and is measured using items related to training for newly recruited employees, discussion of safety issues in training sessions, training to meet emergency situations, encouragement to attend training programmes, and hazard assessment training.

Employee involvement is a behavioural oriented technique that involves individuals or groups in the upward communication flow and decision-making processes within the organization. The amount of participation can range from no participation, where the supervisor makes all decisions, to full participation, where everyone connected with, or affected by the decision, is involved. Since employees close to the work are the best qualified persons to make suggestions for improvements, they can be consulted before making final decisions, especially for those decisions that affect the employees (Vredenburgh, 2002). This empowerment of workers provides them with authority, responsibility and accountability for required decisions and ensures that both employees and managements are involved in setting goals and objectives. It induces employees to do their best work as individuals and as a team, while relieving the manager to plan, lead and mentor (Cohen and Cleveland, 1983). Worker involvement has been reported as a decisive factor in safety management by Lee (1998), Rundmo (1994), Dedobbeleer and Beland (1991), Shannon et al. (1996) and Cox and Cheyne (2000). Therefore, workers’ involvement in safety is considered as a management practice and is measured using items related to safety committee comprising of workers’ representatives, involvement of workers in safety related decision making, involvement in identifying safety problems, and consultation with workers about safety matters.

Communications of various kinds are used to enhance the general effectiveness of any motivational effort. The coverage and impact of communication will be higher in two-way communication and can lead to changes in behaviour. Regular communication about safety issues between managements, supervisors and workforce is an effective management practice to improve safety in workplace. Cohen (1977), Vredenburgh (2002), Cox and Cheyne (2000) and Mearns et al. (2003) included communication and feedback as a factor in their surveys using questionnaire among various category of workers and showed that safety performance is influenced by the level of communication in an organization. This study also accepts safety communication and feedback as a management practice and is measured using items related to hazard reporting system, open door policy for safety issues, communication about safety goals and targets between managers and workers, and opportunity to discuss safety issues in meetings.

It is a usual practice in hazardous industrial units such as process/chemical plants in Kerala to prepare safety manuals based on the operations and statutory requirements laid down by the law enforcing authorities. It is the management to decide whether it has to be practiced or has to remain in paper only. Well documented safety rules and procedures and its enforcement by supervisors and managers can improve safety behaviour of workers. Glendon and Litherland (2001) reported this as a reliable factor after factor analyzing the data collected from construction workers. Cox and Cheyne (2000) and Mearns et al. (2003) included safety rules and procedures as a factor in their offshore safety studies and showed that it has significant correlation with accident rates. Based on the above findings, safety rules and procedures is taken as a safety management practice and is measured with the help of questionnaire items related to effective rules and procedures of work to prevent accidents occurring, adequate safety department, supervisors and managers enforcing safety rules, and regular safety inspections.

The use of incentives, awards and recognition to motivate employees to perform safely is an accepted feature of both organization behaviour management and total quality management models (Hagan et al., 2001). They can add interest to the hazard control programme of an organization and enhance self-protection action on the part of the workforce (Cohen et al., 1979). A well-designed reward system should be characterized by high level of visibility in the organization, offering recognition, which can help modify behaviour (Vredenburgh, 2002). This study also recognizes safety promotion policies as one of the safety management practices and is assessed using items related to counting safe conduct as a positive factor for promotion, rewards and incentives for reporting hazards, creating awareness among workers by arranging programmes during safety week celebrations, healthy competition among workers to report unsafe conditions or acts, and supervisors welcoming and encouraging workers to report safety matters.

Managements of industrial plants in many developed countries follow the policy of recruiting new personnel who are predisposed to displaying safety conscious attitude in their work. This can be considered as a management practice as it not only supports a safety conscious worker, but also helps to improve the overall motivational level of the workforce. Turner (1991), Eckhardt (1996) and Vredenburgh (2002) found that the consideration of safety performance in the selection of employees is a significant predictor of injury rates. Discussions with top management people from several industries revealed that this practice is not followed in Indian industries due to reasons such as high population and high percentage of unemployment. Hence, the above management practice is not considered in this study.

