This study examined the variability in the observed relationship between safety climate and injuries in the extant literature by meta-analytically examining possible moderators of the safety climate-injury relationship at both the individual and group levels of analysis. Hypotheses were posited regarding the effects of six moderators: study design (i.e., retrospective or prospective), the time frame for gathering injury data, the degree of content contamination and deficiency in safety climate measures, the source of injury data (i.e., archival or self-report), and the operationalization of injury severity. Results revealed that the safety climate-injury relationship is stronger at the group level (? = -.23) than at the individual level of analysis (? = -.18). Meaningful moderators included the time frame between the measurement of safety climate and injuries for prospective group-level studies, safety climate content contamination for group-level studies, and safety climate content deficiency for individual-level studies. Longer time frames for gathering injury data and safety climate content deficiency were found to decrease effect sizes while content contamination was associated with stronger effect sizes. Methodological recommendations are proposed for future research of the safety climate-injury relationship including prospective longitudinal study designs with data collected and analyzed at the group-level of analysis and injuries operationalized at a greater level of severity.

This study investigated teacher targeted bullying in primary schools to examine whether students serve as an unsafe work stressor for teachers, because teacher targeted bullying is on the rise. This study looked at teacher targeted bullying as an antecedent of stress and the mechanisms, such as mediators and moderators, which affected this bullying-stress relationship. 113 primary school teachers completed a self-report questionnaire which measured bullying, self-efficacy, safety climate perceptions, social support and stress. The results provided evidence that social support from others outside work moderated the mow level bullying-stress, and severe bullying-stress relationships. Most importantly, unsafe job perceptions mediated the relationship between low level bullying and stress. The results of this research imply that student bullying can influence teachers to perceive their job as unsafe and lead to stress. These findings can be used to develop effective strategies to not only prevent and manage bullying, but create safer schools for teachers and pupils.

Yes / Job stress and safety climate have been recognized as two crucial factors that can increase the risk of occupational accidents. This study was performed to determine the relationship between job stress and safety climate factors in the occurrence of accidents using the Bayesian network model. This cross-sectional study was performed on 1530 male workers of Asaluyeh petrochemical company in Iran. The participants were asked to complete the questionnaires, including demographical information and accident history questionnaire, NIOSH generic job stress questionnaire, and Nordic safety climate questionnaire. Also, work experience and the accident history data were inquired from the petrochemical health unit. Finally, the relationships between the variables were investigated using the Bayesian network model. A high job stress condition could decrease the high safety climate from 53 to 37% and increase the accident occurrence from 72 to 94%. Moreover, a low safety climate condition could increase the accident occurrence from 72 to 93%. Also, the concurrent high job stress and low safety climate could raise the accident occurrence from 72 to 93%. Among the associations between the job stress factor and safety climate dimensions, the job stress and worker's safety priority and risk non-acceptance (0.19) had the highest mean influence value. The adverse effect of high job stress conditions on accident occurrence is twofold. It can directly increase the accident occurrence probability and in another way, it can indirectly increase the accident occurrence probability by causing the safety climate to go to a lower level.

