Employee images of risk

Risk perception and risk judgements are interesting because they may influence behaviour as well as decision making related to hazards. Risk perception consists of a rational as well as an emotional component. In the present study the rational and affective components of perceived risk were measured separately and the hypothesis that they may be related differently to risk behaviour was tested. In 1997 and 1998 a self-completion questionnaire survey was carried out among employees at 14 plants within the industrial company Norsk Hydro. The plants belonged to several divisions within the company. A total of 814 respondents replied to the questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was used to test models aimed at determining the relations between risk perception and behaviour. The affective component of risk perception and risk behaviour was found to be independent variables. The rational component seemed to have a significant, however small, effect on behaviour. Acceptability of rule violations was the most important predictor, probably because acceptability also was associated with how often the respondents took chances and broke safety rules. The models explained about 50 per cent of the variance in risk behaviour.

[1]  Torbjørn Rundmo,et al.  Associations between safety climate and emotional reactions to platform movements onboard an offshore installation , 1997 .

[2]  Jorma Saari,et al.  Accidents, and disturbances in the flow of information , 1984 .

[3]  François Béland,et al.  A safety climate measure for construction sites , 1991 .

[4]  J Rasmussen,et al.  Human error and the problem of causality in analysis of accidents. , 1990, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[5]  L Sjöberg,et al.  Risk perception by offshore oil personnel during bad weather conditions. , 1998, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[6]  J. Deutsch.  Perception and Communication , 1958, Nature.

[7]  Torbjørn Rundmo.  Changes in risk perception among North Sea offshore personnel in the period 1990 to 1994 , 1996 .

[8]  Torbjørn Rundmo,et al.  Risk perception and safety on offshore petroleum platforms -- Part II: Perceived risk, job stress and accidents , 1992 .

[9]  T Rundmo,et al.  Associations between organizational factors and safety and contingency measures on offshore petroleum platforms. , 1994, Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health.

[10]  D. A. Lucas,et al.  Chapter 8 – SIGNALS PASSED AT DANGER: NEAR MISS REPORTING FROM A RAILWAY PERSPECTIVE , 1991 .

[11]  D. Zohar.  Safety climate in industrial organizations: theoretical and applied implications. , 1980, The Journal of applied psychology.

[12]  J. Shaoul.  Human Error , 1973, Nature.

[13]  Human factors in signalling systems : specific applications to railway signalling , 1974 .

[14]  A. Hale,et al.  Individual behaviour in the control of danger. , 1987 .

[15]  D. Broadbent.  Perception and communication , 1958 .

[16]  A. Treisman,et al.  Selective Attention: Perception or Response? , 1967, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[17]  Jens Rasmussen,et al.  Models of Mental Strategies in Process Plant Diagnosis , 1981 .

[18]  Kanichi Takagi,et al.  Human error and human reliability , 1967 .

[19]  C. Mackay,et al.  Ergonomics and human error , 1990 .

[20]  Torbjørn Rundmo,et al.  Employee risk perception related to offshore oil platform movements , 1996 .

[21]  Pårl Ulleberg,et al.  Job stress, social support, job satisfaction and absenteeism among offshore oil personnel , 1997 .

[22]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  On the degree of attention and capacity limitation in tactile processing , 1973 .

[23]  R L Brown,et al.  The use of a factor-analytic procedure for assessing the validity of an employee safety climate model. , 1986, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[24]  A. D. Swain,et al.  Handbook of human-reliability analysis with emphasis on nuclear power plant applications. Final report , 1983 .

[25]  A. Glendon,et al.  Human Safety and Risk Management, Second Edition , 2006 .

[26]  Torbjørn Rundmo,et al.  Associations between risk perception and safety , 1996 .