An Examination of the Relationship Between Employer Safety Practices and Individual Risk Tolerance
Open Access
- Author:
- Linsenbigler, Mark
- Graduate Program:
- Energy and Geo-Environmental Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 06, 2009
- Committee Members:
- Joel B Haight, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Joel B Haight, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- safety training
hazard control
safety communication
risk tolerance
job satisfaction - Abstract:
- The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between employer safety practices and the individual risk tolerance of employees. The safety practices of interest included safety communication, hazard control, and safety training. Each of these variables was measured in terms of their impact on the employee, either in terms of perception or awareness levels. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine the impact of these same practices upon both the incidence of safety-related events and employee job satisfaction. This study used secondary data that was originally collected using a survey administered to employees of a surface mining company. Several regression models were constructed by alternating each safety practice as an independent variable and either risk tolerance or safety-related events as the dependent variable. Control variables in the form of demographic data and employee job perceptions were held constant within each regression. It was hypothesized that each independent variable would be significantly related to both risk tolerance and safety-related events. These hypotheses were formed partially based upon the concept of social exchange theory, wherein employees have been shown to respond positively if they feel the employer is concerned with their needs and interests. A separate regression was completed in order to examine the relationship between employer safety practices and employee job satisfaction. The results of this study detected a significant relationship between employee perceptions of safety communication and individual risk tolerance. Safety communication was found to account for 9.7% of the variance in risk tolerance. Employee perceptions of hazard control and employee safety awareness were not found to be significantly related to risk tolerance. In addition, no significant relationships were detected between any of the three independent variables and safety-related events. Lastly, a significant relationship was found between employee perceptions of safety communication, employee perceptions of hazard control, and employee job satisfaction. Implications and limitations of this study are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.