La littérature relative à la santé et sécurité au travail a mis en évidence l'importance des perceptions de sécurité comme déterminant de la santé et sécurité au travail et des comportements de sécurité (Barlin et Frone, 2004). Peu d'études, cependant, ont étudié le rôle du climat de sécurité (Neal et Griffin, 2004) dans le processus de l'épuisement professionnel. Cette recherche propose un modèle original qui vise à déterminer l'impact du climat de sécurité en tant que antécédent de l'épuisement professionnel de santé. Aussi nous avons intégré les « safety workarounds (Halbesleben, Wakefield & Wakefield, 2008) afin de montrer leur effet médiateur dans la relation climat de sécurité / burnout. Les résultats issus de notre enquête empirique confirment nos hypothèses. / The literature has highlighted the importance of individual perceptions of organizational safety rules and policies in their motivation to comply (Barlin & Frone, 2004). Yet, few studies, however, have investigated the role of safety climate (Neal & Griffin, 2004) on the burnout process. This research proposes an original model that seeks to determine the impact of safety climate as an antecedent independent variable to burnout. The practice of workarounds (Halbesleben, Wakefield & Wakefield, 2008) is incorporated in the model. Workarounds has been shown to be related to occupational safety issues and psychological health. The sample consisted in 281 health professional working in operating rooms. This research validates two important hypotheses. First, it highlights the impact of safety climate on burnout. As such, this finding adds to the literature by enriching the taxonomy of burnout antecedents. Second, it shows that workarounds plays a role in mediating the impact of safety climate on burnout. The relation of workarounds to burnout is complex. Its mediating role should not be limited to another form of coping. It also relates to pro-active attitudes for an added value to performance. As such, workarounds can act as indicators of the perceived state of safety climate held by professionals. Finally, this research emphasizes the necessity for including safety climate as a prevention tool in organizational health and safety practices.

Quality in pharmacies includes aspects such as error management and safety issues. The objective of this thesis was to explore these aspects of quality in Swedish community phar-macies. The specific aims were to compare a paper-based and a web-based reporting system for dispensing errors, regarding reporting behaviour and data quality. The impact of an intervention; a technical barrier, for preventing dispensing errors was evaluated. A survey tool, the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), was adapted to Swedish pharmacies and used to describe the safety culture in these pharmacies. The potential relationship between safety culture and dispensing errors was also explored. Data was retrieved from the paper- and web-based reporting systems, semi-structured interviews as well as from a survey, using SAQ. The change in reporting system for dispensing errors increased the reporting of errors and enhanced the completeness of reported data. The web-based system facilitated follow-up and identification of preventive measures, but was associated with implementation problems. The intervention was associated with a significant decrease in the overall number of dispensing errors and, specifically, reports on errors with the wrong strength, and errors caused by registration failure in the pharmacy computers. The Swedish version of the survey tool, SAQ, demonstrated satisfying psychometric properties. No correlation between the SAQ Safety Climate dimension and dispensing errors was seen, while a positive relationship between the SAQ Stress Recognition dimension and dispensing errors was established. A number of other pharmacy characteristics, such as number of dispensed prescription items and employees, displayed positive relationships with dispensing errors. Staff age demonstrated a negative relationship with dispensing errors while other demographic variables such as national education background showed a positive relationship.

Abstract The main purpose of this study is to explore the perception of senior and vocational high school students regarding safety climate and safety performance in the campus. Based on the review of campus safety events, related literatures on campus safety, and the analysis of validity and reliability, a questionnaire was developed which includes 91-item campus safety climate (CSC) scale, 46-item campus safety performance (CSP) scale, 98-item campus safety event likelihood (CSEL) scale. The factor analysis of CSC located four factors including: school commitment and action, student's commitment and perception of risk, safety attitude, response during an emergency, which explain 38.67% of the total variance. And CSP scale results in four factors: safety organization and management, safety training, safety equipment and measures, maintenance and event investigation, which explain 59.85% of the total variance. The researcher distributed 3280 questionnaires to students in 41 senior and vocational high schools in Taiwan. Of these 41 schools, 21 schools were chosen because of their poor performance in campus safety while the other 20 schools were selected due to their bright performance in campus safety. And 2837 valid questionnaires have been returned. The retrieving rate of the questionnaires is 86.49%. The independent-sample T test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation and canonical correlation analysis is has been applied to the analysis of the raw data. The major findings of the research are listed below: 1. Significant positive correlation between CSC and CSP is found. The strongest positive correlation exists between school commitment and action and CSP; the second one is between student's commitment and perception of risk and CSP. 2. School commitment and action is the best predictor to CSP, and the second one is student's commitment and perception of risk. 3. The more score a school gets in CSEL scale, the less campus safety events happened at that school. The significant positive correlation can be found among CSEL, CSC and CSP scale. And the correlation is especially high between CSEL and safety equipment and measure, the same is happened between CSEL and CSP. 4. The most frequent campus event among senior and vocational high school students is injures during exercises and games (26.3%). The next campus event is the conflicts between teachers and students (13.2%). The third one is traffic accidents outside the campus (12%). And the fourth one is the fights among teenagers (10.9%). 5. CSC, CSP and CSEL scales can provide available information for the control of campus safety event and for the direction of prevention campaigns. Keywords: campus safety climate, campus safety performance, campus safety perception

