Safety knowledge and safe practices at work: A study of Polish industrial enterprises

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Knowledge management is a central resource in achieving the goals of occupational safety efforts. OBJECTIVE:The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between the implicit (tacit) and explicit (formal) safety knowledge of employees and their effects on employee propensity to follow safe practices at work. METHODS: A survey with seven safety constructs: 1) tacit safety knowledge, 2) explicit safety knowledge, 3) attitudes toward safety: psychological aspects, 4) attitudes toward safety: emotional aspects, 5) safety culture: behavioral aspects, 6) safety culture: psychological aspects, and 7) propensity to follow safety regulations and safe work practices (safety at work), was designed and used for data collection. A total of 468 production workers from three manufacturing companies located in southeastern Poland provided valid responses to the self-administered survey. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data. RESULTS:The results support the hypothesized relationships among tacit and explicit knowledge of safety requirements, procedures, and practices, and the propensity of employees to follow work practices at work through the mediating variables of safety culture (with behavioral and psychological factors) and attitudes toward safety (with psychological, emotional, and behavioral factors). CONCLUSIONS: While both tacit and explicit safety knowledge affect safe practices, tacit knowledge has an important influence on the use of explicit safety knowledge at work.

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“…In contrast, according to our study findings, the proportion of workers reporting good occupational health and safety practices was higher than in previous studies conducted in Ethiopia, 34 56 Ghana, 57 Nigeria, 58–60 Sri Lanka, 61 Poland, 62 Bangladesh 63 and India. 41 64 The dissimilarities could be explained by the study design employed, the period and the dimensions of safety measures explored, all of which could be factors in this mismatch.…”

A detailed alarm management report as a tool for the treatment of bad actors at a gas logistics plant

“…tions aimed at safety improvement [16,20]. Recent studies based on empirical data have reinforced the importance of tacit knowledge in the construction of safety and how these aspects interact with explicit rules [15].…”

“…However, there is a vast literature that emphasizes the importance of incorporating real work situations and worker experience into the design of working systems. Inappropriate management of these dimensions could hinder safety and efficiency improvements [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Recurrence quantification analysis of Q&A behavior from the perspective of explicit and tacit knowledge – an empirical study based on Zhihu's hashtags

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