Perceptions of safety at work: A framework for linking safety climate to safety performance, knowledge, and motivation.

TLDR

Research on organizational climate and work performance underpins the development of a framework to assess safety perceptions at work. The study aims to create a framework for measuring employees’ perceptions of safety in the workplace. The framework differentiates perceptions of the work environment from safety‑related performance, further separating compliance and participation as distinct performance components. Two studies confirm the framework’s applicability, showing that safety knowledge and motivation shape individual safety performance, mediate the safety climate–performance link, and that safety climate comprises distinct dimensions that predict safety performance.

Abstract

Research in the areas of organizational climate and work performance was used to develop a framework for measuring perceptions of safety at work. The framework distinguished perceptions of the work environment from perceptions of performance related to safety. Two studies supported application of the framework to employee perceptions of safety in the workplace. Safety compliance and safety participation were distinguished as separate components of safety-related performance. Perceptions of knowledge about safety and motivation to perform safely influenced individual reports of safety performance and also mediated the link between safety climate and safety performance. Specific dimensions of safety climate were identified and constituted a higher order safety climate factor. The results support conceptualizing safety climate as an antecedent to safety performance in organizations.