ABSTRACT Patient safety and safety outcomes in hospitals are a major concern. A hospital’s safety climate indicates the degree to which the organization prioritizes patient safety and achieves intended care outcomes. Relationships between nurse managers and frontline nurses and relationships between health care team members are pivotal in promoting a positive safety climate which in turn reduces adverse patient outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine frontline nurses’ perceived relationships with nurse managers and health team members to identify factors associated with safety climate (SC) in a community hospital located in a western Canadian city. The study was guided by Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory. Leader-Member Exchange theory postulates that dyadic relationships and work roles develop over time through a series of exchanges between nurse managers and frontline nurses. The study further incorporated Team-member exchange (TMX), a theoretical extension of LMX. Team-Member Exchange was used to guide the study of reciprocal exchanges among nurses and other members of the health care team. A non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was used to explore the relationship between acute care nurses’ perceived LMX, TMX, and SC. A convenience sampling technique was employed. Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs) were invited to complete a survey package comprised of four scales. A response rate of 31.1% was achieved with N=105. The majority of respondents were female (89.5%), over 45 years of age, and employed part-time. About half of the respondents were diploma-prepared nurses, whereas the other half had a baccalaureate degree in nursing. Based upon data’s non-normal distribution and various levels of variables, Kruskall Wallis H statistics were used to assess and compare groups in terms of the nurses’ education, gender, length of experience in their current position, specialty experience, organization experience, age, and LMX, TMX, and SC scores. Age was the sole demographic factor that had a statistically significant positive association with LMX and SC. This finding supported the notion that mature nurses enhance the SC. The relationship between TMX, LMX, and SC was explored through Spearman’s rho correlation statistics. LMX and TMX were found to have statistically significant relationships with SC. Multivariable regression analysis was used to identify factors with an association with SC. Nurses’ relationships with team members had a slightly stronger association with SC in comparison with LMX. Over 66% of SC variance was accountable by LMX, TMX, and nurses’ age. This study’s results support the nurse manager who partners with nurses to promote team work to deliver safe patient care and accomplish organizational goals. The presence of strong leadership that incorporates LMX and TMX theories into practice with the reliance upon mature nurses may facilitate the attainment of a positive SC and positive patient outcomes. Further longitudinal studies are recommended to add to the knowledge of the relationships between LMX, TMX, SC and patient outcomes.

