An analysis of safety culture attitudes in a highly regulated environment

Culture is a complex construct in organizations, consisting of attitudes, perceptions, values and beliefs, which must necessarily be set in context. Many authors imply that culture is organization-wide and common to all employees. In terms of safety culture, the organizational context may determine its salience and likelihood of affecting behaviour, especially in a highly regulated environment such as the nuclear industry. This study investigates the components of safety culture and how it varies in a highly-regulated nuclear power plant. A 60-item questionnaire measuring safety attitudes and values was administered anonymously to 1550 employees at two plants in the UK nuclear industry, with a 64.7% mean response rate. Principal components analyses revealed six factors conceptually common to shop floor and management (supervisor/manager/professional) groups for both plants, relating to: management style and communication; responsibility and commitment; risk-taking; job satisfaction; complacency; and risk awareness. A canonical discriminant analysis of the items suggested that the data could distinguish three employee groups. The implications of these findings and the proposal that there are two or more safety cultures in the organization is discussed.     

An analysis of safety culture attitudes in a highly regulated environment

Culture is a complex construct in organizations, consisting of attitudes, perceptions, values and beliefs, which must necessarily be set in context. Many authors imply that culture is organization-wide and common to all employees. In terms of safety culture, the organizational context may determine its salience and likelihood of affecting behaviour, especially in a highly regulated environment such as the nuclear industry. This study investigates the components of safety culture and how it varies in a highly-regulated nuclear power plant. A 60-item questionnaire measuring safety attitudes and values was administered anonymously to 1550 employees at two plants in the UK nuclear industry, with a 64.7% mean response rate. Principal components analyses revealed six factors conceptually common to shop floor and management (supervisor/manager/professional) groups for both plants, relating to: management style and communication; responsibility and commitment; risk-taking; job satisfaction; complacency; and risk awareness. A canonical discriminant analysis of the items suggested that the data could distinguish three employee groups. The implications of these findings and the proposal that there are two or more safety cultures in the organization is discussed.     

Emotions and their management during a merger in Brunei

Studies have shown that the emotional impact of mergers influences employees' attitudes to change as well as more distal post-merger outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment and withdrawal. Understanding the role of emotions during mergers can therefore provide insights into why major change produces varying outcomes. This study presents findings from a qualitative study examining the emotional impact of a merger between two banking institutions on managers in Brunei. The distinctive national culture representing a fusion of Malay and Islamic values was found to influence the emotional impact of this merger. These values place less emphasis on personal control as a means for dealing with uncertainty. The findings suggest that Western transactional models of perceived control to explain how people manage change may have far more limited application within a Bruneian context.     

Modelling safety climate in the prediction of levels of safety activity

This study examined the architecture of the relationships between components of organizational safety climate, including employee attitudes to safety issues and perceptions of the work environment, and related this to self-reported levels of safety activity. Data were collected from a large multinational manufacturing organization by questionnaire. A total of 915 valid questionnaires were returned and formed the basis for structural equation modelling and subsequent analyses. These data showed that a common structure, or architecture, of attitudes to safety issues and perceptions of the work environment could be constructed that explained levels of safety activity. The strength of employees' attitudes with regard to safety management played a pivotal role in this model through both direct and indirect paths. This is consistent with earlier findings on the importance of management commitment in organizations with well developed safety cultures. An examination of the differences between plants/sites showed that employees differed in their attitudes to safety issues, such as the management of safety and communication, and in their perceptions of workplace hazards. It is intended that this model be further utilized within the organization under study as a basis for monitoring safety performance and planned improvements in safety.     

The relationship between HRM practices and organizational commitment of knowledge workers. Facts obtained from Swiss SMEs

This paper explores the effects of human resource management (HRM) practices in Swiss small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). More specifically, the main objective of this study is to assess the impacts of HRM practices developed in Swiss SMEs upon the commitment of knowledge workers. Using data from a survey of over 198 knowledge workers, this study shows the importance of looking closer at HRM practices and, furthermore, to really investigate the impacts of the different HRM practices on employees' commitment. Results show, for example, that organizational support, procedural justice and the reputation of the organization may clearly influence knowledge workers' commitment, whereas other HRM practices such as involvement in decision-making, skills management or even the degree of satisfaction with pay do not have any impact on knowledge workers' commitment.     

