The role of employee perceptions of safety priorities on safety outcomes across organisational levels.

Research has shown that safety climate predicts safety outcomes in various occupational settings. One important component of safety climate is employees' perceived priorities of safety in an organisation relative to other operational demands (e.g. productivity or efficiency). The relationships between three dimensions of employee perceptions of safety priorities (company, supervisor, worker), employee safety behaviour and self-reported injury outcomes were examined in the current study. Survey data were collected from 858 field workers (a response rate of 89%) at a TV-cable installation company. Results showed that all three dimensions of employee perceptions of safety priorities had significant and unique positive relationships with employee safety behaviour. Furthermore, safety behaviour was a significant mediator of the relationship between the three types of perceived safety priorities and missed work days due to workplace injury. The results showed the value of addressing employee perceptions of safety priorities across organisational levels when trying to improve workplace safety and reduce costly injuries. Practitioner Summary: The study examined relationships between the three different organisational levels of employee perceptions of safety priorities and employee safety behaviour and injury outcomes. The results demonstrated the value of addressing employee perceptions of safety priorities held by different levels of management as well as the worker level to improve workplace safety and reduce costly injuries. Abbreviations: AIC: Akaike Information Criterion; BIC: Bayesian Information Criterion; CFA: confirmatory factor analysis; CFI: comparative fit index; CI: confidence interval; NAICS: the North American Industry Classification System; RMSEA: root mean square errors of approximation; SB: safety behavior; SD: standard deviation; SE: standard error; SIC: the standard industrial class; SP: safety priority.

Use of portable ladders - field observations and self-reported safety performance in the cable TV industry.

Portable ladders incidents remain a major cause of falls from heights. This study reported field observations of environments, work conditions and safety behaviour involving portable ladders and their correlations with self-reported safety performance. Seventy-five professional installers of a company in the cable and other pay TV industry were observed for 320 ladder usages at their worksites. The participants also filled out a questionnaire to measure self-reported safety performance. Proper setup on slippery surfaces, correct method for ladder inclination setup and ladder secured at the bottom had the lowest compliance with best practices and training guidelines. The observation compliance score was found to have significant correlation with straight ladder inclined angle (Pearson's r = 0.23, p < 0.0002) and employees' self-reported safety participation (r = 0.29, p < 0.01). The results provide a broad perspective on employees' safety compliance and identify areas for improving safety behaviours. Practitioner Summary: A checklist was used while observing professional installers of a cable company for portable ladder usage at their worksites. Items that had the lowest compliance with best practices and training guidelines were identified. The results provide a broad perspective on employees' safety compliance and identify areas for improving safety behaviours.

The relationship among computer work, environmental design, and musculoskeletal and visual discomfort: examining the moderating role of supervisory relations and co-worker support.

PURPOSE: The prevalence of work-related upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders and visual symptoms reported in the USA has increased dramatically during the past two decades. This study examined the factors of computer use, workspace design, psychosocial factors, and organizational ergonomics resources on musculoskeletal and visual discomfort and their impact on the safety and health of computer work employees. METHODS: A large-scale, cross-sectional survey was administered to a US manufacturing company to investigate these relationships (n = 1259). Associations between these study variables were tested along with moderating effects framed within a conceptual model. RESULTS: Significant relationships were found between computer use and psychosocial factors of co-worker support and supervisory relations with visual and musculoskeletal discomfort. Co-worker support was found to be significantly related to reports of eyestrain, headaches, and musculoskeletal discomfort. Supervisor relations partially moderated the relationship between workspace design satisfaction and visual and musculoskeletal discomfort. CONCLUSION: This study provides guidance for developing systematic, preventive measures and recommendations in designing office ergonomics interventions with the goal of reducing musculoskeletal and visual discomfort while enhancing office and computer workers' performance and safety.

Straight ladder inclined angle in a field environment: the relationship among actual angle, method of set-up and knowledge.

