Theoretical components of workplace safety climate and their implications for practice

Abstract

Management safety commitment is an important theoretical factor in safety climate measurement and research; however, the influence of co-workers has received less attention. This study investigated whether co-worker safety attitudes and behaviours contributed explanatory variance to associations with burnout or whether management attitudes and behaviours primarily determine this association. Hospitality employees (N = 111) completed safety climate, psychosocial safety climate (PSC), and burnout measures. Results showed safety climate was significantly correlated with personal, work and customer-related burnout. Multiple regressions showed co-worker factors did not add predictive capacity for burnout above management factors, although did for determining whether workers experienced customer-related burnout. Results were compared to findings for Disability Support Workers where co-worker factors added predictive capacity above management factors for burnout. Findings suggested worker and manager safety-related attitudes and behaviours are important theoretical components of safety climate, but their relative influence varies according to the safety climate measure used and organisational structure.