Safety Does Not Happen by Accident: Antecedents To A Safer Warehouse

Abstract

O n a daily basis, thousands of employees suffer from severe occupational accidents worldwide. These accidents not only lead to negative consequences for the physical and mental health of employees, but also to high costs for companies and the society as a whole. A large share of these accidents take place in warehouses. Prior research has demonstrated the critical role of leadership, and especially safety-specific transformational leadership (SSTL), in reducing warehouse accidents. Yet several important questions concerning SSTL remain: What effects does SSTL have on outcomes other than safety, and what determines whether leaders display SSTL behaviors? To answer these questions, this research studies the relationship between SSTL of warehouse managers and not only occupational accidents, but also quality and productivity. Moreover, it investigates the managers who are most likely to display SSTL. Data from 87 warehouse managers and 1233 employees were used to test the conceptual model. The results suggest that the dispositional prevention focus of the manager (one of two possible motivational strategies that people deploy) positively relates to SSTL, and that SSTL negatively relates to occupational accidents. Furthermore, SSTL and its identified negative relationship with occupational accidents does not appear to have detrimental impact on productivity or quality. These results extend existing models of SSTL and safety, and can help companies to reduce the number of accidents and the associated costs by selecting and developing safety-specific transformational leaders.

The consequences of self‐reporting biases: Evidence from the crash preventability program

“…The number of accidents is a useful measure because accidents are a direct outcome of unsafe systems and behavior. However, acquiring comprehensive data on accidents is challenging because self‐reported accidents are subject to a number of potential biases, including social desirability response bias (De Vries et al, 2016).…”

“…One potential method to overcome self‐reporting biases is to use objective data from third‐parties, such as government agencies (De Koster et al, 2011; De Vries et al, 2016; Pagell et al, 2015). However, if other information in a study comes from self‐reported surveys where there may be biases in the responses, endogenous selection bias will exist.…”

Study for Innovative Contents of Accounting Professional Education in Circular Economy

“…In addition, the cost of individual special enterprises must also be included in the cost control system. For example, the resources consumed by enterprises in high-dangerous industries to prevent production accidents should be listed as safety costs [6]. All the above-mentioned innovative aspects of cost should be reflected in the professional education of various accountants.…”

Who is More Injury‐Prone? Prediction and Assessment of Injury Risk

“…mining, manufacturing, warehousing) (Hoppe, Fujishiro, & Heaney, ). Workplace features such as safety climate (Probst et al., ), trade (Baradan & Usmen, ), leadership (Vries, Koster, & Stam, ), and ethnic climate (Hoppe et al., ) have been shown to influence injury risk in workplaces.…”

“…mining, manufacturing, warehousing) (Hoppe, Fujishiro, & Heaney, 2014). Workplace features such as safety climate (Probst et al, 2008), trade (Baradan & Usmen, 2006), leadership (Vries, Koster, & Stam, 2016), and ethnic climate (Hoppe et al, 2014) have been shown to influence injury risk in workplaces. Task-related characteristics include factors such as ergonomic design, task characteristics (e.g., hazard level, cognitive complexity, physical effort), task exposure, equipment quality, IS technology design factors (e.g., interface design, usability features), multitasking, loading factors, mental overload, task response, information sharing, handoff (e.g., shift change), number of transfers, etc.…”