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International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/nics20
Relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and crashes a
b
c
d
Sakineh Varmazyar , Seyed Bagher Mortazavi , Shirazeh Arghami & Ebrahim Hajizadeh a
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University and Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran b
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran c
Click for updates
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran d
Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Published online: 10 Dec 2014.
To cite this article: Sakineh Varmazyar, Seyed Bagher Mortazavi, Shirazeh Arghami & Ebrahim Hajizadeh (2014): Relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and crashes, International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, DOI: 10.1080/17457300.2014.947296 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2014.947296
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2014.947296
Relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and crashes Sakineh Varmazyara, Seyed Bagher Mortazavib*, Shirazeh Arghamic and Ebrahim Hajizadehd a
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University and Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; bDepartment of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; cDepartment of Occupational Health Engineering, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran; d Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 02:39 22 December 2014
(Received 1 March 2014; accepted 18 July 2014) Knowing about organisational safety culture in public transportation system can provide an appropriate guide to establish effective safety measures and interventions to improve safety at work. The aim of this study was investigation of association between safety culture dimensions (leadership styles and company values, usage of crashes information and prevention programmes, management commitment and safety policy, participation and control) with involved selfreported crashes. The associations were considered through Spearman correlation, Pearson chi-square test and logistic regression. The results showed an association among self-reported crashes (occurrence or non-occurrence) and factors including leadership styles and company values; management commitment and safety policy; and control. Moreover, it was found a negative correlation and an odds ratio less than one between control and self-reported crashes. Keywords: safety culture; public transportation; crash
1. Introduction Safety culture is a subset of organisational culture (Cooper, 2000) which is the values shared among organisation members about what the organisation has (i.e. policies and regulation), what people do (i.e. safety-related behaviours) and how people feel (Cooper, 2000; Wiegmann, von Thaden, & Gibbons, 2007). Safety culture affects attitudes and safety-related behaviour of the members of an organisation (Cooper, 2000; Wu, Lin, & Shiau, 2010), employees’ health and safety (Fernandez-Muniz, Montes-Peon, & Vazquez-Ordas, 2007) and safety consequences such as injuries, fatalities and other incidents (Wu, Lin, & Shiau, 2009). Commitments to safety in organisations by upper management provide resources to develop and implement safety measures. Therefore, beliefs, attitudes and practices emphasise on minimum exposure of employees to hazards. Moreover, the attitudes of company to safety and precautions have negative effects on accident rates (Dorn, 2008). 1.1.
Studies on the relationship between safe practices and crash involvement Pertaining to driving practices and accident, the findings indicated that unsafe driving behaviours and higher crash involvement rates were among work-related drivers in comparison with drivers who use their own vehicles. The *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Ó 2014 Taylor & Francis
higher rates of work-related crashes have been reported due to fewer check practices being performed, such as water in the radiator and pressure on the tyres. Also, some evidences showed that the transportation fleet safety policies and practices and safety climate perceptions in place within each organisation had a positive impact on the drivers’ behaviour (Newnam, Watson, & Murray, 2002; Wills, Watson, & Biggs, 2004). Some studies showed a significant negative correlation between traffic safety, work safety, violations and errors with the number of acci€ dents among professional drivers (Dorn, 2008; Ozkan & Lajunen, 2005). Other studies have shown that strong safety culture resulted in higher safety climate perception among the members, which can predict their perceived safe behaviours (Martınez-Corcoles, Gracia, Tomas, & Peiro, 2011). Finally, unrealistic time schedules of companies contributes to crash involvement, and in fact time limitation increases crash risk (Dorn, 2012). As the safety culture indicators are related to accident rates (Itoh, Andersen, & Seki, 2004), it is a pivotal factor to achieve organisational safety (Naevestad, 2010). On the other hand, little research has been conducted about the relationship between safety culture in public transportation and crashes, the main object of this research was to investigate the relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and self-reported crash involvement (the occurrence and non-occurrence).