<p> Heat stress due to ambient outdoor temperatures is a workplace hazard that has not been well studied or characterized. The incidence of occupational heat-related illness is unknown. Heat-related morbidity and mortality have been well-studied at the population level, however it cannot be determined if these findings extend systematically to workers exposed to high heat conditions. Remarkably, there is no U.S. federal standard to protect workers from the peril of elevated environmental temperatures and few states have protective regulations. This dissertation research will add to the limited knowledge base of occupational heat-related illnesses, by characterizing worker fatalities due to environmental heat stress. Three independent, but related, research strategies were designed, executed, and completed to evaluate the current research, as well as knowledge gaps, and to thoroughly describe these fatalities based on available information. </p><p> This work was initiated with a thorough literature review to summarize research findings that characterize U.S. occupational heat-related morbidity and mortality and identify gaps in the existing research literature. This review of science, health, and medical databases found that few studies examine ambient heat stress or characterize the incidence of occupational heat-related illnesses and outcomes. Significantly more research examining the heterogeneity of worker and environmental risk factors to heat exposure is needed to identify unsafe working conditions and implement practical, evidence-based heat-stress policies and interventions. The subsequent study describes the epidemiological characteristics of heat-related deaths among workers in the U.S. from 2000 to 2010. Fatality data were obtained at the Bureau of Labor Statistics from the confidential on-site Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries database. Fatality rates and risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated by year, sex, age group, ethnicity, race, state, and industry. Between 2000 and 2010, 359 occupational heat-related deaths were identified in the U.S., for a yearly average fatality rate of 0.22 per 1 million workers. Highest rates were found among Hispanics, men, the agriculture and construction industries, the states of Mississippi and Arkansas, and very small establishments. This study provides the first comprehensive national profile of heat-related deaths in the U.S. workplace. Prevention efforts should be directed at small businesses, states, industries and individuals who may be at increased risk of heat stress. </p><p> Lastly, to further characterize these fatalities, research was performed to: 1) determine the ranges of heat index and temperature at which workers fatally succumb to environmental heat; 2) identify risk factors that may influence heat-related deaths; and 3) translate these findings to policy recommendations. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and the National Climate Data Center were used to identify worker heat-related deaths in the U.S., 2000- 2010, and to assign a maximum daily temperature and heat index to each case. Demographic, meteorological, and geographical variables were analyzed to evaluate any differences in fatal heat exposure. The National Weather Service temperature alert tools, the Excessive Heat Event warning and the heat index category chart, were utilized to assess community threshold suitability for workers subjected to exertional heat stress. Of the 327 cases that qualified for the analysis, there were no differences found in mean temperatures and heat indexes between the sexes, races, age groups, ethnic groups, and industries. Southern workers died at significantly higher temperatures than workers in the North. This study supports the use of heat index and temperature as a guide when evaluating environmental conditions for workers. </p><p> Population-level heat index threshold alerts are unsuitable for preventing exertional heat stress and new warning systems should be developed. Since heat-related health hazards at work can be anticipated before they manifest, preventive measures can be implemented before illness occurs. With no federal regulatory standards to protect workers from environmental heat exposure, and with climate change as a driver for adaptation and prevention of heat disorders, it is increasing sensible and imperative for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to take action. National leadership is needed to promulgate regulations, develop new heat alert tools using the heat index as a metric, and promote state-specific occupational heat stress prevention policies.</p>

In the ten year period between 2004 and 2013 the UK lost 13 operational, and one non-operational, firefighters at fires, a relatively large number in relation to previous losses. These fatalities occurred during a period in which fire fatalities of members of the public were at an all‐time low but fire and rescue services (FRS) and their staff were being accused in the media of becoming risk averse. This research was focussed on investigating the risk attitudes and safety culture in the English fire and rescue services. The research question asked how the safety culture manifests itself in the English fire and rescue service and what are its implications? A mixed approach to the research was adopted utilising both quantitative and qualitative methods. The research strategy was inductive using a multiple case study. A safety culture questionnaire was designed and then piloted in one FRS with the responses being subjected to a factor analysis the results of which indicated there were four dimensions: management, procedures, competence, and work pressures. The final version of the questionnaire was then distributed across five FRSs from which 845 were returned, of which 823 were used in a series of statistical analyses. Two independent variables were used in the analysis; the first consisted of the individual FRSs, the second consisted of three groups based on Schein’s three generic subcultures of executive, designer and operator. These were aligned with principal officers (PO), senior officers (SO), and Watch based (WB) staff respectively. The analysis of the completed questionnaires indicated that the WB group had a negative attitude towards their FRS safety culture, while the SO and PO groups had a more positive attitude with the PO the most positive. All three groups were significantly different to each other. In conducting the qualitative part of the mixed methods the researcher rode with three Watches at a station in each of three FRSs to observe the behaviour of WB staff and attending SOs at incidents and during their daily activities. During the course of the fieldwork nineteen members across all of the participating FRSs were interviewed, and twenty‐four focus groups were conducted. What was clear was that the competence based training system was not popular with WB staff who believed it to be too bureaucratic, whilst SOs and POs believed that it had not fulfilled their expectations of what it would deliver. There were also concerns expressed that the promotion system, associated with the competence‐based training, was producing managers and not the leaders required on the incident ground. It was concluded that safety culture within the FRS is associated with the systems, policies and procedures reflective of FRS management’s level of risk tolerance producing a rule-based decision‐making bureaucracy; this level of risk tolerance then influences how operational firefighters operate on the incident ground. In the world of the operational firefighter a typical incident, which by its very nature is a temporary event, is laden with uncertainty, complexity and in which all the potential risks may not yet have been identified with decision‐making being focussed on problem‐solving. FRS personnel find themselves operating in a risk climate in which they build temporary command structures, construct temporary processes and controls reflecting the incident commander’s risk appetite for the purpose of moving towards operating in a safety climate in which to resolve the incident. The combination of the FRS’s safety culture and the operational firefighter’s risk climate determine what the researcher has defined as the FRS operational culture.

