Safety climate in the Ghanaian printing industry

health and safety practices. Broadly, the study centres on the overall effectiveness and safety practices as perceived by employees and how these practices define the industry’s safety climate. Studies on how demographic factors impact risk perception have been carried out in multi- ple fields [44, 45], and considering the literature, demographic variables have significant roles to play regarding the perception of individuals on issues of safety climate [44]. Ameko [35] and Liao et al. [46] suggest that socio-demographic factors–gender, age, work experience, mar- ital status, and educational attainment–influence work climate and may play a significant role in risk-taking behaviour at the workplace. These factors could contribute to human error, which was identified by Liao et al. [46] as a cause of construction accidents. Bayire [47] added that although a good safe work environment may lead to good behaviour and a dangerous work environment may lead to bad work behaviour, to a large extent individual characteristics hold sway in the way workers perceive risk in the workplace. Ariss [48] indicated that the acquisition of knowledge, skills and employees’ unique abilities have the potential to empower workers to create a safe work environment. Thus, employees’ levels of education and gender influence their knowledge and ability to cope with work pres- sure. Women and men differ in their perceptions of risks [49] but males are more likely to behave in a risky way and get distracted when performing work [50–52].

Demographic/personal characteristics influence how workers interact with the safety cli- mate in any organisation and, by extension, the rate at which injuries/accidents occur. How- ever, demographic and other subgroup factors (e.g., employees’ educational background) and their effects on safety perceptions within the printing industry are under-researched. It is, therefore, necessary that empirical justification for using personal demographics as a valida- tion technique is required if safety climate research is to progress. This study, therefore, examined the following hypotheses: H 1: There is a significant relationship between company size and employees’ perception of the safety climate. H 2: There is a significant relationship between the safety climate perception of older employ- ees and the safety climate perception of younger employees. H 3: There is a significant relationship between gender and individual perception of the work- place safety climate. H 4: There is a significant relationship between years of work experience and perception of the workplace environment. H 5: There is a significant relationship between educational attainment and individual percep- tion of the workplace climate. Materials and methods Through a perception survey, this paper critically evaluates the safety environment within the printing industry of Ghana to understand and interpret personal and collective attitudes and patterns of behaviour that determine their commitment to an organisation’s health and safety

practices. The population area for the study was the two most industrialised cities in Ghana: Accra in the Greater Accra Region, and Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. These two regions are the locations of roughly 90% of the total number of print production companies in Ghana. These printing companies create and manufacture products that communicate visually, includ- ing large format posters, newspapers, labels, books and other publications. They mostly employ the offset lithography printing processes; the most common method of printing used in Ghana. PLOS ONE Safety climate in the printing industry PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278100 November 28, 2022 4 / 15