2
S. Varmazyar et al.
Table 1. A summary of the exploratory factor analysis results. Factors
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 02:39 22 December 2014
Leadership styles and company values (10 items)
Usage of crashes information and Prevention programmes (7 items)
Management commitment and safety policy (6 items)
Items
Factor loading
(1) In this company, there are safety instructions for working with vehicles. (2) My supervisor encourages drivers to offer their suggestions to improve transport safety. (3) My supervisor will provide explanations about the safe transport objectives and programmes. (4) My supervisor will identify my work errors and teach me to correct them. (5) The company gives importance to the sincerity and participation of all drivers in collecting information about driving crashes. (6) The company gives importance to drivers’ initiative in finding new solutions to safe transport. (7) The company gives importance to drivers’ collaboration and participation to promote safety. (8) Drivers are informed about safety rules and instructions. (9) The objectives, benefits and problems related to safe and unsafe transport are described to drivers. (10) Meetings are held to inform the drivers about the potential hazards of driving crashes and on how to prevent them. (11) Training courses are held for drivers about work-related health issues. (12) In this company, specialised training courses are held about the use of tools and safety equipment. (13) Crash prevention programmes are set in accordance with the anticipated hazards. (14) Crash prevention programmes are shared with drivers. (15) The results of driving crash investigations are used to solve transport problems. (16) The results of driving crash investigations are used to inform the drivers about the consequences of breaking rules. (17) The results of driving crash investigations are used to determine training demands and programmes. (18) The company managers provide financial and human resource requirements for the implementation of safety principles.
0.48
Variance explained
Eigenvalues >1
34.6
14.5
0.55
0.67
0.49
0.69
0.48
0.41
0.66 0.48
0.65
0.44 0.70
0.67
0.65 0.50
5.35
2.24
0.48
0.44
0.66
(continued)
International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion
3
Table 1. (Continued )
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 02:39 22 December 2014
Factors
Participation (3 items)
Control (3 items)
Items
Factor loading
(19) In this company, drivers’ safety is important in the workplace. (20) In this company, the managers believe it is their duty to pay attention to the vehicle safety. (21) In this company, managers discuss safety issues of the current programmes with drivers in the meetings. (22) The company has its own special operational policies and procedure in the context of health and safety transport. (23) The company tries to make the drivers satisfied about the safety of transport (vehicle and route). (24) The drivers’ experiences who have been involved in crashes are used to identify better solutions for safe transport. (25) Drivers’ opinions and suggestions are used in creating instructions for safe transport. (26) When the safety decision is made in company, meetings are held between officials and drivers to increase motivation in drivers. (27) In this company, driving crashes are reported, recorded, and analysed. (28) The previous successful programmes and solutions are examined to solve transport problems. (29) To ensure the effective performance of the company, technical and safety inspections are regularly performed on all the vehicles and routes.
0.68 0.60
Variance explained
Eigenvalues >1
4.56
1.91
3.93
1.65
3.22
1.35
0.62
0.48
0.41
0.53
0.57
0.54
0.71
0.41
0.46
Note: Extraction method: principal axis factoring; rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalisation arotation converged in 18 iterations.
2. Methods 2.1.
Design of the questionnaire, participants and procedure The results of the previous studies can be used to develop a new questionnaire (Guldenmund, 2007). Thus, safety culture questionnaire (SCQ) derived from the published papers available in the literature (Dıaz-Cabrera, HernandezFernaud, & Isla-Dıaz, 2007; Fernandez-Muniz et al., 2007; Wiegmann et al., 2007) thesis (Chenhall, 2010) and some occupational health professors, PhD students and Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) experts offered questions. In this study, 628 bus drivers were randomly selected by line supervisors of the bus company based on personnel code. An identification code was added to the
questionnaire (demographic and safety culture) for matching the responses to assess repeatability. The researchers explained the purpose of the study in a session with drivers and ask them to complete the questionnaires. The majority of drivers (n D 556, 88.5%) agreed to participate the in study; the response rate was compatible. Some studies (Hours et al., 2008; Taylor & Dorn, 2006; Varmazyar, Mortazavi, Arghami, & Hajizadeh, 2013) have shown that diseases and family problems can result in crashes. 388 subjects (69.8%) were excluded from the study due to fatigue, taking medication, some disease and family problems. Thus, 168 (30.2%) questionnaires were examined to determine the role of safety culture in crashes.
