title: Multilevel models in the explanation of the relationship between safety climate and safe behavior.
abstract: This study examines the relationships between components of organizational safety climate, including employee attitudes to organizational safety issues; perceptions of the physical working environment, and evaluations of worker engagement with safety issues; and relates these to self-reported levels of safety behavior. It attempts to explore the relationships between these variables in 1189 workers across 78 work groups in a large transportation organization. Evaluations of safety climate, the working environment and worker engagement, as well as safe behaviors, were collected using a self report questionnaire. The multilevel analysis showed that both levels of evaluation (the work group and the individual), and some cross-level interactions, were significant in explaining safe behaviors. Analyses revealed that a number of variables, at both levels, were associated with worker engagement and safe behaviors. The results suggest that, while individual evaluations of safety issues are important, there is also a role for the fostering of collective safety climates in encouraging safe behaviors and therefore reducing accidents.
authors.affiliation: Loughborough University (UK).
authors.forename: Alistair
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cheyne
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tomás
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oliver
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D001519:Behavior; D004777:Environment; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D016272:Occupational Health; D015279:Organizational Culture; D012449:Safety; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014186:Transportation; D017132:Workplace; D055815:Young Adult