Predicting safe employee behavior in the steel industry: Development and test of a sociotechnical model

TLDR

Industrial safety is critical for cost, delivery, quality, and social responsibility, yet the causes of workplace accidents remain debated between employee unsafe acts and broader operating and social system influences. The study investigates how social, technical, and personal factors influence steelworkers’ safe work behaviors through a survey. Researchers surveyed steelworkers to evaluate the influence of technical, social, and personal factors on safe work behaviors. Results show that safety hazards, culture, and production pressures interact to shape safety efficacy and attitudes, ultimately determining safe or unsafe work behaviors, and offer managerial prescriptions.

Abstract

Abstract Industrial safety is an important issue for operations managers — it has implications for cost, delivery, quality, and social responsibility. Minor accidents can interfere with production in a variety of ways, and a serious accident can shut down an entire operation. In this context, questions about the causes of workplace accidents are highly relevant. There is a popular notion that employees' unsafe acts are the primary causes of workplace accidents, but a number of authors suggest a perspective that highlights influences from operating and social systems. The study described herein addresses this subject by assessing steelworkers' responses to a survey about social, technical, and personal factors related to safe work behaviors. Results provide evidence that a chain reaction of technical and social constructs operate through employees to influence safe behaviors. These results demonstrate that safety hazards, safety culture, and production pressures can influence safety efficacy and cavalier attitudes, on a path leading to safe or unsafe work behaviors. Based on these results, we conclude with prescriptions for operations managers and others who play roles in the causal sequence.