TY - JOUR
T1 - Safety climate and self-reported injury
T2 - Assessing the mediating role of employee safety control
AU - Huang, Yueng Hsiang
AU - Ho, Michael
AU - Smith, Gordon S.
AU - Chen, Peter Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge Margaret Rothwell for her assistance. This work was supported by the American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation/Liberty Mutual Research Fellowship Program while Michael Ho is the fellowship recipient.
PY - 2006/5
Y1 - 2006/5
N2 - To further reduce injuries in the workplace, companies have begun focusing on organizational factors which may contribute to workplace safety. Safety climate is an organizational factor commonly cited as a predictor of injury occurrence. Characterized by the shared perceptions of employees, safety climate can be viewed as a snapshot of the prevailing state of safety in the organization at a discrete point in time. However, few studies have elaborated plausible mechanisms through which safety climate likely influences injury occurrence. A mediating model is proposed to link safety climate (i.e., management commitment to safety, return-to-work policies, post-injury administration, and safety training) with self-reported injury through employees' perceived control on safety. Factorial evidence substantiated that management commitment to safety, return-to-work policies, post-injury administration, and safety training are important dimensions of safety climate. In addition, the data support that safety climate is a critical factor predicting the history of a self-reported occupational injury, and that employee safety control mediates the relationship between safety climate and occupational injury. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating organizational factors and workers' characteristics in efforts to improve organizational safety performance.
AB - To further reduce injuries in the workplace, companies have begun focusing on organizational factors which may contribute to workplace safety. Safety climate is an organizational factor commonly cited as a predictor of injury occurrence. Characterized by the shared perceptions of employees, safety climate can be viewed as a snapshot of the prevailing state of safety in the organization at a discrete point in time. However, few studies have elaborated plausible mechanisms through which safety climate likely influences injury occurrence. A mediating model is proposed to link safety climate (i.e., management commitment to safety, return-to-work policies, post-injury administration, and safety training) with self-reported injury through employees' perceived control on safety. Factorial evidence substantiated that management commitment to safety, return-to-work policies, post-injury administration, and safety training are important dimensions of safety climate. In addition, the data support that safety climate is a critical factor predicting the history of a self-reported occupational injury, and that employee safety control mediates the relationship between safety climate and occupational injury. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating organizational factors and workers' characteristics in efforts to improve organizational safety performance.
KW - Employee safety control
KW - Safety climate
KW - Workplace injury
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33644927234&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33644927234&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.aap.2005.07.002
DO - 10.1016/j.aap.2005.07.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 16442068
AN - SCOPUS:33644927234
SN - 0001-4575
VL - 38
SP - 425
EP - 433
JO - Accident Analysis and Prevention
JF - Accident Analysis and Prevention
IS - 3
ER -