Safety climate in the Ghanaian printing industry

management’s interest in safety issues, and workers’ inability to discuss safety issues with supervisors, are indicators of the lack of management’s commitment to safety in the compa- nies. Providing inadequate “safety competency” and “safety procedure” (see Table 5) for employees, with a factor mean score of �x2.29 and �x2.42 respectively also indicates a poor safety climate in the companies. Though Safety Involvement & Training dimension scored, �x2.82 is close to the positive mean of �x3.0, the mean score of �x2.82 still shows a fairly low safety climate within the industry. Since safety climate studies help to assess an overall sense of shared beliefs, values and tradi- tions around workplace safety within the larger framework of organizational systems, the out- come of this study shows a weak and negative safety climate within the Ghanaian printing industry. This position is supported by employee safety-related research, that shows a high incidence of injuries, especially where employees’ perceptions of a company’s safety climate are low and low when perception is high [53–55]. It is imperative, therefore, that management provides an acute sense of leadership in safety matters to point an organisation’s behaviour in the right direction. If safety climate is an effec- tive predictor of safety-related behaviours, an organisation’s safety performance and safety outcomes [including injuries and accidents] [56–58] and antecedents of workplace accidents, then this study has revealed the looming threat to human life and safety within the printing

industry. Management must, therefore, show a commitment to occupational health and safety programmes to prevent future injuries and fatalities. Table 4. (Continued) Accountability & responsibility SD D N A SA �x SD Workmate’s strong reaction against rules being broken 18 70 36 33 14 2.74 1.14 The written safety rules and instructions are easy for people to understand & implement 18 57 32 47 17 2.93 1.20 Co-workers often give tips to each other on how to work safely 11 106 18 25 10 2.51 1.02 Supportive environment SD D N A SA �x SD In my company, safety considerations are equally important as production 20 80 26 32 12 2.62 1.13 The safety rules always describe the safest way of working 19 66 35 42 9 2.74 1.11 Safety information is always brought to my attention by my line manager/supervisor 18 80 25 36 12 2.67 1.13 Strongly Disagree (SD) Disagree (D) Neutral (N) Agree (A) Strongly Agree (SA) Mean (�x) Standard Deviation (SD) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278100.t004 Table 5. Summary of dimensions mean score. Safety dimensions Mean Std. Dev. Variance Cronbach’s Alpha (reliability) Safety Commitment & Communication 2.59 0.76 .037 .90 Safety Involvement & Training 2.82 0.85 .070 .84 Positive Safety Practices 2.63 0.77 .089 .76 Safety Competency 2.29 0.91 .004 .86 Safety Procedure 2.42 0.83 .147 .74 Accountability & Responsibility 2.72 0.83 .075 .43 Supportive Environment 2.67 0.97 .004 .79 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278100.t005 PLOS ONE

Safety climate in the printing industry PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278100 November 28, 2022 9 / 15