The impact of organizational climate on safety climate and individual behavior
Introduction
In recent years, there has been a shift in emphasis within the safety literature, away from individual level factors that might be responsible for accidents and incidents, such as error or non-compliance with safety procedures, towards organizational factors, such as safety climate (eg. Reason, 1990). A key assumption of much of this literature is that the relationship between safety climate and system safety is at least partially mediated by individual safety behavior. However, surprisingly little is known about the mechanisms by which safety climate influences safety behaviors of individuals in organizations. Furthermore, relatively little is known about the factors that influence safety climate. The current paper examines the impact of general organizational climate on safety climate, and the impact of safety climate on the knowledge, motivation and performance of individuals in organizations.
Section snippets
Organizational climate and safety climate
Organizational climate is a multidimensional construct that encompasses a wide range of individual evaluations of the work environment (James and James, 1989). These evaluations may refer to general dimensions of the environment such as leadership, roles, and communication (James and McIntyre, 1996) or to specific dimensions such as the climate for safety or the climate for customer service. General perceptions of the organizational context can influence interactions among individuals (Griffin
Safety performance
Neal and Griffin (1997) proposed a model of safety performance based on current theories of job performance (Borman and Motowidlo, 1993, Campbell et al., 1993). This model distinguishes between performance components, determinants of performance, and performance antecedents. The components of performance represent the major dimensions of task-relevant behaviors involved in a given job. The model incorporates two dimensions of safety performance: compliance and participation. Safety compliance
Sample
The sample consisted of 525 employees from 32 work groups in a large Australian hospital (response rate 56%). The participants' mean age was 40.1 years (SD 11.0) and 89% were female.
Organizational climate
Employees' perceptions about seven different aspects of their work environment (appraisal and recognition, goal congruency, role clarity, supportive leadership, participative decision making, professional growth, professional interaction) were assessed using 35 items from Hart et al. (1996b)'s Organizational Climate
Results
Hypotheses 1–7 were investigated using structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures. Scale scores were used to assess each construct depicted in Fig. 1 and error variances were estimated by multiplying the scale variance by one minus the scale reliability. Goodness of fit of the various models was judged in terms of Joreskog and Sorbom's (1989) Goodness of Fit Index (GFT), the Non-normed Fit Index (NNFI; Bentler and Bonnett, 1980) and the Comparative Fit Index (CFI; Bentler, 1990). The CFI is
Discussion
This study developed a model to explain the influence of organizational climate and safety climate on individual safety behavior. The model is important because it provides a link between the organizational environment and specific individual behaviors related to safety. Notwithstanding the limitations noted below, the results of this study supported the role of safety climate as a predictor of the determinants and components of safety performance. The results also supported safety climate as a
Conclusion
Notwithstanding the limitations of this study, the results provide strong empirical support for the proposed theoretical model. The study demonstrates that general organizational climate can influence perceptions of safety climate, and that these perceptions of safety climate influence safety performance through their effects on knowledge and motivation. These findings provide valuable guidance for researchers and practitioners trying to identify the mechanisms by which they can improve safety
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Large Grant (Grant No. A79601474).
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