Work safety climate. Comparison of selected occupational groups

itself, which becomes a starting point for the implementation of practical solutions for shaping a positive safety culture of a particular organization, may be crucial for improving the safety of employees. Safety climate in selected occupational groups. Risk factors Research reports [26] show that safety climate is perceived differently by staff depending on the size of the company and on the way in which work safety is managed, as well as on the gen- der of the employees, their seniority, their position in the organizational structure, their ethnic background, and the industry represented. Research so far points to significant differences in the evaluation of threats and in the perception of the safety climate presented by occupational groups such as underground, open-pit and borehole mines, airport ground staff, sailors, people working in polar regions, medical staff, lighting industry and construction industry workers [26–32]. Building a positive culture of work safety is therefore not marked by organizational or sectoral universality. Its appropriate creation requires identification of the factors of the work safety climate, which may constitute its important components, taking into account both the size of the organization and the way in which it is managed (including work safety manage- ment), as well as the different nature of the threats and the specificity of the tasks in different areas of occupational activity. Planning and implementation of effective programs to improve the work safety climate

should be linked to an understanding of the specific nature of the occupation and of the work- ing conditions in the relevant organization. It is important to make sure that they take into account the assessment of the safety level, performed by the occupational group representing it operationally. The specificity of work is defined by a number of variables, including the way tasks are performed, the type and scope of hierarchical relations, customer relations, continu- ous contact with technology (work in a human-machine system), the level of training required for the employee and the types of threats present in the working environment. All activities aimed at developing solutions contributing to the shaping of a positive safety culture of the organization should therefore take into account the specific nature of the latter. They must not rely on the adoption of solutions implemented in other organizations without reflection. The aim of the research undertaken by the author was to continue the empirical analyses related to the comparison of the overall assessment of the work safety climate and its components, car- ried out by different occupational groups. The comparative groups were industrial manufacturing line workers, retail workers and mining rescuers. The choice of these occupa- tional groups was dictated by the different nature of their work and of the threats occurring in the working environment. Work on an industrial production line involves many potential threats whose nature is

physical (e.g. moving parts of machines, noise, vibrations, electromagnetic field, high or low temperatures), chemical (toxic substances, irritants and allergens), and biological (fungi, bacte- ria, pathogenic viruses). Physical strain on the body may result from the need to perform work in a forced body position, repetitive activities, and excessive energy expenditure caused by strain on selected body parts. In addition, an automated working environment characterized by a routine scope of tasks and limited interactions staff members, for instance due to noise, can significantly affect the workers’ sense of threat. The work is usually carried out under in strict subordination within a hierarchical structure, paid for on an hourly or piecework basis, it is sometimes carried out in shifts, and often does not require specialized training. Retail workers are also exposed to numerous physical risks. Their working environment often involves excessively high or low temperatures related to the storage conditions of goods (meat, dairy products), humidity (plant trade), biological hazards (in the case of trade in PLOS ONE Work safety climate PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243056 December 14, 2020 3 / 19