Citation

Moreira FGP, Ramos ALF, Fonseca KRC. Safety Sci. 2021; 134: e105076.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105076

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Safety culture maturity is critical to the prevention of unsafe behaviors, especially in industries such as civil construction, with its high rates of injuries and fatalities. This concept is even more important when studying the academic environments in which professionals who will work in those industries are trained. The goal of this study was to evaluate (diagnose) the safety culture maturity and to identify and hierarchize its antecedent factors (organizational factors) in the laboratories at the Civil Engineering Department of the Federal University of Pará (UFPa), Brazil. Data were collected using questionnaires from 237 laboratories users. All respondents were students, a population that comprises the vast majority of users; thus, the results were based on these individuals' perceptions. Descriptive statistics and regression modeling techniques were used to analyze the collected data. The results indicated that the laboratories are in "reactive" maturity stage. The main organizational factors directly affecting the maturity of that safety culture were "information", "involvement" and "commitment". The findings of this study may advance the theories of safety culture maturity by incorporating discussions related to the characteristics of functionalist versus interpretive approaches, as well as to the organizational structure influences. Idiosyncrasies related to a country's culture were also discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

Academic laboratory; Civil engineering; National culture; Organizational factors; Safety culture maturity