Ladder inclined angle is a critical factor that could lead to a slip at the base of portable straight ladders, a major cause of falls from heights. Despite several methods established to help workers achieve the recommended 75.5° angle for ladder set-up, it remains unclear if these methods are used in practice. This study explored ladder set-up behaviours in a field environment. Professional installers of a company in the cable and other pay TV industry were observed for ladder set-up at their worksites. The results showed that the actual angles of 265 ladder set-ups by 67 participants averaged 67.3° with a standard deviation of 3.22°. Although all the participants had training on recommended ladder set-up methods, only 3 out of 67 participants applied these methods in their daily work and even they failed to achieve the desired 75.5° angle. Therefore, ladder set-up remains problematic in real-world situations. Practitioner Summary: Professional installers of a cable company were observed for portable straight ladder set-up at their worksites. The ladder inclined angle averaged 67.3° with a standard deviation of 3.22°, while the recommended angle is 75.5°. Only a few participants used the methods that they learned during training in their daily work.

A structural equation modelling approach examining the pathways between safety climate, behaviour performance and workplace slipping.

OBJECTIVE: Safety climate has previously been associated with increasing safe workplace behaviours and decreasing occupational injuries. This study seeks to understand the structural relationship between employees' perceptions of safety climate, performing a safety behaviour (ie, wearing slip-resistant shoes) and risk of slipping in the setting of limited-service restaurants. METHODS: At baseline, we surveyed 349 employees at 30 restaurants for their perceptions of their safety training and management commitment to safety as well as demographic data. Safety performance was identified as wearing slip-resistant shoes, as measured by direct observation by the study team. We then prospectively collected participants' hours worked and number of slips weekly for the next 12 weeks. Using a confirmatory factor analysis, we modelled safety climate as a higher order factor composed of previously identified training and management commitment factors. RESULTS: The 349 study participants experienced 1075 slips during the 12-week follow-up. Confirmatory factor analysis supported modelling safety climate as a higher order factor composed of safety training and management commitment. In a structural equation model, safety climate indirectly affected prospective risk of slipping through safety performance, but no direct relationship between safety climate and slips was evident. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that safety climate can reduce workplace slips through performance of a safety behaviour as well as suggesting a potential causal mechanism through which safety climate can reduce workplace injuries. Safety climate can be modelled as a higher order factor composed of safety training and management commitment.

The Job Accommodation Scale (JAS): psychometric evaluation of a new measure of employer support for temporary job modifications.

INTRODUCTION: An employer offer of temporary job modification is a key strategy for facilitating return-to-work for musculoskeletal conditions, but there are no validated scales to assess the level of support for temporary job modifications across a range of job types and organizations. OBJECTIVE: To pilot test a new 21-item self-report measure [the Job Accommodation Scale (JAS)] to assess its applicability, internal consistency, factor structure, and relation to physical job demands. METHODS: Supervisors (N = 804, 72.8 % male, mean age = 46) were recruited from 19 employment settings in the USA and Canada and completed a 30-min online survey regarding job modification practices. As part of the survey, supervisors nominated and described a job position they supervised and completed the JAS for a hypothetical worker (in that position) with an episode of low back pain. Job characteristics were derived from the occupational informational network job classification database. RESULTS: The full response range (1-4) was utilized on all 21 items, with no ceiling or floor effects. Avoiding awkward postures was the most feasible accommodation and moving the employee to a different site or location was the least feasible. An exploratory factor analysis suggested five underlying factors (Modify physical workload; Modify work environment; Modify work schedule; Find alternate work; and Arrange for assistance), and there was an acceptable goodness-of-fit for the five parceled sub-factor scores as a single latent construct in a measurement model (structural equation model). Job accommodations were less feasible for more physical jobs and for heavier industries. CONCLUSIONS: The pilot administration of the JAS with respect to a hypothetical worker with low back pain showed initial support for its applicability, reliability, and validity when administered to supervisors. Future studies should assess its validity for use in actual disability cases, for a range of health conditions, and to assess different stakeholder opinions about the feasibility of job accommodation strategies.

