Safety Leadership and Safety Knowledge-Attitude-Behaviour (KAB) in Malaysia’s Manufacturing SMEs: A Higher Order Two-Stage Approach of PLS-SEM

Abstract

.Most of the accident cases at work are caused by unsafe behaviour. Scholars have thus extensively researched factors of safe behavior.Safety leadership is stated as the most effective factor in safety behaviour. Besides, safety knowledge and safety attitudes are also found to influence safety behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of the relationship between safety leadership, safety knowledge, safety attitude, and safety behavior, which has been found to be limited or rare in previous research.A self-administered questionnaire was applied and was distributed randomly to 140 SME manufacturing workers and they were analysed using the structural equation modelling partial least squares (PLS-SEM). The results prove that safety leadership has a significant effect on safety knowledge, safety attitude, and safety behaviour, with safety knowledge and safety attitude mediating the safety leadership-safety behaviour relationship. Consequently, the results provide a more in-depth view of the relationship between safety leadership and safety knowledge-attitude-behaviour via adapting social-cognitive theory and social learning theory in solving safety issues in SME. This study also provides a starting point for researchers to better understand how effective safety leadership is provided by supervisors in terms of improving worker safety and safety knowledge-attitude-behaviour.

Exploring Determinants of Safety Behavior in Malaysian SMEs Manufacturing Firms: An Extended Conceptual Model

“…Attitudes are crucial in shaping an individual's workplace safety behavior [9]. Safety attitudes refer to an individual's tendency to react positively or negatively toward safety-related objects or situations [10]. The concept of safety attitude represents the workers' attitudes and perceptions regarding safety in the workplace [9,10].…”

“…Top management should ensure that employees have the necessary awareness and training related to their job responsibilities [11]. Studies have demonstrated that individuals' attitudes toward risk-taking can vary, highlighting the importance of developing strategies considering individual differences [10,11]. Organizations can create a safer workplace and prevent accidents and injuries by promoting a positive safety climate and shaping employees' safety attitudes.…”

“…Safety knowledge is a critical aspect of promoting safety in the workplace. It refers to the theoretical or practical information and facts acquired through the learning process, which is necessary for workers to understand how to prevent and handle potential hazards [10]. Having sufficient safety knowledge and skills are important determinants of safety behavior, and it can be developed through knowledge exchange, which involves the sharing and seeking of knowledge among employees [11].…”

The Investigation of Safety Behavior in Logistic Companies of Malaysia

“…Positive safety behavior at the workplace is one of the most essential elements that cannot be taken lightly in an organization [1]. The negligence of positive safety behavior could lead into high accident case at workplace [2,3]. Accident, even if minor, can cause serious adverse effect to the organization [4].…”

“…However, in Malaysian settings, supervisor safety roles is found to have insignificant effect towards safety performance in terms of accident and injury reduction [20]. On one hand, Khoo, Surienty and Selamat [21] determined a significant relationship between supervisor's support on safety and safety behavior in manufacturing sector.…”