WORKGROUPS PROPENSITY TO COMPLY WITH SAFETY RULES - THE INFLUENCE OF MICRO-MACRO ORGANIZATIONAL-FACTORS

This article is about workgroup carefulness or propensity to comply wi th safety rules and various organisational factors that may impact on this behaviour. Empirical data concern 1061 workgroups drawn from a ra ndom sample of 97 manufacturing plants. A model combining micro and ma cro organisational factors is developed and tested by a multilevel ana lysis. Micro level factors refer to variables measuring work processes and hazards, workgroup cohesiveness and cooperation, supervisor's exp erience and approach to safety management, while macro level factors c onsist in variables measuring top management commitment in occupationa l safety and socio-economic characteristics of firms. Results support the hypothesis that micro organisational factors are the primary deter minants of the propensity to safety compliance behaviour, with social relationships variables at the shopfloor level being the best predicto rs. Results also suggest that the fabric of these social relationships can be substantially influenced by managerial actions in developing a participative approach in the supervisory management of safety and a commitment of senior managers to develop the safety program and joint regulation mechanisms.