Constructing Safety: Influence of Safety Climate and Psychological Climate on Safety Behaviour in Construction Industry

Licentiatavhandling, 2005

Although, significant progress has been made in improving occupational safety in construction industry the number of deaths and injuries are still unacceptably high. In the recent years, extensive research on safety climate, part of the organisational climate research body, has been perfromed. Psychological climate is a field within the area of organisational climate research, that has shown reliable relations to work outcomes. In the construction industry implementation of accident preventionhave been accomplished, and in such work, technical solutions have to a large extent been in focus. To provide guidance on how to further improve safety, the climate perspective is of value, studying whether or how social aspects and organisation of work influence safety performance. In the present thesis, relations between safety climate and psychological climate on one hand and self-reported safety behaviour on the other, were explored, as well as, how the influence between psychological climate and self-reported safety behaviour may occur. Two studies were carried out. These were based on cross-sectional data from the second and the fourth measurement waves of a questionnaire survey. Personnel engaged in a construction project, building a road tunnel under central parts of Gothenburg, were addressed. Evidence was found, that a positive safety climate and supportive psychological climate in construction industry are of importance with regards to safety. Regarding, how psychological climate may influence safety behaviour, `safety motivation´ and `safety knowledge´ appeared as key mediators in such mechanisms.