Why measure safety climate? A longitudinal study on the relationship between safety climate measurements and safety performance

Is perception of safety climate a relevant predictor for occupational accidents? Prospective cohort study among blue-collar workers

“…In 1999 Hofmann & Morgeson (15) showed that safety climate was significantly related to accidents among approximately 1200 manufacturing workers, in a cross-sectional case study based on 49 group leader's accident records. In a recent study however, Gilberg et al (16) found ambiguous results when investigating the longitudinal effects of safety climate on dropped-object accidents and hydrocarbon leaks in a survey study among 46 100 employees in the Norwegian oil industry, as there were variations in safety climate measurements between different companies, and safety climate could only explain a limited part of this variation. Kongsvik et al (17) had previously discovered significant support for safety climate as a leading indicator for the same type of accidents in a study connecting survey data collected among 2188 off-shore workers to safety data from the Petroleum Safety Authorities in the same industry.…”