Duration of slip-resistant shoe usage and the rate of slipping in limited-service restaurants: results from a prospective and crossover study.

Several studies have indicated that slip-resistant shoes may have a positive effect on reducing the risk of slips and falls, a leading cause of injury at work. Few studies, however, have examined how duration of shoe usage affects their slip-resistance properties. This study examined the association between the duration of slip-resistant shoes usage and the self-reported rate of slipping in limited-service restaurant workers. A total of 475 workers from 36 limited-service restaurants in the USA were recruited to participate in a 12-week prospective study of workplace slipping. Of the 475 participants, 83 reported changing to a new pair of shoes at least once during the 12-week follow-up. The results show that slip-resistant shoes worn for less than six months were moderately more effective than those worn for more than six months. Changing to a new pair of shoes among those wearing slip-resistant shoes at baseline was associated with a 55% reduction in the rate of slipping (RR = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.23-0.89). Further research is needed to develop criteria for the replacement of slip-resistant shoes.

Safety Climate in the Utility Industry: Perceptual Discrepancies Across Organizational Hierarchy.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to extend safety climate research by considering perceptions across the following three hierarchical levels within a workplace: (1) senior leaders/executives, (2) field leaders/supervisors, and (3) front-line employees. METHODS: We conducted a quantitative survey study at a US utility company where we collected data related to safety climate perceptions and employee-reported safety behaviors across the different levels of organizational hierarchy. RESULTS: The findings revealed the highest safety climate scores among senior leaders/executives, followed by field leaders/supervisors, and then employees, suggesting potential discrepancies between espoused and enacted safety values in the workplace. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that supervisors and top managers may have different mental models of workplace safety compared with employees. Consequently, assessing perceptions at different organizational levels provides a fuller picture of safety in the workplace.

An interpretable clustering approach to safety climate analysis: Examining driver group distinctions.

The transportation industry, particularly the trucking sector, is prone to workplace accidents and fatalities. Accidents involving large trucks accounted for a considerable percentage of overall traffic fatalities. Recognizing the crucial role of safety climate in accident prevention, researchers have sought to understand its factors and measure its impact within organizations. While existing data-driven safety climate studies have made remarkable progress, clustering employees based on their safety climate perception is innovative and has not been extensively utilized in research. Identifying clusters of drivers based on their safety climate perception allows the organization to profile its workforce and devise more impactful interventions. The lack of utilizing the clustering approach could be due to difficulties interpreting or explaining the factors influencing employees' cluster membership. Moreover, existing safety-related studies did not compare multiple clustering algorithms, resulting in potential bias. To address these problems, this study introduces an interpretable clustering approach for safety climate analysis. This study compares five algorithms for clustering truck drivers based on their safety climate perceptions. It also proposes a novel method for quantitatively evaluating partial dependence plots (QPDP). Then, to better interpret the clustering results, this study introduces different interpretable machine learning measures (Shapley additive explanations, permutation feature importance, and QPDP). The Python code used in this study is available at https://github.com/NUS-DBE/truck-driver-safety-climate. This study explains the clusters based on the importance of different safety climate factors. Drawing on data collected from more than 7,000 American truck drivers, this study significantly contributes to the scientific literature. It highlights the critical role of supervisory care promotion in distinguishing various driver groups. Moreover, it showcases the advantages of employing machine learning techniques, such as cluster analysis, to enrich the scientific knowledge in this field. Future studies could involve experimental methods to assess strategies for enhancing supervisory care promotion, as well as integrating deep learning clustering techniques with safety climate evaluation.

