Work safety climate. Comparison of selected occupational groups

management are more significant determinants of the feeling of safety and minimization of the stress perceived by mine rescuers. These aspects become particularly important in situa- tions where people risk their lives or health. An examination of the safety climate in an organization constitutes an invaluable source of knowledge not only for theoreticians who describe its characteristics and search for premises significant for an adequate diagnosis, but also for employers, health and safety employees, and work psychologists. It has been demonstrated many times that the level of safety culture is sig- nificantly related to the safety climate and translates directly both into the number of risky behaviors undertaken and the accident rate in the organization. Consequently, all activities contributing to the identification of the factors influencing the safety climate experienced sub- jectively by the workers can be of huge importance. The next step, after capturing the subjec- tive perception of the safety-related factors in the workplace, should consist in designing of specific prevention strategies on the basis of this knowledge. As a result, this can help to reduce the number of accidents. Consequently, such measures should be given the highest priority, especially in occupations where people are at risk of losing their lives. The presented results of the study of the differences in the perception of the work safety cli- mate by the occupational groups distinguished make one inclined to take into account, both in

the diagnosis and during the formulation of practical recommendations, of such dimensions of work as the nature of the threats and the possible consequences resulting from failure to comply with safety rules (in terms of economic losses and damage to health). Important factors are include the scope and direct nature of management supervision, including the role of man- agers in modeling safe behaviors among the staff, co-responsibility for their own and their co- workers’ safety, and the manner of conducting the required training to shape safe behaviors in the workplace and raise awareness of the existing risks. A diagnosis of the work safety climate, taking into account the specificities of the individual sectors, makes it possible to provide recommendations containing guidelines on measures con- tributing to the shaping of a high culture of work safety and of the safety of the people employed in the organization. Recommendations, depending on the outcome of the diagnosis, may con- cern both training and other possible forms of impact, such as e.g. shaping the appropriate atti- tudes and making sure that appropriate role models are provided, which is in particular the role of leaders and managers, as well as the scope of implementation of motivation programs, imple- mented by the departments dealing with safety and HRM. Emphasis should be placed on the appropriate manner of communicating important recommendations to the subordinates, acting on these recommendations within the teams, and modifications related to work ergonomics to

reduce physical effort and excessive mental strain (monitoring workers’ health and well-being). Research limitations The limitations of the research include reducing the results obtained to only three occupational groups. It is advisable that other groups be taken into account in further work, exposed to threats of a different nature in the workplace. The limitations of the research also include the unequal proportion of women and men in the occupational groups studied, which may have determined the results of the study. In the research presented here, there was a more or less equal balance between men (49%) and women (51%) in the industrial production line worker group, while the group of retail workers was dominated by women (84% of the respondents), and the mine rescuer group included only men due to the legal restrictions excluding women from this profession. As it has already been demonstrated [45], gender is an important factor that may differentiate the perception of the work safety climate. The research results indicate that women differ from men in terms of the types of threats identified, they may react PLOS ONE Work safety climate PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243056 December 14, 2020 15 / 19