The Role of Emotional Intelligence Factors in Workers’ Occupational Health and Safety Performance—A Case Study of the Petroleum Industry

Abstract

Introduction: Despite improvements in occupational health and safety due to technological advancements and the adoption of management systems, accidents continue to occur in the oil and gas (O&G) industry. These accidents are often linked to human factors. The emotional intelligence (EI) of workers, however, has the potential to influence some of the human factors that predispose to accidents. Methods: In this study, we investigated how the EI factors of workers influence their health and safety performance in the work place. A total of 124 O&G industry workers completed a web-based questionnaire. Five and 14 key success factors of EI and effective occupational health and safety management systems were respectively identified through a systematic evaluation of the literature. Results: EI success factors of ‘being able to rule one’s own emotions to facilitate thinking’, ‘being able to deal with the emotions of others’ and ‘being able to discuss one’s own emotions accurately’ were found to have a relationship with health and safety performance of workers. Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that certain success factors of EI are vital for improving the health and safety performance of workers and that the development of these competencies should be part of the workers’ professional development.

Impact of emotional intelligence on the stress and safety of construction workers' in Saudi Arabia

“…The findings of the present work draw many parallels in other studies, for instance, Ifelebuegu et al. conducted a study in the UK and observed that EI plays a significant role in the safe participation of the employees (Ifelebuegu et al ., 2019). Loosemore and Malouf surveyed 228 CWs in Australia and found a strong influence of emotional well-being on their safety attitude (Loosemore and Malouf, 2019).…”

The Relationship between Burnout and Counterproductive Work Behavior. The Role of Compassion Fatigue and Organizational Justice

“…In the study published by Ginny and colleagues (2007), organizational factors, such as workplace environments and employee supervision, were observed to mitigate the effects of STS and burnout (Boscarino et al, 2004;Korkeila, Kumpulainen, Toivola, Rasanen, & Kalimo, 2003;Ortlepp & Friedman, 2002;Webster & Hackett, 1999). Autonomy and control appear to be mitigating factors only for burnout (Abu-Bader, 2000;Vredenburgh, Carlozzi, & Stein, 1999), while access to own coping resources has attenuated both burnout and STS (Abu-Bader , 2000;Ortlepp & Friedman, 2001).…”

Literature Review: Relating Factors to the Effectiveness of Occupational Health and Safety Program Performance

“…Other organizational factors related to competency improvement, training, documentation and document control, management review, number of visits to external consulting services [36], safety culture [42], [48], workforce certification, reward policy [40], group openness, group consistency, group extraversion, group agreement [28], efficiency of safety resource management, division of high-risk work, safety control program, and guidelines related to OSH [26], [62].…”