Cardiovascular disease risk: it is complicated, but race and ethnicity are key, a Bayesian network analysis.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Despite the complexity of cardiovascular disease etiology, we do not fully comprehend the interactions between non-modifiable factors (e.g., age, sex, and race) and modifiable risk factors (e.g., health behaviors and occupational exposures). Objective: We examined proximal and distal drivers of cardiovascular disease and elucidated the interactions between modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Methods: We used a machine learning approach on four cohorts (2005-2012) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data to examine the effects of risk factors on cardiovascular risk quantified by the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) and the Pooled Cohort Equations (PCE). We estimated a network of risk factors, computed their strength centrality, closeness, and betweenness centrality, and computed a Bayesian network embodied in a directed acyclic graph. Results: In addition to traditional factors such as body mass index and physical activity, race and ethnicity and exposure to heavy metals are the most adjacent drivers of PCE. In addition to the factors directly affecting PCE, sleep complaints had an immediate adverse effect on FRS. Exposure to heavy metals is the link between race and ethnicity and FRS. Conclusion: Heavy metal exposures and race/ethnicity have similar proximal effects on cardiovascular disease risk as traditional clinical and lifestyle risk factors, such as physical activity and body mass. Our findings support the inclusion of diverse racial and ethnic groups in all cardiovascular research and the consideration of the social environment in clinical decision-making.

Perception of slipperiness and prospective risk of slipping at work.

OBJECTIVES: Falls are a leading cause of injury at work, and slipping is the predominant cause of falling. Prior research has suggested a modest correlation between objective measures (such as coefficient of friction, COF) and subjective measures of slipperiness (such as worker perceptions) in the workplace. However, the degree of association between subjective measures and the actual risk of slipping at the workplace is unknown. This study examined the association between perception of slipperiness and the risk of slipping. METHODS: 475 workers from 36 limited-service restaurants participated in a 12-week prospective cohort study. At baseline, demographic information was collected, participants rated floor slipperiness in eight areas of the restaurant, and work environment factors, such as COF, were measured. Restaurant-level and area-level mean perceptions of slipperiness were calculated. Participants then reported their slip experience at work on a weekly basis for the next 12 weeks. The associations between perception of slipperiness and the rate of slipping were assessed. RESULTS: Adjusting for age, gender, body mass index, education, primary language, mean COF, use of slip-resistant shoes, and restaurant chain, each 1-point increase in mean restaurant-level perception of slipperiness (4-point scale) was associated with a 2.71 times increase in the rate of slipping (95% CI 1.25 to 5.87). Results were similar for area-level perception within the restaurant (rate ratios (RR) 2.92, 95% CI 2.41 to 3.54). CONCLUSIONS: Perceptions of slipperiness and the subsequent rate of slipping were strongly associated. These findings suggest that safety professionals, risk managers and employers could use aggregated worker perceptions of slipperiness to identify slipping hazards and, potentially, to assess intervention effectiveness.

Factors associated with use of slip-resistant shoes in US limited-service restaurant workers.

OBJECTIVES: Slips and falls are a leading cause of injury at work. Several studies have indicated that slip-resistant shoes can reduce the risk of occupational slips and falls. Few studies, however, have examined the determinants of slip-resistant shoe use. This study examined the individual and workplace factors associated with slip-resistant shoe use. METHODS: 475 workers from 36 limited-service restaurants in the USA participated in a study of workplace slipping. Demographic and job characteristic information about each participant was collected. Restaurant managers provided information on whether slip-resistant shoes were provided and paid for by the employer and whether any guidance was given regarding slip-resistant shoe use when they were not provided. Kitchen floor coefficient of friction was measured. Slip-resistant status of the shoes was determined by noting the presence of a 'slip-resistant' marking on the sole. Poisson regression with robust SE was used to calculate prevalence ratios. RESULTS: 320 participants wore slip-resistant shoes (67%). In the multivariate analysis, the prevalence of slip-resistant shoe use was lowest in 15-19-year age group. Women were more likely to wear slip-resistant shoes (prevalence ratio 1.18, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.31). The prevalence of slip-resistant shoe use was lower when no guidance regarding slip-resistant shoes was given as compared to when they were provided by the employer (prevalence ratio 0.66, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.79). Education level, job tenure and the mean coefficient of friction had no significant effects on the use of slip-resistant shoes. CONCLUSION: Provision of slip-resistant shoes was the strongest predictor of their use. Given their effectiveness and low cost, employers should consider providing slip-resistant shoes at work.

