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Safety in Occupational Driving: Development of a Driver Behavior Scale for the Workplace Context
Author(s) -
Newnam Sharon,
Greenslade Jaimi,
Newton Cameron,
Watson Barry
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1464-0597
pISSN - 0269-994X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2011.00448.x
Subject(s) - scale (ratio) , context (archaeology) , sample (material) , psychology , applied psychology , construct validity , ambiguity , occupational injury , occupational safety and health , poison control , content validity , validity , human factors and ergonomics , social psychology , psychometrics , computer science , clinical psychology , environmental health , medicine , geography , cartography , archaeology , chemistry , chromatography , pathology , programming language
International statistics indicate that occupational, or work‐related driving, crashes are the most common cause of workplace injury, death, and absence from work. The majority of research examining unsafe driver behavior in the workplace has relied on general road safety questionnaires. However, past research has failed to consider the organisational context in the use of these questionnaires, and thus, there is ambiguity in the dimensions constituting occupational driving. Using a theoretical model developed by Hockey (1993, 1997), this article proposes and validates a new scale of occupational driver behavior. This scale incorporates four dimensions of driver behavior that are influenced by demanding workplace conditions: speeding, rule violation, inattention, and driving while tired. Following a content validation process, three samples of occupational drivers in Australia were used to assess the scale. Data from the first sample ( n = 145) were used to reduce the number of scale items and provide an assessment of the factorial validity of the scale. Data from the second sample ( n = 645) were then used to confirm the factor structure and psychometric properties of the scale including reliability and construct validity. Finally, data from the third sample ( n = 248) were used to establish criterion validity. The results indicated that the scale is a reliable and valid measure of occupational driver behavior.