Safety climate in marble industry and its influence on safety performance and occupational accidents
Rojan Gümüş, Mustafa Ayhan, Bilal Gümüş
Abstract
To examine the influence of safety climate perception and safety performance on safety outcomes in the form of near misses and injuries a cross-sectional survey was conducted with 562 employees in twelve marble factories in Diyarbakır, Turkey. Study findings revealed that safety communication, management's safety commitment and safety training in the workplace influenced safety performance of workers most. Overall results suggest that improvement in the level of safety performance was associated with a reduction in accidents. Safety communication was the most significant dimension of safety climate to reduce near misses and injuries. When socio-demographics of employees were considered, the means of perception of safety systems in workplace was lower among younger groups. While participants from lower educated groups were more likely to care about safety performance, participants with high income were more likely to perceive management's safety commitment, safety training, and safety communication. These findings are important for management and employees of marble factories since they provide evidence about the factors that firms can consider to reduce occupational accidents and encourage safety performance in workplaces.