Work-Related Stress Mediates the Impact of Safety Climate on Safety Outcomes

WORK-RELATED STRESS MEDIATES THE IMPACT OF SAFETY CLIMATE ON SAFETY OUTCOMES The risk of work related injuries and accidents is still one of the main issues in the world of work in Italy. In 2011 there were 726,000 accidents in the workplace, 930 of which were fatal. These figures have been steadily declining since 2007, although this trend seems to be more related to the economic crisis than to a real improvement in working conditions. During the last few years the approach to prevention of injury has focused more on the human factor, in particular highlighting the important role that work-related stress, safety climate and safety culture can play in preventing work accidents. In this context, this research aims to investigate the relationship between safety climate in the work environment and safety performance and also to analyse how work-related stress may affect this interaction. Safety climate has been defined as shared perceptions regarding the policies, procedures and practices. These provide a series of regulations regarding behaviour in the work environment and mean that it is possible to determine performance in terms of safety of workers. This in turn leads to a positive climate which enhances safer behaviour, whereas in a negative climate unsafe behaviour increases. There is therefore a close connection between safety climate and the occurrence of accidents and injuries. Psychological distress directly affects individual psychophysical well-being and behaviour and can affect performance in terms of safety procedures (Melià 2008; Zohar 2005). The presence of a safety climate, safety performance and the risk of work-related stress were assessed in 175 metal and mechanical workers employed in two different companies in the north-east of Italy. The workers were all men, divided into 6 age groups: 4 workers (2.3%) were aged 19 to 25 years, 36 (20.6%) were from 26 to 35 years, 79 (45.1%) were from 36 to 45 years, 45 (25.7%) were from 46 to 55 years and 8 (4.6%) were more than 55 years. 3 subjects (1.7%) did not provide information about their demographic status. The validated Integrated Organizational Safety Climate Questionnaire was used to assess three safety climate measures (Organizational, Supervisor and Co-worker) (Brondino, Pasini and Silva 2011). Each item has a 7-point scale that ranges from 1 = never to 7 = always. Organizational safety climate (OSC) is measured with a 12-item scale, in which the worker is asked to judge the safety climate of the entire organization. Supervisor's safety climate (SSC) is measured with a 10-item scale, in which the workers had to judge the real importance given to safety by their direct supervisor in the work-group. Co-workers' safety climate (CSC) is measured with a 12-item scale in which the workers rate the degree to which safety is a real priority of their colleagues. Safety performance are measured with a 4-item scale which refers to individual performance of safety compliance. The scale is an adjusted version of Griffin & Neal scale about safety behaviour (2000). Responses were given on a 7-point Likert scale, from 1 = “not at all” to 7 = “very much”. The GHQ-12 questionnaire, which is widely used to assess levels of psychological distress, was also employed. The Italian version of the HSE Management Standards Indicator Tool was used to asses work related stress. It consists of 35 items that identify six organizational dimensions. These are: demands (including issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment), control (how much say the person has in the way they do their work), support (including the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues), relationships (whether the organisation promotes positive working to avoid conflict and deals with unacceptable behaviour), role (whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles) and change (how organisational change is managed and communicated in the organisation). Data were analysed using the AMOS package, a software package designed to create structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of the study seem to confirm that work related stress, connected with psychological distress, mediate the relationship between safety climate and safety performance.