Measurement equivalence and mean comparisons of a safety climate measure across construction trades.

The use of safety climate measures for needs assessment and interventions has become increasingly popular. However, no research to date has examined whether the meaning and level of safety climate may differ across different groups of interest. This study used multi-group confirmatory factor analyses to investigate the measurement equivalence of a multidimensional safety climate measure across ten construction trade groups (N=4725). In addition, observed mean differences in safety climate perceptions between trades were examined. Results revealed strong measurement equivalence of the safety climate measure across the construction trade groups. Further, significant mean differences were found between the ten trade groups on all four safety climate scales.

[1]  Peter Y. Chen,et al.  Quality of the Execution of Corporate Safety Policies and Employee Safety Outcomes: Assessing the Moderating Role of Supervisor Safety Support and the Mediating Role of Employee Safety Control , 2003 .

[2]  F. Guldenmund.  The nature of safety culture: a review of theory and research , 2000 .

[3]  Julie M Sampson,et al.  [Case Study] CityCenter and Cosmopolitan Construction Projects, Las Vegas, Nevada: lessons learned from the use of multiple sources and mixed methods in a safety needs assessment. , 2010, Journal of safety research.

[4]  B. Järvholm.  Carcinogens in the Construction Industry , 2006, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[5]  Yueng-Hsiang Huang,et al.  Safety climate: new developments in conceptualization, theory, and research. , 2010, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[6]  Jill C. Bradley,et al.  Workplace safety: a meta-analysis of the roles of person and situation factors. , 2009, The Journal of applied psychology.

[7]  J. Kaufman,et al.  Cell markers, cytokines, and immune parameters in cement mason apprentices. , 2007, Arthritis and rheumatism.

[8]  Lois E. Tetrick,et al.  Handbook of occupational health psychology , 2003 .

[9]  D. Hofmann,et al.  Safety at work: a meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes. , 2011, The Journal of applied psychology.

[10]  Kenneth A. Bollen,et al.  Overall Fit in Covariance Structure Models: Two Types of Sample Size Effects , 1990 .

[11]  J. Schafer,et al.  Missing data: our view of the state of the art. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[12]  P. Bentler,et al.  Comparative fit indexes in structural models. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[13]  S. Clarke.  The relationship between safety climate and safety performance: a meta-analytic review. , 2006, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[14]  Tahira M Probst,et al.  Accident under-reporting among employees: testing the moderating influence of psychological safety climate and supervisor enforcement of safety practices. , 2010, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[15]  Kathryn Mearns,et al.  Measuring safety climate: identifying the common features☆ , 2000 .

[16]  Staffan Larsson,et al.  Safety Climate Cross-Validation, Strength and Prediction of Safety Behaviour , 2008 .

[17]  K. Murphy,et al.  Statistical Power Analysis: A Simple and General Model for Traditional and Modern Hypothesis Tests, Second Ediction , 1998 .

[18]  W. Meredith.  Measurement invariance, factor analysis and factorial invariance , 1993 .

[19]  Barbara M. Byrne,et al.  Structural equation modeling with EQS : basic concepts, applications, and programming , 2000 .

[20]  Stephen E. Johnson,et al.  The predictive validity of safety climate. , 2007, Journal of safety research.

[21]  Phillip W. Braddy,et al.  Power and sensitivity of alternative fit indices in tests of measurement invariance. , 2008, The Journal of applied psychology.

[22]  D. Zohar,et al.  A multilevel model of safety climate: cross-level relationships between organization and group-level climates. , 2005, The Journal of applied psychology.

[23]  K. Ringen,et al.  The Construction Industry , 2006, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[24]  R. Vandenberg,et al.  A Review and Synthesis of the Measurement Invariance Literature: Suggestions, Practices, and Recommendations for Organizational Research , 2000 .

[25]  Kathryn Mearns,et al.  Safety climate responses and the perceived risk of accidents in the construction industry. , 2008 .

[26]  Michael R. Mullen.  Diagnosing Measurement Equivalence in Cross-National Research , 1995 .

[27]  P. Bentler.  Comparative Fit Indices in Structural Models , 1990 .

