Do Perceptions of Supervisors’ Safety Responses Mediate the Relationship between Perceptions of the Organizational Safety Climate and Incident Rates in the Construction Supply Chain?
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138, Issue 2
Abstract
A multilevel safety climate survey was conducted in three Australian organizations in the construction supply chain. A principal components analysis (with varimax rotation) yielded six distinct safety climate factors reflecting aspects of the organizational safety response (OSR), supervisors’ safety response (SSR), and coworkers’ safety response (CSR). Perceptions of top management’s commitment to safety (an aspect of OSR) and supervisors’ safety expectations (an aspect of SSR) were both significantly and inversely correlated with the combined medical treatment and lost time injury rate of workgroups in the analysis. Further, regression analysis revealed that perceptions of supervisors’ safety expectations fully mediated the relationship between perceptions of top management’s commitment to safety and the workgroup injury frequency rate. The results highlight the critical role played by first-level supervisors in acting as the conduit through which organizational safety priorities are communicated to the workforce.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Australian Research Council under Linkage Project Grant ARCLP0668012. Grateful thanks are also extended to employees of the Roads and Traffic Authority (NSW), Baulderstone Pty. Ltd., and the Australian Reinforcement Company. In particular, the authors acknowledge the assistance of Tony Page, Lance Breen, and Paul McDonald in facilitating the data collection.
References
Baron, R. M., and Kenny, D. A. (1986). “The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations.” J. Pers. Soci. Psychol., 51(6), 1173–1182.
Burt, C. D. B., Sepie, B., and McFadden, G. (2008). “The development of a considerate and responsible safety attitude in work teams.” Saf. Sci., 46(1), 79–91.
Choudhry, R. M., and Fang, D. (2008). “Why operatives engage in unsafe work behavior: Investigating factors on construction sites.” Saf. Sci., 46(4), 566–584.
Christian, M., Bradley, J., Wallace, C., and Burke, M. (2009). “Workplace safety: A meta-analysis of the roles of person and situation factors.” J. Appl. Psych., 94(5), 1103–1127.
Clarke, S. (2006). “The relationship between safety climate and safety performance: A meta-analytic review.” J. Occup. Health Psych., 11(4), 315–327.
Cooper, M. D., and Phillips, R. A. (2004). “Exploratory analysis of the safety climate and safety behavior relationship.” J. Saf. Res., 35(5), 497–512.
Dedobbeleer, N., and Béland, F. (1991). “A safety climate measure for construction sites.” J. Saf. Res., 22(2), 97–103.
de Quiros, A. C. B., Lopez, R., Aranda-Mena, G., and Edwards, P. (2008). “Human reliability as a source of error in research.” Proc., 24th Annual ARCOM Conf., Vol. 1–3, A Dainty, ed., Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Cardiff, UK, 687–696.
Fang, D. P., Huang, X. Y., and Hinze, J. (2004). “Benchmarking studies on construction safety management in China.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 130(3), 424–432.
Gambatese, J. A., Behm, M., and Hinze, J. W. (2005). “Viability of designing for construction worker safety.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 131(9), 1029–1036.
George, D., and Mallery, P. (2009). SPSS for Windows step by step: A simple guide and reference 16.0 update, 9th Ed., Pearson, Boston.
Gillen, M., Baltz, D., Gassel, M., Kirsch, L., and Vaccaro, D. (2002). “Perceived safety climate, job demands and coworker support among union and nonunion injured construction workers.” J. Saf. Res., 33(1), 33–51.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE). (2002). Evaluating the effectiveness of the health and safety executives health and safety climate survey tool, HMSO, London.
Hofman, D. A., and Stetzer, A. (1998). “The role of safety climate and communication in accident interpretation: Implications for learning from negative events.” Acad. Manage. J., 41(6), 644–657.
Huang, X., and Hinze, J. (2006). “Owner’s role in construction safety.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 132(2), 164–173.
Johnson, S. E. (2007). “The predictive validity of safety climate.” J. Saf. Res., 38(5), 511–521.
Kenny, D. (2011). 〈http://davidakenny.net/cm/mediate.htm〉 (Jan. 10, 2011).
Latané, B (1981). “The psychology of social impact.” Am. Psychol., 36(4), 343–356.
Maierhofer, N. I., Griffin, M. A., and Sheehan, M. (2000). “Linking manager values and behavior with employee values and behavior: A study of values and safety in the hairdressing industry.” J. Occup. Health Psych., 5(4), 417–427.
