Analysis of the Multi-Relationships and Their Structures for Safety Culture

Teh-Sheng Su¹, Pei-Ru Lin², Yi-Liang Shu¹, Jo-Ming Tseng³, Chen-Shan Kao^2*

¹Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology (CTUST), Taichung.
²Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, National United University, Miaoli.
³Institute of Safety and Disaster Prevention Technology, CTUST, Taichung.

DOI: 10.4236/ojsst.2012.23012                

Abstract

Studies on safety culture and safety performance have been increasing recently and several proposed models have been developed and evaluated to identify their key dimensions. However, many studies focus more on measuring the scales of the safety culture and safety performance dimensions. This study aims to seek a deeper understanding of the overall structures of safety culture, safety performance and their relationships by using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis along with the structural equation modeling (SEM) statistical technique, because the above-mentioned concepts and technique have been seldom employed and are uncommon in manufacturing companies, in terms of Tai-wan. We first carry out a thorough literature review and propose an integrated model of safety culture and safety per-formance with eight dimensions and four dimensions, respectively. We then state a series of hypotheses and test the proposed model on a sample of 370 valid data from three manufacturing companies in Taiwan. Results show that the third-order safety culture associated with second-order safety performance model turns out to be the desired model, where both the measured variables and latent variables have good reliability. The proposed model meets many criteria of the goodness of fit as well.

Keywords

Safety Culture; Safety Performance; Structure Equation Modeling

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	F. Wegman and S. Oppe, “Benchmarking Road Safety Performances of Countries,” Safety Science, Vol. 48, No. 9, 2010, pp. 1203-1211. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2010.02.003
[2]	T. C. Wu and C. L. Kang, “A Study on the Survey of Safety Performance Perceived by the Workers of in the Four Types of Manufacturing Industry in Taiwan,” Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2004, pp. 73-90.
[3]	S. S. Wei, “A Study of Implementation of Safety Performance Management,” Industrial Safety Technology Quarterly, Vol. 66, 2008, pp. 7-10.
[4]	R. Carl, “Can Focus on Safety Culture Become an Excuse for Not Rethinking Design of Technology?” Safety Science, Vol. 48, No. 2, 2010, pp. 268-278. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2009.07.008
[5]	A. Ahmet and K. Sytze, “Safety Culture in an Aircraft Maintenance Organisation: A View from the Inside,” Safety Science, Vol. 49, No. 2, 2011, pp. 268-278. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2010.08.007
[6]	T. O. N?vestad, “Evaluating a Safety Culture Campaign: Some Lessons from a Norwegian Case,” Safety Science, Vol. 48, No. 5, 2010, pp. 651-659. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2010.01.015
[7]	INSAG, “Safety Culture. Safety Reports Series No. 75-INSAG-4,” International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1991.
[8]	E. S. Geller, “Ten Principles for Achieving a Total Safety Culture,” Professional Safety, September 1994, pp. 18-24.
[9]	M. D. Cooper, R. A. Phillips, V. J. Sutherland and P. J. Makin, “Reducing Accidents Using Goal Setting and Feedback: A Field Study,” Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 67, No. 3, 1994, pp. 219-240. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8325.1994.tb00564.x
[10]	S. J. Cox and R. Flin, “Safety Culture; Philosopher’s Stone or Man of Straw?” Work & Stress, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1998, pp. 189-201. doi:10.1080/02678379808256861
[11]	Health and Safety Executive, “Development of a Business Excellence Model of Safety Culture,” HSE, Entec UK Ltd., London, 1999.
[12]	Health and Safety Executive, “Safety Culture Maturity Model,” Offshore Technology Report, HSE, HSE, Entec UK Ltd., London, 2000.
[13]	P. Hudson, “Understanding Safety Management in the Context of Organizational Culture. NATO/Russia ARW,” Forecasting and Preventing Catastrophes Conference, University of Aberdeen, 2-6 June 2003.
[14]	M. Iotrowski and D. Hinshaw, “The Safety Checklist Program: Creating a Culture of Safety in Intensive Care Units,” Journal on Quality Improvement, Vol. 28, 2002, pp. 306-315.
[15]	M. C. Mario, G. Francisco, T. Inés and J. M. Peiró, “Leadership and Employees’ Perceived Safety Behaviours in a Nuclear Power Plant: A Structural Equation Model,” Safety Science, Vol. 49, 2011, pp. 1118-1129. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2011.03.002
[16]	F. M. Beatriz, M. P. José Manuel and V. O. Camilo José, “Safety Management System: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Scale,” Journal of Loss Pre- vention in the Process Industries, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2007, pp. 52-68. doi:10.1016/j.jlp.2006.10.002
[17]	F. M. Beatriz, M. P. J. Manuel and V. O. C. José, “Safety Culture: Analysis of the Causal Relationships between Its Key Dimensions,” Journal of Safety Research, Vol. 38, No. 6, 2007, pp. 627-641. doi:10.1016/j.jsr.2007.09.001
[18]	F. M. Beatriz, M. P. J. Manuel and V. O. C. José, “Relation between Occupational Safety Management and Firm Performance,” Safety Science, Vol. 47, No. 7, 2009, pp. 980-991. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.10.022
[19]	S. H. Hsu, C. C. Lee, M. C. Wu and K. Takano, “A Cross-Cultural Study of Organizational Factors on Safety: Japanese vs Taiwanese Oil Refinery Plants,” Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2008, pp. 24-34. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2007.03.020
[20]	S. E. Johnson, “The Predictive Validity of Safety Climate,” Journal of Safety Research, Vol. 38, 2007, pp. 511-521. doi:10.1016/j.jsr.2007.07.001
[21]	C. S. Kao, P. R. Lin, M. C. Yang, W. H. Lai and T. S. Su, “Identification of Safety Culture Structure and Its Major Factors of the Chemical Industry in Taiwan,” The 24th APOSHO Annual Conference, Seoul, 2008, pp. 123-129.
[22]	W. H. Lai, “The Safety Culture Assessment of Petrochemical Industries—Case Study of Five Companies in Taiwan,” MS Thesis, National United University, Taiwan, 2006.
[23]	C. S. Kao, W. H. Lai, T. F. Chuang and J. C. Lee, “Safety Culture Factors, Group Differences, and Risk Perception In Five Petrochemical Plants,” Process Safety Progress, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2008, pp. 145-152. doi:10.1002/prs.10246
[24]	T. S. Su, “Safety and Health Policy and Intellectual Databank Project,” Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Taiwan, 2007.