[28]  Barbara M. Byrne,et al.  Structural equation modeling with AMOS , 2010 .

[29]  K. Ringen,et al.  Why construction is different. , 1995, Occupational medicine.

[30]  Dov Zohar,et al.  Safety climate: Conceptual and measurement issues. , 2011 .

[31]  Peter M. Bentler,et al.  EQS : structural equations program manual , 1989 .

[32]  S. Clarke.  An integrative model of safety climate: Linking psychological climate and work attitudes to individual safety outcomes using meta-analysis. , 2010 .

[33]  Fu-Lin Chang,et al.  Work fatigue and physiological symptoms in different occupations of high-elevation construction workers. , 2009, Applied ergonomics.

[34]  Dong-Chul Seo,et al.  A cross-validation of safety climate scale using confirmatory factor analytic approach. , 2004, Journal of safety research.

[35]  David Goldsheyder,et al.  Musculoskeletal symptom survey among mason tenders. , 2002, American journal of industrial medicine.

[36]  Mark A. Griffin,et al.  Safety climate and safety at work. , 2004 .

[37]  Barbara M Byrne,et al.  Measurement equivalence: a comparison of methods based on confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[38]  E. Kevin Kelloway,et al.  Structural equation modelling in perspective. , 1995 .

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

[40]  L. Nickels,et al.  An English/Spanish safety climate scale for construction workers. , 2007, American journal of industrial medicine.

[41]  Ann Williamson,et al.  The development of a measure of safety climate: The role of safety perceptions and attitudes , 1997 .

[42]  Dongping Fang,et al.  Safety Climate in Construction Industry: A Case Study in Hong Kong , 2006 .

[43]  Gordon W. Cheung.  Testing Equivalence in the Structure, Means, and Variances of Higher-Order Constructs With Structural Equation Modeling , 2008 .

[44]  Peter Y Chen,et al.  Roles of safety climate and shift work on perceived injury risk: a multi-level analysis. , 2007, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[45]  Robert Karasek,et al.  Job decision latitude and mental strain: Implications for job redesign , 1979 .

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

[47]  J. Horn,et al.  A practical and theoretical guide to measurement invariance in aging research. , 1992, Experimental aging research.

[48]  R. Vandenberg.  Toward a Further Understanding of and Improvement in Measurement Invariance Methods and Procedures , 2002 .

[49]  K. Ringen,et al.  Fatalities in the construction industry in the United States, 1992 and 1993. , 1996, American journal of industrial medicine.

[50]  R. Payne,et al.  Organizational structure and climate , 1976 .

[51]  Gordon W. Cheung,et al.  Evaluating Goodness-of-Fit Indexes for Testing Measurement Invariance , 2002 .

[52]  Burton L Streicher,et al.  Creating a Safety Culture , 2004 .

[53]  Configural, Metric, and Scalar Invariance of the Modified Achievement Goal Questionnaire Across African American and White University Students , 2008 .

[54]  Gary Davis,et al.  Physical risk factors and controls for musculoskeletal disorders in construction trades , 2006 .

[55]  Aleck Ian Glendon,et al.  Safety climate factors, group differences and safety behaviour in road construction , 2001 .

[56]  Helen Lingard,et al.  Group‐level safety climate in the Australian construction industry: within‐group homogeneity and between‐group differences in road construction and maintenance , 2009 .

[57]  Ossama Salem,et al.  Psychosocial Factors and Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Construction Industry , 2009 .

[58]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[59]  Marion Gillen,et al.  Perceived safety climate, job demands, and coworker support among union and nonunion injured construction workers. , 2002, Journal of safety research.

[60]  H. Howe,et al.  Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries , 1996 .

[61]  Michael H Beck.  Safety and health in the construction industry , 1990, BMJ.

[62]  Sherif Ali Mohtady Mohamed,et al.  SAFETY CLIMATE IN CONSTRUCTION SITE ENVIRONMENTS , 2002 .

[63]  A Neal,et al.  Perceptions of safety at work: a framework for linking safety climate to safety performance, knowledge, and motivation. , 2000, Journal of occupational health psychology.