Effects of Safety Climate on Perceptions of Safety Performance in Container Terminal Operations

Abstract This study empirically examined the effects of safety climate on container operation terminal employees’ perceptions of safety performance in Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. Factor analysis and a series of validity and reliability tests were conducted, which resulted in the identification of three critical safety climate dimensions, namely supervisor safety behaviour management, safety training programmes and co‐workers’ safety behaviour. There was a positive significant relationship between these three dimensions and safety performance. Results suggest that container operation terminals’ management can enhance and refine these firms’ safety climate by focusing especially on managing safety behaviour, safety training programmes and co‐workers’ safety behaviour, thereby reducing injuries and accidents.

[1]  U Varonen,et al.  The safety climate and its relationship to safety practices, safety of the work environment and occupational accidents in eight wood-processing companies. , 2000, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[2]  Toivo Niskanen,et al.  Safety climate in the road administration , 1994 .

[3]  Sharon Clarke,et al.  Safety climate in an automobile manufacturing plant: The effects of work environment, job communication and safety attitudes on accidents and unsafe behaviour , 2006 .

[4]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[5]  Kathryn Mearns,et al.  Safety climate, safety management practice and safety performance in offshore environments , 2003 .

[6]  W A Harrell,et al.  Perceived Risk of Occupational Injury: Control over Pace of Work and Blue-Collar versus White-Collar Work , 1990, Perceptual and motor skills.

[7]  José M. Tomás,et al.  A cross-validation of a structural equation model of accidents: Organizational and psychological variables as predictors of work safety , 1999 .

[8]  J Lutness,et al.  Measuring up: assessing safety with climate surveys. , 1987, Occupational health & safety.

[9]  Jae-On Kim,et al.  Introduction to Factor Analysis: What It Is and How To Do It , 1978 .

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

[11]  Rh Simonds,et al.  Factors apparently affecting injury frequency in 11 matched pairs of companies , 1977 .

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

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

[14]  Rachna Shah,et al.  Use of structural equation modeling in operations management research: Looking back and forward ☆ , 2006 .

[15]  Rosa Isla Díaz,et al.  Safety climate and attitude as evaluation measures of organizational safety. , 1997 .

[16]  James C. Anderson,et al.  An approach for confirmatory measurement and structural equation modeling of organizational properties , 1987 .

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

[18]  R Isla Díaz,et al.  Safety climate and attitude as evaluation measures of organizational safety. , 1997, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[19]  H.Harvey Cohen,et al.  Characteristics of successful safety programs , 1978 .

[20]  Mark A. Griffin,et al.  Safety Climate and Safety Behaviour , 2002 .

[21]  A. Neal,et al.  The impact of organizational climate on safety climate and individual behavior , 2000 .

[22]  J. L. Price,et al.  Discriminant validity of measures of job satisfaction, positive affectivity and negative affectivity , 1992 .

[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]  Jae-on Kim,et al.  Introduction to Factor Analysis , 1978 .

[25]  X. Koufteros.  Testing a model of pull production: a paradigm for manufacturing research using structural equation modeling , 1999 .

[26]  Oi-ling Siu,et al.  Safety climate and safety performance among construction workers in Hong Kong. The role of psychological strains as mediators. , 2004, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[27]  Lee T. Ostrom,et al.  Assessing safety culture , 2009 .

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

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

[30]  Emery R. Hayhurst,et al.  Industrial Accident Prevention, A Scientific Approach , 1932 .

[31]  J. Nunnally.  Psychometric Theory (2nd ed), New York: McGraw-Hill. , 1978 .

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

[33]  T. Cox,et al.  The structure of employee attitudes to safety: A European example , 1991 .

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

[35]  David W. Gerbing,et al.  An Updated Paradigm for Scale Development Incorporating Unidimensionality and Its Assessment , 1988 .

[36]  Jon Ivar Håvold,et al.  Safety-culture in a Norwegian shipping company. , 2005, Journal of safety research.

[37]  D. R. Dalton,et al.  Organization Structure and Performance: A Critical Review , 1980 .

[38]  Albert H. Segars,et al.  Assessing the unidimensionality of measurement : a paradigm and illustration within the context of information systems research , 1997 .

[39]  J. Håvold.  Culture in maritime safety , 2000 .

[40]  Alistair Cheyne,et al.  Assessing safety culture in offshore environments. , 2000 .

[41]  Pramod Mohanlal,et al.  Structural Equation Modelling , 2013 .

[42]  Hans Baumgartner,et al.  On the use of structural equation models for marketing modeling , 2000 .

[43]  Kenji Itoh,et al.  Track maintenance train operators’ attitudes to job, organisation and management, and their correlation with accident/incident rate , 2004, Cognition, Technology & Work.

[44]  Pedro Arezes,et al.  The role of safety culture in safety performance measurement , 2003 .

[45]  Christian Homburg,et al.  Applications of structural equation modeling in marketing and consumer research: A review , 1996 .

[46]  Alison G Vredenburgh,et al.  Organizational safety: which management practices are most effective in reducing employee injury rates? , 2002, Journal of safety research.

[47]  E C Wigglesworth,et al.  The fault doctrine and injury control. , 1978, The Journal of trauma.

[48]  Sanjay L. Ahire,et al.  Development and Validation of TQM Implementation Constructs , 1996 .

[49]  Garland Chow,et al.  Logistics Performance: Definition and Measurement , 1994 .

[50]  U. Sekaran.  Research Methods for Business , 1999 .

[51]  Chin-Shan Lu,et al.  An empirical investigation of safety climate in container terminal operators. , 2005, Journal of safety research.

[52]  Gerald Mars,et al.  Human factor failure and the comparative structure of jobs , 1996 .

[53]  David V. Canter,et al.  Employee attitudes and safety in the chemical industry , 1994 .

[54]  D. Zohar.  The effects of leadership dimensions, safety climate, and assigned priorities on minor injuries in work groups , 2002 .

[55]  E. Suchman.  A Conceptual Analysis of the Accident Phenomenon , 1960 .

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

[57]  Xianggui Qu,et al.  Multivariate Data Analysis , 2007, Technometrics.

[58]  Arnold Maltz,et al.  CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE DISTRIBUTOR CHANNEL EMPIRICAL FINDINGS. , 1998 .

[59]  Michael S. Lewis-Beck,et al.  Factor analysis and related techniques , 1994 .

[60]  Robert J. Vokurka,et al.  The empirical assessment of construct validity , 1998 .

[61]  James C. Anderson,et al.  STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDED TWO-STEP APPROACH , 1988 .

[62]  Patrick Sherry,et al.  Person-environment fit and accident prediction , 1991 .

[63]  Haikang Shen,et al.  A comparison of models of medical school student selection , 1995 .

[64]  R. Flin,et al.  Safety culture: philosopher’s stone or man of straw? , 1998 .

[65]  Tr Lee,et al.  Perceptions, attitudes and behaviour : the vital elements of a safety culture , 1996 .

[66]  Gregory E. Prussia,et al.  Predicting safe employee behavior in the steel industry: Development and test of a sociotechnical model , 2000 .

[67]  R. E. Miller,et al.  Alcoholism as a human factor. , 1983, Professional safety.

[68]  Gilbert A. Churchill,et al.  Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations , 1976 .

[69]  Bob E. Hayes,et al.  Measuring Perceptions of Workplace Safety: Development and Validation of the Work Safety Scale , 1998 .