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Benchmarking Safety Climate in Hazardous Environments: A Longitudinal, Interorganizational Approach
Author(s) -
Mearns Kathryn,
Whitaker Sean M.,
Flin Rhona
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/0272-4332.214149
Subject(s) - benchmarking , safety climate , safety behaviors , scale (ratio) , occupational safety and health , business , environmental science , poison control , engineering , environmental health , injury prevention , geography , political science , medicine , marketing , cartography , law
Safety climate is an important element of organizational reliability. This study applied benchmarking strategies for monitoring safety climate across nine North Sea oil and gas installations that were surveyed in consecutive years. Examination of absolute changes in safety climate complemented the benchmarking approach. Discriminant function analyses (DFA) identified the elements of safety climate predictive of self‐reported accidents; correlational analyses were applied to the scale scores and accident proportions across the year period. Absolute improvements were substantial, with safety climate profiles converging in the second year. Large relative improvements were also observed. DFA highlighted perceived management commitment to safety and willingness to report accidents as significant predictors of personal accident involvement. Changes in perceived management commitment to safety were closely associated with changes in safety behavior.