Human and organizational factors in offshore safety

The role of human and organizational factors in predicting accidents and incidents has become of major interest to the UK offshore oil and gas industry. Some of these factors had been measured in an earlier study focusing on the role of risk perception in determining accident involvement. The current study sought to extend the methodology by focusing on perceptions of organizational factors that could have an impact on safety. A self-report questionnaire was developed and distributed to 11 installations operating on the UK Continental Shelf. A total of 722 were returned (33% response rate) from a representative sample of the offshore workforce on these installations. The study investigated the underlying structure and content of offshore employees' attitudes to safety, feelings of safety and satisfaction with safety measures. Correlations and step-wise regression analysis were used to test the relationships between measures. The results suggest that 'unsafe' behaviour is the 'best' predictor of accidents/near misses as measured by self-report data and that unsafe behaviour is, in turn, driven by perceptions of pressure for production.     

Training and organizational commitment among nurses following industry and organizational change in New Zealand and the United States

This survey study examines the relationship between employee attitudes related to training and organizational commitment among a sample of nurses in New Zealand and the United States. The magnitude of recent restructuring to New Zealand's public health system allows for an examination of employee attitudes towards training and organizational commitment in comparison to nurses from similar sized hospitals in the United States. Results show that perceived access to training, supervisory support for training, motivation to learn from training and perceived benefits of training were positively related to the affective and normative components of organizational commitment. Several significant differences were found on both training and organizational commitment variables between New Zealand and the United States. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical application to human resource development (HRD) outcomes and the management of HRD in health care settings.     

On the emerging organizational culture of a Finnish company's Polish subsidiary

The following research note presents a brief account of ethnographic research conducted within a Polish subsidiary of an international company domiciled in Finland. Local employees' attitudes towards various aspects of the parent company's organizational culture are examined, and an attempt is made to capture emerging patterns of the subsidiary's organizational culture.     

Benchmarking Safety Climate in Hazardous Environments: A Longitudinal, Interorganizational Approach

Safety climate is an important element of organizational reliability. This study applied benchmarking strategies for monitoring safety climate across nine North Sea oil and gas installations that were surveyed in consecutive years. Examination of absolute changes in safety climate complemented the benchmarking approach. Discriminant function analyses (DFA) identified the elements of safety climate predictive of self-reported accidents; correlational analyses were applied to the scale scores and accident proportions across the year period. Absolute improvements were substantial, with safety climate profiles converging in the second year. Large relative improvements were also observed. DFA highlighted perceived management commitment to safety and willingness to report accidents as significant predictors of personal accident involvement. Changes in perceived management commitment to safety were closely associated with changes in safety behavior.     

When do subordinates commit to their supervisors? Different effects of perceived supervisor integrity and support on Chinese and American employees

While subordinates' commitment to the supervisor is highly desirable, the routes to achieve this might vary in different cultures. Drawing on the theories of leader–member exchange (LMX) and cultural logic, this study posits different interaction effects for subordinates' perceived supervisor integrity and support on commitment to the supervisor in cultures with different expectations of personal integrity. The results indicate that an additive effect can be observed for American subordinates: perceived supervisor support increases commitment to the supervisor to a greater extent when a high degree of supervisor integrity is also perceived. In contrast, a compensatory effect can be observed for Chinese subordinates: perceived supervisor support increases commitment to the supervisor more when a lower degree of supervisor integrity is perceived. Our findings shed light on cultural differences in the psychological mechanisms of employees' relationship with their supervisors. Theoretical and practical implications for the effectiveness of Asian leadership are discussed.     

