MEASURING PERCEPTIONS OF WORKPLACE SAFETY - DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE WORK SAFETY SCALE

A 50-item instrument that assesses employees' perceptions of work safe ty, the Work Safety Scale (WSS), was constructed and validated using t hree independent samples. The results showed that the WSS measures fiv e factorially distinct constructs: (a) job safety, (b) coworker safety , (c) supervisor safety, (d) management safety practices, and (e) sati sfaction with the safety program. Each of these scales has a high degr ee of internal consistency across the three samples. Supervisor safety and management safety practices were the best predictors of job satis faction. In addition, supporting previous research, supervisor safety and management safety practices were significantly correlated with rep orted accident rates. Coworker safety and supervisor safety were stron gly linked to employee's compliance with safety behaviors. WSS subscal es were logically related to job stress, psychological complaints, phy sical complaints, and sleep complaints. Implications of the results ar e discussed. (C) 1998 National Safety Council and Elsevier Science Ltd .