Virtual office intervention effectiveness: A systems approach.

BACKGROUND: Virtual office work, or telework/remote work, has existed since the 1970s due to the widespread availability of new technologies. Despite a dramatic increase in remote office work, few studies have examined its long-term effects on work environments and worker well-being. OBJECTIVE: A prospective field intervention study was undertaken to examine the effects of a Virtual Office program on office workers' psychosocial perceptions, mental and physical well-being, workplace satisfaction, and performance. METHOD: A large public service organization undertook a 12-month Virtual Office (VO) pilot program using a systems approach. The study included 137 VO employees (intervention condition), and 85 Conventional Office (CO) employees (control condition). The VO intervention used a work system approach consisting of establishing a steering committee, training programs, and VO resource website. Employee survey measures and follow-up focus group observations were used to examine the impact of the VO intervention. RESULTS: Virtual office participants reported higher job control, group interactions and cohesiveness, and quality of supervision than the CO participants. VO participants reported lower upper body musculoskeletal symptoms and physical/mental stress than CO participants. VO participants reported higher performance (customer satisfaction) than the CO participants. CONCLUSION: The study findings were sufficiently positive to provide a basis for work organizations to undertake similar pilot programs. Consideration of work system factors when designing an effective VO program can benefit employee's well-being and performance. The rationale for implementing VO programs is underscored by the current COVID-19 pandemic. VO work will continue to some degree for the foreseeable future.

A mixed-methods approach to examining safety climate among truck drivers.

The purpose of the current study was to use a mixed-methods approach to understanding safety climate and the strategies to improve safety climate among truck drivers. Using both survey (N = 7246) and interview (N = 18) responses provided by truck drivers regarding key safety climate items, the current study identified a number of positive and negative policies, procedures and practices that truck drivers perceived as the determinants of whether their organizations are committed to the promotion of safety at work. Item response theory (IRT) analyses were conducted to identify discrimination parameters indicating which safety climate items were most sensitive to the safety climate level. Discriminative items were identified at both the organization and group levels which can be used to evaluate safety climate and differentiate a high versus low safety climate across groups and organizations in the trucking industry. Based on our results, we also offer safety researchers and practitioners some recommendations on what and/or how to intervene with and promote organizational safety climate in the trucking industry.

The utility of a safety climate scale among workers with a work-related permanent impairment who have returned to work.

BACKGROUND: Safety climate (SC) is a robust leading indicator of occupational safety outcomes. There is, however, limited research on SC among workers who have returned to work with a work-related permanent impairment. OBJECTIVE: This study examined three propositions: (1) a two-level model of SC (group-level and organization-level SC) will provide the best fit to the data; (2) antecedent factors such as safety training, job demands, supervisor support, coworker support, and decision latitude will predict SC; and (3) previously reported associations between SC and outcomes such as reinjury, work-family conflict, job performance, and job security will be observed. METHOD: A representative cross-sectional survey gathered information about experiences during the first year of work reintegration. About one year after claim closure, 599 interviews with workers were conducted (53.8% response rate). Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test the factor structure of the SC construct. Further, researchers used correlation analyses to examine the criterion-related validity. RESULTS: Consistent with general worker populations, our findings suggest the following: (1) the two-factor structure of SC outperformed the single-factor structure in our population of workers with a permanent impairment; (2) correlations demonstrate that workplace safety training, decision latitude, supervisor support, coworker support, and job demands could predict SC; and (3) SC may positively impact reinjury risk, work-family conflict, and may increase job performance and job security. CONCLUSIONS: Our study validated a two-factor SC scale among workers with a history of disabling workplace injury or permanent impairment who have returned to work. Practical applications of this scale will equip organizations with the necessary data to improve working conditions for this population.

A prospective study of floor surface, shoes, floor cleaning and slipping in US limited-service restaurant workers.