McDonald, M., Lipscomb, H. J., Bondy, J., and Glazner, J. (2009). “Safety is everyone’s job: The key to safety on a large university construction site.” J. Saf. Res., 40(1), 53–61.
Mearns, K., Whitaker, S. M., and Flin, R. (2003). “Safety climate, safety management practice and safety performance in offshore environments.” Saf. Sci., 41(8), 641–680.
Melia, J. L., Mearns, K., Silva, S. A., and Lima, M. L. (2008). “Safety climate responses and the perceived risk of accidents in the construction industry.” Saf. Sci., 46(6), 949–958.
Mohamed, S. (1999). “Empirical investigation of construction safety management activities and performance in Australia.” Saf. Sci., 33(3), 129–142.
Molenaar, K. R., Park, J. I., and Washington, S. A. (2009). “Framework for measuring corporate safety culture and its impact on construction safety performance.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 135(6), 488–496.
Neal, A., and Griffin, M. A. (2006). “A study of the lagged relationships among safety climate, safety motivation, safety behavior and accidents at individual and group levels.” J. Appl. Psych., 91(4), 946–953.
Niskanen, T. (1994). “Assessing the safety environment in work organization of road maintenance jobs.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 26(1), 27–39.
Pallant, J. F. (2007). SPSS survival manual, 3rd Ed., Allen & Unwin, Sidney, Australia.
Pousette, A., Larsson, S., and Törner, M. (2008). “Safety climate cross-validation, strength and prediction of safety behavior.” Saf. Sci., 46(3), 398–404.
Sawacha, E., Naoum, S., and Fong, D. (1999). “Factors affecting safety performance on construction sites.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 17(5), 309–315.
Simard, M., and Marchand, A. (1994). “The behavior of first-line supervisors in accident prevention and effectiveness on occupational safety.” Saf. Sci., 17(3), 169–185.
Simard, M., and Marchand, A. (1995). “A multi-level analysis of organizational factors related to the taking of safety initiatives by work groups.” Saf. Sci., 21(2), 113–129.
Simard, M., and Marchand, A. (1997). “Workgroups’ propensity to comply with safety rules: The influence of micro-macro organizational factors.” Ergonomics, 40(2), 172–188.
Siu, O., Phillips, D. R., and Leung, T. (2004). “Safety climate and safety performance among construction workers in Hong Kong: The role of psychological strains as mediators.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 36(3), 359–366.
Suraji, A., Duff, A. R., and Peckitt, S. J. (2001). “Development of causal model of construction accident causation.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 127(4), 337–344.
Tharaldsen, J. E., Olsen, E., and Rundmo, T. (2008). “A longitudinal study of safety climate on the Norwegian continental shelf.” Saf. Sci., 46(3), 427–439.
Törner, M., and Pousette, A. (2009). “Safety in construction—A comprehensive description of the characteristics of high safety standards in construction work, from the combined perspective of supervisors and experienced workers.” J. Saf. Res., 40(6), 399–409.
Varonen, U., and Mattila, M. (2000). “The safety climate and its relationship to safety practices, safety of the work environment and occupational accidents in eight wood-processing companies.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 32(6), 761–769.
Zhou, Q., Fang, D. P., and Wang, X. (2008). “A method to identify strategies for the improvement of human safety behavior by considering safety climate and personal experience.” Saf. Sci., 46(10), 1406–1419.
Zohar, D. (2000). “A group-level model of safety climate: Testing the effect of group climate on microaccidents in manufacturing jobs.” J. Appl. Psych., 85(4), 587–596.
Zohar, D. (2002). “The effects of leadership dimensions, safety climate and assigned priorities on minor injuries in work groups.” J. Organ. Behav., 23(1), 75–92.
Zohar, D., and Luria, G. (2003). “The use of supervisory practices as leverage to improve safety behavior: A cross-level intervention model.” J. Saf. Res., 34(5), 561–571.
Zohar, D., and Luria, G. (2004). “Climate as a social-cognitive construction of supervisory safety practices: Scripts as proxy of behavior pattern.” J. Appl. Psych., 89(2), 322–333.
Zohar, D., and Luria, G. (2005). “A multilevel model of safety climate: Cross-level relationships between organization and group-level climates.” J. Appl. Psych., 90(4), 616–628.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138 • Issue 2 • February 2012
Pages: 234 - 241
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 28, 2010
Accepted: Feb 10, 2011
Published online: Jan 17, 2012
Published in print: Feb 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.