The relationship between psychological capital, job satisfaction, and safety perceptions in the maritime industry

TLDR

The study investigates whether maritime workers’ psychological capital predicts safety climate perceptions and job satisfaction across three Norwegian shipping companies. Across 1,080 workers, higher psychological capital was linked to better safety climate perceptions and job satisfaction, explaining 10–12% of safety climate variance alone and 21% jointly with job satisfaction, with job satisfaction mediating the relationship and stronger effects for officers and European workers, implying that safety interventions should incorporate PsyCap.

Abstract

In two studies we examine whether Psychological Capital (PsyCap) is related to perceptions of safety climate and job satisfaction among maritime workers from three Norwegian shipping companies. Results from Study 1 (N = 486) and Study 2 (N = 594) showed that PsyCap was positively associated with – and explained between 10% and 12% of the variance in perceptions of safety climate. PsyCap contributed to the variance in safety climate after adjusting for social desirable responding. An interaction analysis indicated that officers and non-officers perceived the safety climate as similar when their PsyCap is low, but that officers with high levels of PsyCap have a more positive perception of the safety climate than non-officers with high levels of PsyCap. In Study 2 a positive association was established between safety perceptions and job satisfaction, as well as between PsyCap and job satisfaction in a multicultural sample of maritime workers. Findings from analyses of indirect effects suggest that PsyCap has an indirect (mediating) relationship with perceptions of safety climate through job satisfaction. Altogether, PsyCap and job satisfaction explained 21% of the variance in safety climate. Cross-national differences were established in that the indirect effect was only valid for European workers, and not for Filipinos. An important implication of these findings is that safety focused interventions could benefit from taking PsyCap into account in training and motivating for safety.