4 2.2.
S. Varmazyar et al. Measures
2.2.1. Demographic and crash information Drivers were asked to fill out a questionnaire which contained items about age, education, marital status and the number of all crashes at work over the last three years. Drivers’ age ranged from 30 to 50 years with mean 39.3 § 5.1 years. All participants were male and 99.4% were married. 63.7% of drivers had high school or higher degrees. The mean score and standard deviation of involvement in crashes in the last three years were 2.9 § 3.1.
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 02:39 22 December 2014
2.2.2.
Validity, reliability and determination of safety culture dimensions Face validity (judgment about syntax, organisation and appropriateness of 64 items of the primary questionnaire) (DeVon et al., 2007), content validity ratio (CVR) (surveying necessity of items) and content validity index (CVI) (score for the entire instrument) (Lawshe, 1975) have been investigated by 15 experts. CVR scores ranged from 0 (not necessary) to 2 (necessary). The experts’ panel included occupational health professors and PhD candidates, HSE (health, safety and environment) and psychologists. CVR is calculated according to the following formula: CVR ¼
ne ¡
N 2
N 2
where ne is the number of experts who rated an item as ‘essential’ and N is the total number of experts. According to the criterion values provided by Lawshe (1975), acceptable range CVR is equal to or larger than 0.49 for the 15 panelists. In other words, CVR obtained from the above formula should be equal or larger than the CVR value of 0.49 for each item (Lawshe, 1975). Based on the CVR value, 22 items with CVR
International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/nics20
Relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and crashes a
b
c
d
Sakineh Varmazyar , Seyed Bagher Mortazavi , Shirazeh Arghami & Ebrahim Hajizadeh a
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University and Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran b
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran c
Click for updates
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran d
Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran Published online: 10 Dec 2014.
To cite this article: Sakineh Varmazyar, Seyed Bagher Mortazavi, Shirazeh Arghami & Ebrahim Hajizadeh (2014): Relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and crashes, International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, DOI: 10.1080/17457300.2014.947296 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2014.947296
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457300.2014.947296
Relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and crashes Sakineh Varmazyara, Seyed Bagher Mortazavib*, Shirazeh Arghamic and Ebrahim Hajizadehd a
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University and Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; bDepartment of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran; cDepartment of Occupational Health Engineering, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran; d Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 02:39 22 December 2014
(Received 1 March 2014; accepted 18 July 2014) Knowing about organisational safety culture in public transportation system can provide an appropriate guide to establish effective safety measures and interventions to improve safety at work. The aim of this study was investigation of association between safety culture dimensions (leadership styles and company values, usage of crashes information and prevention programmes, management commitment and safety policy, participation and control) with involved selfreported crashes. The associations were considered through Spearman correlation, Pearson chi-square test and logistic regression. The results showed an association among self-reported crashes (occurrence or non-occurrence) and factors including leadership styles and company values; management commitment and safety policy; and control. Moreover, it was found a negative correlation and an odds ratio less than one between control and self-reported crashes. Keywords: safety culture; public transportation; crash
1. Introduction Safety culture is a subset of organisational culture (Cooper, 2000) which is the values shared among organisation members about what the organisation has (i.e. policies and regulation), what people do (i.e. safety-related behaviours) and how people feel (Cooper, 2000; Wiegmann, von Thaden, & Gibbons, 2007). Safety culture affects attitudes and safety-related behaviour of the members of an organisation (Cooper, 2000; Wu, Lin, & Shiau, 2010), employees’ health and safety (Fernandez-Muniz, Montes-Peon, & Vazquez-Ordas, 2007) and safety consequences such as injuries, fatalities and other incidents (Wu, Lin, & Shiau, 2009). Commitments to safety in organisations by upper management provide resources to develop and implement safety measures. Therefore, beliefs, attitudes and practices emphasise on minimum exposure of employees to hazards. Moreover, the attitudes of company to safety and precautions have negative effects on accident rates (Dorn, 2008). 1.1.