OBJECTIVES: Slips and falls are a leading cause of injury at work. Few studies, however, have systematically examined risk factors of slipping outside the laboratory environment. This study examined the association between floor surface characteristics, slip-resistant shoes, floor cleaning frequency and the risk of slipping in limited-service restaurant workers. METHODS: 475 workers from 36 limited-service restaurants from three major chains in six states in the USA were recruited to participate in a prospective cohort study of workplace slipping. Kitchen floor surface roughness and coefficient of friction (COF) were measured in eight working areas and then averaged within each restaurant. The use of slip-resistant shoes was determined by examining the participant's shoes and noting the presence of a 'slip-resistant' marking on the sole. Restaurant managers reported the frequency of daily kitchen floor cleaning. Participants reported their slip experience and work hours weekly for up to 12 weeks. The survey materials were made available in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese. The associations between rate of slipping and risk factors were assessed using a multivariable negative binomial generalised estimating equation model. RESULTS: The mean of individual slipping rate varied among the restaurants from 0.02 to 2.49 slips per 40 work hours. After adjusting for age, gender, BMI, education, primary language, job tenure and restaurant chain, the use of slip-resistant shoes was associated with a 54% reduction in the reported rate of slipping (95% CI 37% to 64%), and the rate of slipping decreased by 21% (95% CI 5% to 34%) for each 0.1 increase in the mean kitchen COF. Increasing floor cleaning frequency was significantly associated with a decreasing rate of slipping when considered in isolation but not after statistical adjustment for other factors. CONCLUSION: These results provide support for the use of slip-resistant shoes and measures to increase COF as preventive interventions to reduce slips, falls and injuries.

Rushing, distraction, walking on contaminated floors and risk of slipping in limited-service restaurants: a case--crossover study.

OBJECTIVES: This nested case-crossover study examined the association between rushing, distraction and walking on a contaminated floor and the rate of slipping, and whether the effects varied according to weekly hours worked, job tenure and use of slip-resistant shoes. METHODS: At baseline, workers from 30 limited-service restaurants in the USA reported average work hours, average weekly duration of exposure to each transient risk factor and job tenure at the current location. Use of slip-resistant shoes was determined. During the following 12 weeks, participants reported weekly their slip experience and exposures to the three transient exposures at the time of slipping. The case-crossover design was used to estimate the rate ratios using the Mantel-Haenszel estimator for person-time data. RESULTS: Among 396 participants providing baseline information, 210 reported one or more slips with a total of 989 slips. Rate of slipping was 2.9 times higher when rushing as compared to working at a normal pace (95% CI 2.5 to 3.3). Rate of slipping was also significantly increased by distraction (rate ratio (RR) 1.7, 95% CI 1.5 to 2.0) and walking on a contaminated floor (RR 14.6, 95% CI 12.6 to 17.0). Use of slip-resistant shoes decreased the effects of rushing and walking on a contaminated floor. Rate ratios for all three transient factors decreased monotonically as job tenure increased. CONCLUSION: The results suggest the importance of these transient risk factors, particularly floor contamination, on rate of slipping in limited-service restaurant workers. Stable characteristics, such as slip-resistant shoes, reduced the effects of transient exposures.

Where to focus? Insights from safety personnel and external safety consultants on lessons learned about safety climate interventions - A qualitative approach.

INTRODUCTION: Safety climate is important for promoting workplace safety and health. However, there is a dearth of empirical research on the effective ways of planning, designing, and implementing safety climate interventions, especially regarding what is going to be changed and improved. To address this gap, the present study sought to extract a comprehensive pool of compiled suggestions for safety climate intervention based on qualitative interviews with professionals in occupational safety and health management from potentially hazardous industries. METHOD: A series of systematic semi-structured interviews, guided by a comprehensive sociotechnical systems framework, were conducted with company safety personnel (n = 26) and external safety consultants (n = 15) of 21 companies from various industries. The taxonomy of five work system components of the sociotechnical systems approach served as overarching themes, representing different areas of improvement in an organization for occupational safety and health promotion, with an aim of enhancing safety climate. RESULTS: Of the 36 codes identified, seven codes were based on the theme of external environment work system, four were based on the theme of internal environment work system, five were based on the theme of organizational and managerial structure work system, 14 codes were based on the theme of personnel subsystem, and six were based on the theme of technical subsystem. CONCLUSIONS: Safety climate intervention strategies might be most commonly based upon the principles of human resource management (i.e., codes based on the personnel subsystem theme and organizational and managerial structure work system theme). Meanwhile, numerous attributes of external/internal environment work system and technical subsystem can be jointly improved to bolster safety climate in a holistic way. Practical Applications: More systematic and organized management of safety climate would be available when various interrelated codes pertinent to a given context are carefully considered for a safety climate intervention.

