IMPACT OF MANAGERS PERSONAL DETERMINANTS IN NOTIFYING WORKPLACE HAZARDS

Notification about work hazards is a legal requirement in advanced ind ustrial countries, but workers have claimed, that in many cases, they do not receive enough information regarding risks, exposure, and medic al problems. The recent professional literature on the subject has exp lored the ways in which notification is delivered without sufficiently considering the psychological incentives and barriers that may affect managers in transmitting risk information. The present study aimed at examining managers' personal determinants and notification of work ha zards in a sample of 106 managers and 460 workers in 40 departments of three industrial plants in Israel. Results of our study showed that b oth managers and workers perceived the importance of the delivery of s afety information as quite high (means of 3.43 and 3.7, respectively o ut of 5), with managers reporting that they rely primarily on personal modes of communication. immediate supervisors were regarded by both g roups as the most important persons in notification. Managers having p ast experience in treating injured workers notified more, primarily us ing personal notification. The most important personal determinants th at positively predicted managers' notification were their sense of sel f-efficacy and positive expectation of notification. Outcome denial an d coping by distancing were negatively correlated with notifying about these risks. (C) 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.