Safety culture transformation—The impact of training on explicit and implicit safety attitudes

Abstract

The present paper investigates the changeability of safety culture elements such as explicit and implicit safety attitudes by training. Therefore, three studies with different time frames, training durations, and settings will be presented. In the first study, the short‐term attitude change of students from an international environmental sciences study program was measured after safety training in a chemical laboratory. In the second study, the medium‐term attitude change was assessed after a Crew Resource Management training for German production workers in the automotive industry. In the third study, the long‐term attitude changes were measured after safety ethics training in a sample of German occupational psychology and business students. Different self‐report measures were used to evaluate the training effectiveness of explicit safety attitudes. The change of implicit safety attitudes was assessed by Implicit Association Tests. The results of all three studies revealed a significant training effect on the explicit safety attitudes, but not on the implicit ones. Besides the training effect on the explicit attitudes, there was no effect of time frame (short‐, medium‐, long‐term), training duration (2 h, 2 days, 12 weeks), and setting (chemical laboratory, automotive industry, safety ethics study program) on the attitude change. Based on the results, conceptual, methodological, and practical implications for training effectiveness and safety culture transformation are discussed.

Mapping the Accidents and Unsafe Conditions of Workers in the Automotive Sector

“…The safety behaviours of workers and managers impact safety behaviour and performance in many industries and can influence occupational health and safety, organizational reliability, and product safety (Xu et al, 2014). In this sense, training can positively influence behaviour and attitudes in a safety culture (Marquardt, Hoebel and Lud, 2021). Any production system in which the environment is not safe or healthy is not socially sustainable since it causes accidents, mutilations, occupational diseases, or even the death of its workers.…”

Impacto de las prácticas de seguridad y salud en el trabajo sobre el desempeño de las empresas manufactureras de Aguascalientes, México

“…Entre los beneficios que trae una formación eficaz en materia de salud y seguridad, se encuentra su contribución a la reducción de accidentes e incidentes laborales basada en la identificación de peligros, en la aplicación de controles, en el aumento de la eficacia de los trabajadores que se concentran en las tareas laborales en lugar de tratar de manejar condiciones de trabajo inseguras, así como en el apoyo que reciben de los empleadores para cumplir sus obligaciones legales de salud y seguridad [17]. Una forma de llevar a cabo la capacitación de seguridad puede describirse en dos pasos: en el primero se dan instrucciones generales de seguridad como comportamiento básico en emergencias, accidentes o incendios, e información sobre rutas de escape y socorristas; y, en el segundo paso, se detectan los peligros específicos de los experimentos previstos y se les pide a los participantes que propongan procedimientos de trabajo seguros para dichos experimentos específicos [18].…”