This thesis presents two distinct, but linked, studies. Study 1 contrasted interactive [group] brainstorming against its nominal [individual] counterpart. Previous research has pointed to the productivity advantages of nominal brainstorming in terms of idea production rate [ideation], leading theorists to predict 'the end of interactive brainstorming'. Yet interactive brainstorming has remained the most popular means of ideation within organizations. Central to this research is the thesis that previous studies (a) failed to follow the instructions of the concept originator, Osborn (1953) and (b) used samples and conditions that were not representative of the organizations using brainstorming. Using a total of 10 groups sourced from a UK construction company, participants were asked to brainstorm ideas to improve organizational safety performance. Data produced indicated an equal average number of ideas generated, 30 for interactive, 30.2 for nominal, and an equal number of themes generated, 6.6 for interactive, 6.6 for nominal. Along with ideas and themes, post session group cohesion and process satisfaction levels were measured. Results indicated significantly higher levels of cohesion (t (73.75)=2.35, P<.05) and satisfaction (t (71.07)=4.74, P<.001) for the interactive condition over its nominal counterpart. Implications for research in this area are discussed.Study 2 consisted of two strands of research. The utility of interactive brainstorming, demonstrated in Study 1, highlighted its potential as a means of improving participation in safety. This formed the first area of research. The second area of research concerned the design and analysis of a working model in which Leader Member Exchange (LMX) and safety climate were identified as antecedents, compliance and participation as components and self report near miss/accident involvement as outcomes of safety performance. This model, and the potential utility of brainstorming as a means of improving participation, was tested using a longitudinal methodology. Study participants, sourced from the Refuse Collections division of a UK Local Authority, were asked to complete a questionnaire. LMX was measured using Graen and Uhl-Bien's (1995) LMX-7 scale, safety climate using Glendon and Litherland's (2001) questionnaire whilst measures of compliance and participant were sourced from Neal and Griffin (2006). This produced 101 respondents. Following this, brainstorming sessions were conducted with employees to produce safety improvement ideas. Questionnaires were redistributed seven months later and produced 104 respondents. Results indicated no improvement in participation over the period allocated, however, the measures of antecedents, components and outcomes of safety performance produced a number of significant findings. LMX was found to exhibit a direct relationship with accident involvement, however, analysis revealed the fluctuating mediating roles of compliance and participation in this relationship. Safety climate was found to moderate the relationship between LMX, compliance and participation. Although high levels of safety climate corresponded to higher levels of compliance and participation, LMX was seen to improve compliance and participation only in low climate environments, with this relationship reverse in positive safety climates. This finding is contrary to similar research in this area and the implications for future theory are discussed.