SafetyInsights.org

This paper systematically reviewed evidence on the effectiveness of workplace interventions in improving safety culture (performance).

23 peer-reviewed studies met inclusion for review.

Providing background, they note:

·        Safety Culture (SC) has many definitions and conceptualisations. One common definition is “shared values (i.e. what is important) and beliefs (i.e. how things work) that interact with an organisation’s structures and control systems to produce behavioural norms (i.e. the way we do things around here)” (p376)

·        Most workplace interventional studies on SC have been directed at the individual worker level. They argue that “This approach is very reductionist

·        focused and assumes the worker is to blame for incidents …To optimise the effectiveness of workplace safety interventions, a greater focus should be given to the development and implementation of safety initiatives at the broader organisational context” (p377)

·        A focus on broader organisational contexts is “consistent with the theoretical underpinnings of safety culture, which align the concept at the group and organisational levels” (p377)

·        One of the most researched intervention types is individual worker safety training; seen to be rather limited since SC theory emphasises the role of management commitment to safety and supervisory safety actions in influencing workforce safety culture perceptions

·        The study draws on the below adapted safety management and culture intervention framework from Hale. Safety management is conceptualised at three levels: societal (regulations etc.), organisational (safety management system) and group and individual levels (resources and controls). These levels are supported by processes of monitoring, feedback and learning systems and also design and maintenance factors in the workplace; all of which influence overall safety outputs/safety performance

Note: 1) As always, I’ve skipped lots of findings, 2) They have included safety climate in the conceptualisation of safety culture (which I think is an important consideration), 3) Heaps of limitations and study quality issues in the sample.

Results

Overall, most studies of workplace SC interventions had a positive impact on SC performance.

The most successful types of interventions were those related to: the importance of safety, leadership style, and behavioural monitoring programs.

More specifically, the most effective intervention types with statistically significant improvements in SC performance were:

·        leadership style (fair quality evidence)

·        importance of safety (fair quality evidence)

·        external pressure (fair quality evidence)

·        incident/accident analysis (fair quality evidence)

·        behavioural monitoring (poor quality evidence)

Other sub-categories found effective were:

·        top management commitment (fair quality evidence)

·        training (fair quality evidence)

·        supervisor commitment (fair quality evidence)

·        workforce participation (fair quality evidence)

·        safety committee (poor quality evidence)

Only one of two studies using health and safety promotion interventions found statistically significant improvements in SC performance. The single study using ergonomics as an intervention had a minor negative effect on SC performance.

For higher categories, the most effective were:

·        Societal-level (fair quality evidence)

·        Monitoring, feedback and learning systems (poor quality evidence)

·        Safety management system – culture/motivation (fair quality evidence)

·        Competence (fair quality evidence)

·        Safety management system – general (poor quality evidence)

A single study categorised under design and maintenance of technology didn’t have a positive effect on SC performance.

Discussing the findings, they note that most interventions included in this review were found to be effective, but that “this finding should be tempered considering the majority of the studies included in the review were assessed as having susceptible methodological quality” (p387).

That is, poor quality of evidence surrounding the impact of interventions of SC performance limits strong conclusions and thus, these findings “should wisely be viewed as inconclusive” (p388).

Most interventions were targeted at the work group-level, followed by organisational-level, while individual-level was the least targeted. This is consistent with the theoretical foundations of SC as a group and organisational-level concept.

They found that the effectiveness of interventions didn’t vary by level, e.g. aimed at individuals, group or organisation-level.

Most interventions were found to be of a motivational nature, while safety training was the most utilised intervention.

Authors: Aburumman, M., Newnam, S., & Fildes, B. (2019). Evaluating the effectiveness of workplace interventions in improving safety culture: A systematic review. Safety science, 115, 376-392.

Study link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.02.027

Link to the LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/evaluating-effectiveness-workplace-interventions-ben-hutchinson-1c