title: The Safety Culture Enactment Questionnaire (SCEQ): Theoretical model and empirical validation.
abstract: This paper presents the Safety Culture Enactment Questionnaire (SCEQ), designed to assess the degree to which safety is an enacted value in the day-to-day running of nuclear power plants (NPPs). The SCEQ is based on a theoretical safety culture model that is manifested in three fundamental components of the functioning and operation of any organization: strategic decisions, human resources practices, and daily activities and behaviors. The extent to which the importance of safety is enacted in each of these three components provides information about the pervasiveness of the safety culture in the NPP. To validate the SCEQ and the model on which it is based, two separate studies were carried out with data collection in 2008 and 2014, respectively. In Study 1, the SCEQ was administered to the employees of two Spanish NPPs (N=533) belonging to the same company. Participants in Study 2 included 598 employees from the same NPPs, who completed the SCEQ and other questionnaires measuring different safety outcomes (safety climate, safety satisfaction, job satisfaction and risky behaviors). Study 1 comprised item formulation and examination of the factorial structure and reliability of the SCEQ. Study 2 tested internal consistency and provided evidence of factorial validity, validity based on relationships with other variables, and discriminant validity between the SCEQ and safety climate. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) carried out in Study 1 revealed a three-factor solution corresponding to the three components of the theoretical model. Reliability analyses showed strong internal consistency for the three scales of the SCEQ, and each of the 21 items on the questionnaire contributed to the homogeneity of its theoretically developed scale. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) carried out in Study 2 supported the internal structure of the SCEQ; internal consistency of the scales was also supported. Furthermore, the three scales of the SCEQ showed the expected correlation patterns with the measured safety outcomes. Finally, results provided evidence of discriminant validity between the SCEQ and safety climate. We conclude that the SCEQ is a valid, reliable instrument supported by a theoretical framework, and it is useful to measure the enactment of safety culture in NPPs.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute on Personnel Psychology, Organizational Development, and Quality of Working Life (IDOCAL), Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia, Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: borja.lopezdecastro@uv.es.
authors.forename: Borja López
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: de Castro
authors.affiliation: Research Institute on Personnel Psychology, Organizational Development, and Quality of Working Life (IDOCAL), Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia, Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: francisco.gracia@uv.es.
authors.forename: Francisco J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Gracia
authors.affiliation: Research Institute on Personnel Psychology, Organizational Development, and Quality of Working Life (IDOCAL), Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia, Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: ines.tomas@uv.es.
authors.forename: Inés
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tomás
authors.affiliation: Research Institute on Personnel Psychology, Organizational Development, and Quality of Working Life (IDOCAL), Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia, Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain; Valencian Institute of Economic Research (IVIE), C/Guardia Civil, 22 esc. 2 1°, 46020 Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: jose.m.peiro@uv.es.
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Peiró
mesh_terms: D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055848:Nuclear Power Plants / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012449:Safety; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Empirical validation; Enacted values; Nuclear industry; Nuclear power plant; Safety culture model; Safety culture questionnaire