The Structure of Safety Climates and its Effects on Workers' Attitudes and Work Safety at Japanese Construction Work Sites

Abstract

In this study, the nature of safety climates at construction work sites and workers' safety attitudes was ascertained, and the effect of safety climates on workers' safety attitudes and work site safety was examined. A self-rating questionnaire prepared for this study was delivered to 300 employees who were working at construction sites and 300 foremen of affiliated companies. Eight factors were extracted for the safety climate of work sites. Similarly, by factor analysis, eight factors were obtained from workers' safety attitudes, including four factors representing positive aspects of safety attitudes and four negative safety attitudes. The scores of negative safety attitudes in companies with fewer labor accidents were smaller than those in companies with more accidents. Negative safety attitudes were affected by safety climate more than positive ones, and this tendency was more remarkable for foremen than employees. These results suggest the importance of promoting safety climates for raising workers' safety attitudes and work site safety by diminishing negative safety attitudes.

Examining the Dimensions of Hospital Safety Climate and Psychosocial Risk Factors Among Japanese Nurses

“…Other investigations have suggested that Japanese safety climate may be affected by managerial dimensions. In their study of construction workers, for example, Shoji and Egawa (2006) revealed that negative safety attitudes were affected by safety climate more than positive ones, although the tendency was more pronounced among foremen than workers.…”

“…Similar to Zohar's original work, some of the earliest safety climate research conducted in Japan also targeted bluecollar workforces, namely, the construction industry (Shoji & Egawa, 2006). Safety climate has now been used to investigate a variety of workplace issues in health care, with research not limited to exposure incidents (Gershon et al, 2007).…”

Work safety climate and safety practices among immigrant Latino residential construction workers

“…Specifically, roofers report a much lower work safety climate than do participants who are framers or general construction workers. Previous research examining work safety climate among construction workers has considered differences by personal characteristics, union status, work site, and in specific trades [Gillen et al, 2002; Shoji and Egawa, 2006; Choudhry et al, 2009; Kaskutas et al, 2009]. This is the first to compare work safety climate by trade.…”

“…Work safety climate is often associated with occupational safety performance and reduced occupational injuries [Neal and Griffin, 2002; Zohar, 2010]. Among construction workers, work safety climate has been shown to be related to work pressure demands, and to the frequency and severity of injuries and fatalities [Gillen et al, 2002; Shoji and Egawa, 2006; Choudhry et al, 2007]. However, little attention has been paid to work safety climate among Latino construction workers.…”

Work safety climate, personal protection use, and injuries among Latino residential roofers

“…Positive work safety climate is associated with occupational safety performance and reduced occupational injuries [Neal and Griffin, ; Zohar, ]. Work safety climate is related to work demands, and to the frequency and severity of injuries among construction workers [Gillen et al, ; Shoji and Egawa, ; Choudhry et al, , ]. Immigrant Latino construction workers' beliefs about the importance of high productivity to maintain employment and about the importance of loyalty to supervisors [Arcury et al, ], together with the understanding that men should accept risk [Arcury et al, ], indicates that their evaluation of the value a supervisor places on safety will strongly influence their behavior.…”