Key drivers of trucking safety climate from the perspective of leader-member exchange: Bayesian network predictive modeling approach.

PURPOSE: Safety climate, which is defined as workers' shared perceptions of organizational policies, procedures, and practices as they relate to the true or relative value and importance of safety within an organization, is one of the best indicators of organizational safety outcomes. This study identifies key drivers of safety climate from the perspective of leader-member exchange (LMX). LMX is a theory describing the nature and processes of social interactions between a supervisor and a subordinate. This study examines the impact of individual drivers and combinations of drivers on safety climate through Bayesian Network simulations to predict practices which most effectively improve safety climate in the trucking industry. METHOD: Survey data were collected from 5083 truck drivers in a large U.S. trucking company. Bayesian Network analysis was used to identify key drivers (factors) of safety climate and the best joint strategies for improvement. The impact of the drivers on safety climate was assessed and the simulation identified their potential impact independently and in concert with other drivers. RESULTS: The results from Bayesian Network analyses showed that the effects of LMX on organization- and group-level safety climate were conditionally dependent on four other drivers including psychological ownership, supervisory integrity, situation awareness, and safety communication. Among the five contributing factors, supervisory integrity and LMX had the strongest independent effects on organization- and group-level safety climate. Moreover, the results indicated that the best two joint strategies for promoting organizational (company/top management level) safety climate were LMX and psychological ownership as well as LMX and situation awareness, whereas the best two joint strategies for improving group (workgroup/supervisor level) safety climate were joint optimization of LMX and safety communication as well as LMX and psychological ownership. IMPLICATIONS: Based on the study results, the strategies that may have the most potential to improve trucking safety climate are: enhancing leaders' ability to engage in high-quality exchanges (e.g., caring about employees), developing training to encourage employees/leaders to deliver on promises, and providing employees with more autonomy to enhance their ownership.

Factors associated with worker slipping in limited-service restaurants.

OBJECTIVE: Slips, trips and falls (STF) are responsible for a substantial injury burden in the global workplace. Restaurant environments are challenged by STF. This study assessed individual and work environment factors related to slipping in US limited-service restaurant workers. METHODS: Workers in 10 limited-service restaurants in Massachusetts were recruited to participate. Workers' occupational slip and/or fall history within the past 4 weeks was collected by multilingual written questionnaires. Age, gender, job tenure, work hours per week and work shift were also collected. Shoe type, condition and gross shoe contamination were visually assessed. Floor friction was measured and each restaurant's overall mean coefficient of friction (COF) was calculated. The logistic generalised estimating equations model was used to compute adjusted odds ratios (OR). RESULTS: Of 125 workers, 42 reported one or more slips in the past 4 weeks with two reporting a resultant fall. Results from multivariable regression showed that higher restaurant mean COF was significantly associated with a decreased risk of self-reported slipping (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.82). From the highest to the lowest COF restaurant, the odds of a positive slip history increased by a factor of more than seven. Younger age, male gender, lower weekly work hours and the presence of gross contamination on worker's shoe sole were also associated with increased odds of slip history. CONCLUSION: Published findings of an association between friction and slipping and falling in actual work environments are rare. The findings suggest that effective intervention strategies to reduce the risk of slips and falls in restaurant workers could include increasing COF and improving housekeeping practices.