Studies on the relationship between safe practices and crash involvement Pertaining to driving practices and accident, the findings indicated that unsafe driving behaviours and higher crash involvement rates were among work-related drivers in comparison with drivers who use their own vehicles. The *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Ó 2014 Taylor & Francis
higher rates of work-related crashes have been reported due to fewer check practices being performed, such as water in the radiator and pressure on the tyres. Also, some evidences showed that the transportation fleet safety policies and practices and safety climate perceptions in place within each organisation had a positive impact on the drivers’ behaviour (Newnam, Watson, & Murray, 2002; Wills, Watson, & Biggs, 2004). Some studies showed a significant negative correlation between traffic safety, work safety, violations and errors with the number of acci€ dents among professional drivers (Dorn, 2008; Ozkan & Lajunen, 2005). Other studies have shown that strong safety culture resulted in higher safety climate perception among the members, which can predict their perceived safe behaviours (Martınez-Corcoles, Gracia, Tomas, & Peiro, 2011). Finally, unrealistic time schedules of companies contributes to crash involvement, and in fact time limitation increases crash risk (Dorn, 2012). As the safety culture indicators are related to accident rates (Itoh, Andersen, & Seki, 2004), it is a pivotal factor to achieve organisational safety (Naevestad, 2010). On the other hand, little research has been conducted about the relationship between safety culture in public transportation and crashes, the main object of this research was to investigate the relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and self-reported crash involvement (the occurrence and non-occurrence).
2
S. Varmazyar et al.
Table 1. A summary of the exploratory factor analysis results. Factors
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 02:39 22 December 2014
Leadership styles and company values (10 items)
Usage of crashes information and Prevention programmes (7 items)
Management commitment and safety policy (6 items)
Items
Factor loading
(1) In this company, there are safety instructions for working with vehicles. (2) My supervisor encourages drivers to offer their suggestions to improve transport safety. (3) My supervisor will provide explanations about the safe transport objectives and programmes. (4) My supervisor will identify my work errors and teach me to correct them. (5) The company gives importance to the sincerity and participation of all drivers in collecting information about driving crashes. (6) The company gives importance to drivers’ initiative in finding new solutions to safe transport. (7) The company gives importance to drivers’ collaboration and participation to promote safety. (8) Drivers are informed about safety rules and instructions. (9) The objectives, benefits and problems related to safe and unsafe transport are described to drivers. (10) Meetings are held to inform the drivers about the potential hazards of driving crashes and on how to prevent them. (11) Training courses are held for drivers about work-related health issues. (12) In this company, specialised training courses are held about the use of tools and safety equipment. (13) Crash prevention programmes are set in accordance with the anticipated hazards. (14) Crash prevention programmes are shared with drivers. (15) The results of driving crash investigations are used to solve transport problems. (16) The results of driving crash investigations are used to inform the drivers about the consequences of breaking rules. (17) The results of driving crash investigations are used to determine training demands and programmes. (18) The company managers provide financial and human resource requirements for the implementation of safety principles.
