Testing the validity of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety culture model.
This paper takes the first steps to empirically validate the widely used model of safety culture of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), composed of five dimensions, further specified by 37 attributes. To do so, three independent and complementary studies are presented. First, 290 students serve to collect evidence about the face validity of the model. Second, 48 experts in organizational behavior judge its content validity. And third, 468 workers in a Spanish nuclear power plant help to reveal how closely the theoretical five-dimensional model can be replicated. Our findings suggest that several attributes of the model may not be related to their corresponding dimensions. According to our results, a one-dimensional structure fits the data better than the five dimensions proposed by the IAEA. Moreover, the IAEA model, as it stands, seems to have rather moderate content validity and low face validity. Practical implications for researchers and practitioners are included.
Research Institute on Personnel Psychology, Organizational Development, and Quality of Working Life (IDOCAL), University of Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: borja.lopezdecastro@uv.es.
Borja
B
López de Castro
Francisco J
FJ
Gracia
José M
JM
Peiró
Luca
L
Pietrantoni
Ana
A
Hernández
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007390:International Agencies / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009678:Nuclear Energy; D015279:Organizational Culture; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012449:Safety; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Empirical validation; HRO; Nuclear industry; Nuclear power plant; Safety culture; Safety performance