Safety sans Frontières: An International Safety Culture Model

The management of safety culture in international and culturally diverse organizations is a concern for many high‐risk industries. Yet, research has primarily developed models of safety culture within Western countries, and there is a need to extend investigations of safety culture to global environments. We examined (i) whether safety culture can be reliably measured within a single industry operating across different cultural environments, and (ii) if there is an association between safety culture and national culture. The psychometric properties of a safety culture model developed for the air traffic management (ATM) industry were examined in 17 European countries from four culturally distinct regions of Europe (North, East, South, West). Participants were ATM operational staff (n = 5,176) and management staff (n = 1,230). Through employing multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, good psychometric properties of the model were established. This demonstrates, for the first time, that when safety culture models are tailored to a specific industry, they can operate consistently across national boundaries and occupational groups. Additionally, safety culture scores at both regional and national levels were associated with country‐level data on Hofstede's five national culture dimensions (collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long‐term orientation). MANOVAs indicated safety culture to be most positive in Northern Europe, less so in Western and Eastern Europe, and least positive in Southern Europe. This indicates that national cultural traits may influence the development of organizational safety culture, with significant implications for safety culture theory and practice.     

Risk, Trust, and Safety Culture in U.K. Train Operating Companies

Organizational safety culture reflects the attitudes and behaviors that individuals share in considering and reacting to hazards and risks. We first argue that trust is an underdeveloped and important concept in relation to theories of safety culture and high-reliability organizations. The article then reports findings from a two-year qualitative study of train operating companies (TOCs) in the United Kingdom, which sought to explore in detail the linkages between safety culture and the postprivatized railway industry. In-depth interviews and focus groups were carried out with a sample of over 500 employees, from four organizations, and representing all key functional levels. Our analysis suggests that the 1993 privatization, and subsequent organizational restructuring of the U.K. railway industry, has had important repercussions for both safety culture and trust relationships. We explore our findings in relation to three key constructs within "safe organizations" theories (namely, flexibility, commitment, and learning), and discuss how the safe organization model might be usefully supplemented by a consideration of trust issues.     

The structure of employee attitudes to safety: A European example

This paper concerns organizational safety culture and the structure or architecture of employee attitudes to safety as part of that culture. It begins by reviewing the somewhat scant literature relevant to this area, and then reports a study, conducted in a European company, which collected and factor analysed data on employee attitudes to safety. The framework provided for the study was that offered by Purdham (1984), and the results suggested that employees' attitudes to safety, within this company (across occupation/occupational level and country), could be mapped By five orthogonal factors: personal scepticism, individual responsibility, the safeness of the work environment, the effectiveness of arrangements for safety, and personal immunity. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, and attention is drawn to their subsequent use in an intervention to enhance safety culture within the organization by attacking supervisors' attitudes to safety.     

Leader–member exchange (LMX) in context: How LMX differentiation and LMX relational separation attenuate LMX's influence on OCB and turnover intention

Using the group engagement model, we hypothesize that two differentiated leadership constructs – LMX differentiation at the group level and a new construct, LMX relational separation, at the individual-within-group level – interact with LMX to affect follower citizenship behaviors (OCB) and turnover intentions. Data from 223 followers and their leaders situated across 60 workgroups demonstrate that the effects of individual perceived LMX quality are contingent upon a group's overall variability in LMX (i.e., LMX differentiation) and employees' similarity in terms of LMX with their coworkers (i.e., LMX relational separation). Specifically, the effects of high quality LMX relationships on OCB and turnover intentions are weaker when group LMX differentiation or employees' LMX relational separation is higher, rather than lower. Our findings contribute to a growing stream of multilevel LMX research incorporating climate effects and offer an alternative view of differentiated leadership in groups. Key implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

The Role of Distrust in Offshore Safety Performance

Trust is recognized as a potentially important factor in safety within high-risk industries. However, little detailed empirical research has explored how trust operates in these contexts to influence worker safety performance. The present study addresses this by (i) identifying the target (occupational group) in which trust is most important for good safety, and (ii) establishing the "type" of trust (trust or distrust) with the greatest impact on safety performance. A questionnaire survey of 203 UK offshore gas workers' attitudes of trust and distrust toward four occupational groups (workmates, supervisors, offshore managers, and contractors) and an operating company was conducted. Logistic regression analysis identified attitudes toward offshore management as the strongest predictor of safety performance at an industry level. At an installation level, safety performance was best predicted by attitudes toward contractors and workmates. Further analysis revealed attitudes of distrust as better predictors of safety performance compared to attitudes of trust. These findings suggest that safety professionals should pay more attention to the role of distrust in safety performance. They also suggest that safety initiatives should target attitudes toward specific groups for optimal effectiveness.     