Another important factor that comes in safety management is the extent to which the management is able to control drugs and alcohol consumption of employees during working hours (O’Toole, 2002). Even though this cannot be considered as a management practice, it could have been included as an item in safety rules and procedures or management commitment. However, this was ignored in this study purposefully because of the difficulty in extracting honest response.

The perceptions of employees on the level of the selected six safety management practices implemented in their organizations are considered as organizational factors which can influence their safety performance. Hence, the above six safety management practices are considered as antecedents of safety performance in this study.

Even though traditional measures of safety performance rely primarily on some form of accident or injury data, safety related behaviours such as safety compliance and safety participation can also be considered as components of safety performance. Safety compliance represents the behaviour of the employees in ways that increase their personal safety and health. Safety participation represents the behaviour of employees in ways that increase the safety and health of co-workers and that support an organization's stated goals and objectives (Hagan et al., 2001).

The model proposed by Neal and Griffin (1997) based on the theories of job performance (Borman and Motowidlo, 1993, Campbell et al., 1993) distinguishes between antecedents of performance, determinants of performance and components of performance. Neal et al. (2000) considered safety climate as antecedent of safety performance, safety knowledge and safety motivation as determinants of safety performance and safety compliance and safety participation as components of safety performance. In another study, Pousette et al. (2008) measured safety motivation and safety knowledge as two individual attitudes to safety. Self-rated safety behaviour was measured by three safety behaviour measures. They were named as structural safety behaviour (concerning participation on organized safety activities), interactional safety behaviour (concerning safety activities in the daily work in interaction with co-workers and management) and personal safety behaviour (measuring behaviour promoting personal protection). Considering the above studies, the authors included the perceptions of the employees on the six identified safety management practices as the antecedents of safety performance in the current study. The determinants of safety performance were measured by safety motivation and safety knowledge and components of safety performance were measured by safety compliance and safety participation in this study.

This study was designed based on the findings of Campbell et al. (1993) that the determinants of performance (knowledge and motivation) mediate the relationship between antecedents and components of performance. The first purpose of this study was to establish the unidimensionality and reliability of the six safety management practices scales, safety knowledge, safety motivation, safety compliance and safety participation. The second purpose of this study was to investigate the direct and mediating effects of safety knowledge and motivation on the relationship between the six safety management practices and safety behaviour (safety compliance and safety participation). The hypothesized model of the study is depicted in Fig. 1.

In major accident hazard chemical units, a minor error (human or technical) can sometimes trigger on a chemical reaction which may go out of control and end up in major accident. Good knowledge of the processes, associated dangers and methods to prevent them are essential for workers in such plants. An effective safety management system in place will not only be helpful to improve the employees’ safety knowledge but also to motivate them. Motivation increases the awareness, interest and willingness of the employees for better safety performance. The safety management system implemented in an organization comprise of a set of policies and practices aimed at positively impacting on the employees’ attitudes and behaviours with regard to risk, thereby reducing their unsafe acts. Its aim is to raise awareness, understanding, motivation and commitment among workers (Fernandez-Muniz et al., 2007). From the above arguments, it appears that the safety management practices can influence the safety knowledge and motivation of employees. Based on the above, the following hypotheses are advanced.

H₁

The six safety management practices (management commitment, safety training, workers’ involvement in safety, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies) predict safety knowledge.

H₂

The six safety management practices (management commitment, safety training, workers’ involvement in safety, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies) predict safety motivation.

H₃

Safety knowledge predicts safety compliance and safety participation.

H₄

Safety motivation predicts safety compliance and safety participation.

H₅

Safety knowledge mediates the relationship between the six safety management practices and safety compliance.

H₆

Safety motivation mediates the relationship between the six safety management practices and safety compliance.

H₇

Safety knowledge mediates the relationship between the six safety management practices and safety participation.

H₈

Safety motivation mediates the relationship between the six safety management practices and safety participation.