Abstract
Previous studies have shown that safety climate, as the perceived priority in organizations, is associated with occupational accidents and injuries. Although a few safety climate measures have been developed to meet the needs of different industries in Taiwan, a general safety climate measure in Chinese is still not available. This study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of a Chinese safety climate measure translated from a shorter version of (Zohar and Luria’s Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 616-628, 2005) safety climate measure. After excluding 35 invalid responses, 513 employees working in 61 teams in four companies from the transportation (N = 108), high-tech (N = 253), construction (N = 95), and manufacturing (N = 57) industries participated in the current study, with a response rate of 92.54% (out of 590 distributed questionnaires). The results showed that a Chinese version of (Zohar and Luria’s Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 616-628, 2005) shortened safety climate measure had high reliability and satisfactory validity with safety motivation, safety-specific transformational leadership, safety behaviors (criterion-related validity), and other safety climate measures (convergent validity) at the individual and team levels. Therefore, this measure can be used as a reliable and effective assessment tool for monitoring occupational safety across industries in Taiwan.
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16 July 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03459-3
Notes
Due to one specific group having 95 members, we tested the robustness of the results by conducting a sensitivity analysis to compare the results between the data with and without this specific team. The ICC[1] estimates only slightly changed (from .10-.40, Nteams = 61 to .13-.45, Nteams = 60), which suggests the variables are meaningful team-level constructs and warrant aggregation to the team level.
Further, for Nteams = 60, the team-level correlation coefficients were either identical or trivially decreased by .01 while some levels of significance changed from .01 to .05. Overall, we confirmed that the conclusions remained the same when this specific team was excluded from data analysis.
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Funding
The research was made possible in part by a grant (MOST 106–2410-H-009-SSS) from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan.
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The original version of this article has been revised. The author name “Hao-Hsin Hsu” was incorrectly written as “Hao‑Hsing Hsu”.
Appendix
Appendix
Questionnaire (original English version and Chinese version)
Organization-Level Safety Climate
Top management in this plant– company... 我們公司(高層管理人員):
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1.
Tries to continually improve safety levels in each department. 會努力提升各部門的安全水準。
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2.
Quickly corrects any safety hazard (even if it’s costly). 會迅速改正任何危害工作安全的問題 (即使它的成本是很高的) 。
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3.
Requires each manager to help improve safety in his– her department. 會要求各主管協助改善其所屬部門的安全。
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4.
Uses any available information to improve existing safety rules. 會運用任何可用的資訊, 來改善現存的安全規則。
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5.
Listens carefully to workers’ ideas about improving safety. 會仔細傾聽員工對於改善工作安全的意見。
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6.
Considers safety when setting production speed and schedules. 在設定生產速度和時程時, 會將安全列入考慮。
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7.
Provides workers with a lot of information on safety issues. 會提供給員工很多安全議題上的資訊。
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8.
Gives safety personnel the power they need to do their job. 給予安全部門人員所需要的權力, 使他們能夠執行工作。
Group-Level Safety Climate. My direct supervisor... 我的直屬主管:
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1.
Frequently checks to see if we are all obeying the safety rules. 會經常檢查我們所有的員工是否都有遵守安全規則。
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2.
Discusses how to improve safety with us. 會和我們一起討論如何來改善我們工作安全。
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3.
Uses explanations (not just compliance) to get us to act safely. 在要求我們要有安全的工作行為時, 會提供相關的解釋 (不單只是要求我們服從) 。
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4.
Emphasizes safety procedures when we are working under pressure. 在當我們處於壓力下工作時, 會更加強調安全的程序。
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5.
Frequently tells us about the hazards in our work. 會經常告訴我們, 在我們的工作中可能發生的危險。
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6.
Reminds workers who need reminders to work safely. 會提醒(需要被提醒的)員工, 要求他們要安全的工作。
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7.
Makes sure we follow all the safety rules (not just the most important ones). (excluded from GSC-8) 會確保我們遵守所有的安全規則 (不只是最重要的幾點) 。
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8.
Insists that we obey safety rules when fixing equipment or machines. (excluded from GSC-8) 在我們修理裝備或機械時, 會堅持我們要遵守相關的安全規則。
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9.
Is strict about safety at the end of the shift, when we want to go home. 在我們換班想要回家時, 對安全方面的要求仍秉持嚴格的態度。
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10.
Spends time helping us learn to see problems before they arise. (excluded from GSC-8) 會花時間協助我們學習, 能在安全問題出現之前查覺它。
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11.
Frequently talks about safety issues throughout the work week. 在整個工作期間, 會頻繁的討論有關安全的議題。
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Kao, KY., Hsu, HH., Li, CH. et al. Validation of a Chinese version of Zohar and Luria’s shortened safety climate measure. Curr Psychol 42, 19740–19750 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03113-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03113-y