Direct and Indirect Links Between Organizational Work–Home Culture and Employee Well‐being

The extent to which an organization's culture exhibits support for its employees' efforts to balance work and personal responsibilities has been shown to influence a number of work‐ and home‐related outcomes. This study tests a model with a mix of mediated and moderated relationships to investigate direct and indirect routes by which work–home culture may affect employee well‐being. Sex differences in these relationships are also explored. Data collected from public sector employees in the UK indicate that a supportive work–home culture is significantly associated with lower levels of psychosomatic strain among employees. For women, this relationship is mediated by reduced levels of work–home interference. Different types of support demonstrate different effects for men and for women: managerial support has a more beneficial impact on women's well‐being, and organizational time demands have a more detrimental impact on men's well‐being. Recommendations for managers to boost employee well‐being include shifting the focus away from presenteeism and toward work outputs in order to reduce gender stereotypes and improve attitudes toward those using flexible work practices and family‐friendly initiatives, incorporating work–home supportiveness into the managerial performance appraisal process, and compensating or otherwise recognizing employees taking on absent colleagues' workloads.     

Measuring safety climate on offshore installations

The human and organizational factors affecting safety were examined on 10 offshore installations using the Offshore Safety Questionnaire. The questionnaire contained scales measuring work pressure and work clarity, job communication, safety behaviour, risk perception, satisfaction with safety measures and safety attitudes. A total of 722 UK offshore workers (33% response rate) from a range of occupations completed and returned the questionnaire. The 'safety climates' on the various installations were characterized by most respondents feeling 'safe' with respect to a range of offshore hazards and expressing 'satisfaction' with safety measures. Respondents reported little risk-taking behaviour and felt positive about levels of work clarity and job communication. There was a wider diversity of opinions on the safety attitudes scale, indicating a lack of a positive, concerted 'safety culture' and more evidence for a range offragmented 'safety subcultures', which varied mainly as a function of seniority, occupation, age, shift worked and prior accident involvement. It is suggested that the interaction between these differing subcultures partly determines the prevailing 'safety climate' on any given installation. The UK oil and gas industry is now trying to improve its safety culture through the 'Stepchange' initiative, which hias set itself three main targets for the year 2000 : a 50 YO improvement in the industry's safety performance; safety performance contracts demonstrating leadership's personal concern for safety as an equal to business performance and encouraging industry members to work together to improve sharing of safety information and good practice. It is suggested that the existence of a strong, cohesive culture with respect to safety is not necessarily beneficial, possibly leading to 'dry rot' and complacency. A healthy culture may be represented by a range of assumptions, values, norms and expectations as reflected in employees' differing experiences of safety climate.     

Safety culture on the UK railway network

Safety culture is an important concept in understanding the involvement of organizations in accidents and as a tool in safety management. British Rail, the public sector company which ran the UK railway network until its privatization in April 1994, was criticized for its 'poor safety culture' following a major accident at Clapham Junction, London, in 1988, in which 35 lives were lost. Studies conducted after the accident have demonstrated that deficiencies in the organization's safety culture may be related to workers' negative perceptions of managers' commitment to safety. These perceptions underlie a lack of mutual trust between staff and managers, which has implications for the fostering of open and honest communications within the network, and for the development of a positive safety culture. Communication problems are likely to be compounded by the privatization of British Rail, which has involved the fragmentation of the network, with different bodies responsible for infrastructure maintenance and train operation. The repercussions of privatizing the railway network are discussed in the context of safety culture research.     

Overcoming the dark side of task conflict: Buffering roles of transformational leadership,tenacity, and passion for work

Drawing from the job demands–resources model, this study considers how task conflict reduces employees' job satisfaction, as well as how the negative task conflict–job satisfaction relationship might be buffered by supervisors' transformational leadership and employees' personal resources. Using data from a large organization, the authors show that task conflict reduces job satisfaction, but this effect is weaker at higher levels of transformational leadership, tenacity, and passion for work. The buffering roles of the two personal resources (tenacity and passion for work) are particularly salient when transformational leadership is low. These findings indicate that organizations marked by task-related clashes can counter the accompanying stress by developing adequate leadership and employee resources within their ranks.