Decreased Job Security Without Change in Safety During Hydrocarbon Industry Recession

Safety in high-reliability organizations results from an interplay between human reliability and the organization’s allowances for optimal human performance. While an employee’s motivational and attitudinal states may be a direct cause for accidents (Rothblum, 2000), these are in turn influenced by managerial decisions about workhours and workload, requirements for competency and training provided, availability of safety equipment and procedures, and the emphasis of safety in the management’s communication (Dekker, 2002; Reason, 1990). Merchant vessels have safety challenges additional to those of shore-based industries, such as long work hours, motion, vibrations, noise and tight time schedules that may lead to fatigue, poor sleep quality, and motion sickness. Compounding this, some sectors or timeframes may be particularly subject to sub-contracted work with uncertain future work opportunities. Following a sharp decline in oil and gas prices in 2014, the offshore resupply industry had to restructure its operations and reduce operating costs. The Petroleum Safety Authority in Norway expressed concern that the cost-cutting measures could have negative impacts on health, safety and environment (Sundberg, 2016). Although a number of studies have looked at safety issues in the maritime industry (Andrei, Griffin, Grech, & Neal, 2020; Hetherington, Flin, & Mearns, 2006), few studies have examined changes in safety climate perceptions and attitudes during recession. The crew’s perception of safety climate may be a relevant indicator, since several studies have associated it with safety outcomes (Christian, Bradley, Wallace, & Burke, 2009; Hetherington et al., 2006; Nahrgang, Morgeson, & Hofmann, 2007). The present study contributes to existing literature by examining whether maritime workers’ perceptions of safety climate, safety attitudes, and job insecurity changed over time following loss of revenues in the hydrocarbon industry.