Safety climate in industrial organizations: Theoretical and applied implications

Abstract

A 40-item measure of organizational climate for safety was constructed and validated in a stratified sample of 20 workers from each of 20 industrial organizations in Israel. This measure of climate reflects employees' perceptions about the relative importance of safe conduct in their occupational behavior. It can vary from highly positive to a neutral level, and its average level reflects the safety climate in a given company. It is shown that there was an agreement among Ss' perceptions regarding safety climate in their company and that the level of this climate was correlated with safety program effectiveness as judged by safety inspectors. The 2 dimensions of highest importance in determining the level of this climate were Ss' perceptions of management attitudes about safety and their own perceptions regarding the relevance of safety in general production processes. It is proposed that organizational climate, when operationalized and validated as demonstrated in this article, can serve as a useful tool in understanding occupational behavior. (25 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)