0.48
Variance explained
Eigenvalues >1
34.6
14.5
0.55
0.67
0.49
0.69
0.48
0.41
0.66 0.48
0.65
0.44 0.70
0.67
0.65 0.50
5.35
2.24
0.48
0.44
0.66
(continued)
International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion
3
Table 1. (Continued )
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 02:39 22 December 2014
Factors
Participation (3 items)
Control (3 items)
Items
Factor loading
(19) In this company, drivers’ safety is important in the workplace. (20) In this company, the managers believe it is their duty to pay attention to the vehicle safety. (21) In this company, managers discuss safety issues of the current programmes with drivers in the meetings. (22) The company has its own special operational policies and procedure in the context of health and safety transport. (23) The company tries to make the drivers satisfied about the safety of transport (vehicle and route). (24) The drivers’ experiences who have been involved in crashes are used to identify better solutions for safe transport. (25) Drivers’ opinions and suggestions are used in creating instructions for safe transport. (26) When the safety decision is made in company, meetings are held between officials and drivers to increase motivation in drivers. (27) In this company, driving crashes are reported, recorded, and analysed. (28) The previous successful programmes and solutions are examined to solve transport problems. (29) To ensure the effective performance of the company, technical and safety inspections are regularly performed on all the vehicles and routes.
0.68 0.60
Variance explained
Eigenvalues >1
4.56
1.91
3.93
1.65
3.22
1.35
0.62
0.48
0.41
0.53
0.57
0.54
0.71
0.41
0.46
Note: Extraction method: principal axis factoring; rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalisation arotation converged in 18 iterations.
2. Methods 2.1.
Design of the questionnaire, participants and procedure The results of the previous studies can be used to develop a new questionnaire (Guldenmund, 2007). Thus, safety culture questionnaire (SCQ) derived from the published papers available in the literature (Dıaz-Cabrera, HernandezFernaud, & Isla-Dıaz, 2007; Fernandez-Muniz et al., 2007; Wiegmann et al., 2007) thesis (Chenhall, 2010) and some occupational health professors, PhD students and Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) experts offered questions. In this study, 628 bus drivers were randomly selected by line supervisors of the bus company based on personnel code. An identification code was added to the
questionnaire (demographic and safety culture) for matching the responses to assess repeatability. The researchers explained the purpose of the study in a session with drivers and ask them to complete the questionnaires. The majority of drivers (n D 556, 88.5%) agreed to participate the in study; the response rate was compatible. Some studies (Hours et al., 2008; Taylor & Dorn, 2006; Varmazyar, Mortazavi, Arghami, & Hajizadeh, 2013) have shown that diseases and family problems can result in crashes. 388 subjects (69.8%) were excluded from the study due to fatigue, taking medication, some disease and family problems. Thus, 168 (30.2%) questionnaires were examined to determine the role of safety culture in crashes.
4 2.2.
S. Varmazyar et al. Measures
2.2.1. Demographic and crash information Drivers were asked to fill out a questionnaire which contained items about age, education, marital status and the number of all crashes at work over the last three years. Drivers’ age ranged from 30 to 50 years with mean 39.3 § 5.1 years. All participants were male and 99.4% were married. 63.7% of drivers had high school or higher degrees. The mean score and standard deviation of involvement in crashes in the last three years were 2.9 § 3.1.
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 02:39 22 December 2014
2.2.2.
Validity, reliability and determination of safety culture dimensions Face validity (judgment about syntax, organisation and appropriateness of 64 items of the primary questionnaire) (DeVon et al., 2007), content validity ratio (CVR) (surveying necessity of items) and content validity index (CVI) (score for the entire instrument) (Lawshe, 1975) have been investigated by 15 experts. CVR scores ranged from 0 (not necessary) to 2 (necessary). The experts’ panel included occupational health professors and PhD candidates, HSE (health, safety and environment) and psychologists. CVR is calculated according to the following formula: CVR ¼
ne ¡
N 2
N 2
where ne is the number of experts who rated an item as ‘essential’ and N is the total number of experts. According to the criterion values provided by Lawshe (1975), acceptable range CVR is equal to or larger than 0.49 for the 15 panelists. In other words, CVR obtained from the above formula should be equal or larger than the CVR value of 0.49 for each item (Lawshe, 1975). Based on the CVR value, 22 items with CVR
