Work safety climate. Comparison of selected occupational groups

Similarly significant differences were found between industrial production line workers and mine rescuers. These are related to the assessment of the following work safety climate dimen- sions: pace of work and fatigue level, occupational health and safety training process, safe behavior, management engagement in occupational health and safety, workplace atmosphere and workplace accident risk management. Industrial production line workers and mine rescu- ers do not differ significantly in terms of their assessment of the following four work safety cli- mate dimensions: employee participation in safety-related matters, modeling and enhancing safe behaviors in the organization, technical facilities and ergonomics, and organizational occupational health and safety management policy. The results also prove the existence of sta- tistically significant differences between retail workers and mine rescuers in terms of their assessment of eight out of ten safety climate dimensions. No significant differences were found here only in the assessment of climate aspects such as technical facilities and ergonomics, and the organizational policy with regard to occupational health and safety management. Summary of the research findings The results prove the existence of significant differences between workers belonging to the three occupational groups studied in terms of their assessment of the work safety climate in the organization employing them. The differences found between the representatives of all

three occupational groups together concern the global assessment of all work safety climate dimensions. The effect size (cf. Table 6) is relatively high here, as 19% of the variance of the global safety climate assessment is explained by the determining factor, i.e. the fact of belong- ing to the specific occupational group. The results also confirm the existence of significant differences in the global assessment of all work safety climate dimensions between industrial production lines workers and retail workers (23% of the variance of the global work safety climate assessment is explained here by the factor of belonging to the occupational group), between industrial production lines work- ers and mine rescuers (21% of the variance of the global work safety climate assessment is explained by the factor of belonging to the occupational group) and between retail workers and mine rescuers (where belonging to the occupational group explains as much as 30% of the variance of the global work safety climate assessment). Question 1 can be answered affirmatively. The univariate F test values and effect sizes measured using adjusted R2 (cf. Table 6) indi- cate that all the studied worker groups together differ significantly between one another in terms of the assessment of most work safety climate dimensions, and particularly strongly in their assessment of the following dimensions: workplace accident risk management (the lowest rating was given to this dimension by retail workers, and the highest by mine rescuers), man-

agement engagement in occupational health and safety (rated lowest by mine rescuers, and highest by retail workers), workplace atmosphere (rated lowest by industrial production line workers, and highest by retail workers), pace of work and fatigue level (rated lowest by indus- trial production line workers, slightly higher by retail workers, and highest by mine rescuers), safe behavior (this safety culture aspect was rated lowest by mine rescuers, and highest by retail workers) and the occupational health and safety training process (rated lowest by industrial production line workers, and highest by mine rescuers). All three occupational groups together also differed significantly between one another in terms of the assessment of the following dimensions: modeling and enhancing safe behaviors in the organization (this safety culture aspect was rated lowest by mine rescuers, and highest by retail workers) and employee participation in safety-related matters (rated lowest by retail workers and highest by mine rescuers). There are no significant differences between the PLOS ONE Work safety climate PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243056 December 14, 2020 11 / 19