Corporate financial decision makers' perceptions of their company's safety performance, programs and personnel: Do company size and industry injury risk matter?
OBJECTIVE
Top-level managers make important decisions about safety-related issues, yet little research has been done involving these individuals. The current study explored corporate financial decisions makers' perceptions of their company's safety and their justifications for these perceptions. This study also explored whether their perceptions and justifications varied as a function of company size or industry injury risk.


METHODS
A total of 404 individuals who were the most senior managers responsible for making decisions about property and casualty risk at their companies participated in this study.


METHODS
The participants took part in a telephone survey.


RESULTS
The results suggest that corporate financial decision makers have positive views of safety at their companies relative to safety at other companies within their industries. Further, many believe their company's safety is influenced by the attention/emphasis placed on safety and the selection and training of safety personnel. Participants' perceptions varied somewhat based on the size of their company and the level of injury risk in their industry.


CONCLUSIONS
While definitive conclusions about corporate financial decision makers' perceptions of safety cannot be reached as a result of this single study, this work does lay groundwork for future research aimed at better understanding the perceptions top-level managers.
DeArmond
Sarah
S
College of Business, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, USA. dearmons@uwosh.edu
Huang
Yueng-Hsiang
YH
Chen
Peter Y
PY
Courtney
Theodore K
TK
D000056:Accident Prevention; D000288:Administrative Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D005376:Financial Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D008297:Male; D016272:Occupational Health; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010465:Perception; D011362:Professional Corporations / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017751:Safety Management; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States