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There is a notable difference in occupational injury rates in the two Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Denmark, with the latter having a 40% higher rate of fatal occupational injuries in the construction industry. This study explored differences in the vocational education and training (VET) systems between Sweden and Denmark that may be important for students’ safety learning and practice during VET. In both countries, students participate in full-time education, and the curriculum includes school-based as well as company- based training. However, during company- based training Swedish students retain their student status, whereas Danish students are employed as apprentices. From a perspective of viewing safety as a social practice developed through interactions of different social and institutional bodies, the analysis points to this difference in employment status as important for their safety practices and also for the teachers’ position to influence safety learning and practices during company-based training. An analysis of interview and survey data focusing on how VET students enact safety ‘knowings’ across learning sites, suggest how different forms of connectivity models in VET promote various forms of safety learning among students.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an intervention comprising education and support in performing frequent and structured work preparation meetings with broad participation. Such work preparation meetings were expected to have positive effects on safety climate by emphasizing the value of safety at the work site, and on perceived influence at work. The study was a longitudinal, matched before and after questionnaire study, with six construction sites within a large Swedish construction company, randomly assigned to the intervention or the comparison group. Contrary to expectations, the intervention group reported a decrease in safety climate, while this increased in the comparison group. Perceived influence at work showed a tendency to decrease at the interventions sites. Frequent work preparation meetings may provide ample opportunity for obtaining perceptual safety climate cues. But the effect is dependent on how these meetings are performed, and what priorities are conveyed.

More than 20% of all reported occupational accidents in Europe in 2015 occurred within the construction industry. Leadership is an imperative antecedent to occupational safety. Transformational leadership is considered a central aspect of safety-promoting leadership and passive/avoidant leadership is considered a central aspect of poor safety leadership. This study aimed to comprehensively elucidate concrete, real-life transformational and passive/avoidant leadership behaviours through context-specific descriptions of day-to-day interactions between construction site managers and employees. A mixed method design was applied, combining structured observations of construction site managers, with questionnaire responses from construction employees. With this design, common method bias was eliminated. The results provide context-specific examples of transformational and passive/avoidant leadership behaviour. High proportions of observed transformational leadership was found to predict high construction site safety. High proportions of observed passive/avoidant leadership was found to predict low construction site safety. The proportion of transformational leadership behaviour was higher among site managers in Sweden than in Denmark, indicating that national cultural context may be an antecedent to safety leadership among construction site managers. Applying less passive/avoidant leadership and more transformational leadership appears to be an effective way for construction site managers to improve occupational safety in the industry.

OBJECTIVES: The construction industry accounted for >20% of all fatal occupational accidents in Europe in 2014. Leadership is an essential antecedent to occupational safety. The aim of the present study was to assess the influence of transformational, active transactional, rule-oriented, participative, and laissez-faire leadership on safety climate, safety behavior, and accidents in the Swedish and Danish construction industry. Sweden and Denmark are similar countries but have a large difference in occupational accidents rates. METHODS: A questionnaire study was conducted among a random sample of construction workers in both countries: 811 construction workers from 85 sites responded, resulting in site and individual response rates of 73% and 64%, respectively. RESULTS: The results indicated that transformational, active transactional, rule-oriented and participative leadership predict positive safety outcomes, and laissez-faire leadership predict negative safety outcomes. For example, rule-oriented leadership predicts a superior safety climate (β=0.40, P

Research on patient safety has indicated that focusing on technologies, routines, control systems, and individual caregiver attributes is not sufficient. The aim of this critical-incident interview study was to identify organizational and social-psychological conditions and processes that Swedish physicians and nurses (n = 36) perceived as important for patient and/or staff safety, and participative safety behavior. Injury due to psychological overload was the most salient type of healthcare worker hazard. Patient and healthcare worker safety went hand in hand. Good patient safety was present when caregivers had good access to their psychological and social capacities. These functions were jeopardized by stress. Our results indicated that quantitative overload, excessive cognitive and emotional complexity, lack of social support and good teamwork, organizational instability, and distrust for and frustration with the way healthcare organizations were managed, caused stress related function impairment in staff, which lead to mistakes and near misses. These aspects also in themselves contributed to risks. Good safety was associated with adequate resources and routines, workplace learning, and supportive unit level managers and colleagues. Features of professional cultures related to ethical norms to offer best possible care for the patient, in spite of insufficient resources, contributed to acceptance of working conditions that could lead to stress and overload.

Although there is a plethora of questionnaire instruments for measuring safety climate or culture, very few have proven able to present a factor structure that is consistent in different contexts, and many have a vague theoretical grounding. The Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50) was developed by a team of Nordic occupational safety researchers based on organizational and safety climate theory, psychological theory, previous empirical research, empirical results acquired through international studies, and a continuous development process. Safety climate is defined as workgroup members’ shared perceptions of management and workgroup safety related policies, procedures and practices. NOSACQ50 consists of 50 items across seven dimensions, i.e. shared perceptions of: 1) management safety priority, commitment and competence; 2) management safety empowerment; and 3) management safety justice; as well as shared perceptions of 4) workers’ safety commitment; 5) workers’ safety priority and risk non-acceptance; 6) safety communication, learning, and trust in co-workers’ safety competence; and 7) workers’ trust in the efficacy of safety systems. Initial versions of the instrument were tested for validity and reliability in four separate Nordic studies using native language versions in each respective Nordic country. NOSACQ-50 was found to be a reliable instrument for measuring safety climate, and valid for predicting safety motivation, perceived safety level, and self-rated safety behavior. The validity of NOSACQ-50 was further confirmed by its ability to distinguish between organizational units through detecting significant differences in safety climate. Relevance to industry: NOSACQ-50 will enable comparative studies of safety climate between and within companies, industries and countries. It is suitable for research purposes as well as for practical use in evaluating safety climate status, as a diagnostic tool, and in evaluating the effect of safety climate interventions.

Psychological climate has shown reliable relations to work outcomes. In the present study focus was placed on the significance of psychological climate for occupational safety. To gain further understanding of how to improve safety in organisations, mechanisms by which psychological climate may influence safety behaviour were investigated. A questionnaire survey was conducted among blue-collar construction workers (n = 189). Data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results showed that psychological climate has direct and indirect relations to safety behaviour, and safety motivation and safety knowledge were found to be key mediators in explaining these relations.

The present paper investigates the dimensionality of safety climate, tests a hypothesis of sharedness among members in a social unit as a characteristic of safety climate and tests the predictive validity of safety climate with regard to safety behaviour. The dimensionality of safety climate reported by [Cheyne, A., Cox, S., Oliver, A., Tomas, J.M., 1998. Modelling safety climate in the prediction of levels of safety activity. Work and Stress, 12 (3), 255-271.] was successfully replicated in three different samples (N1 = 242, N2 = 275, N3 = 284) in Swedish construction industry. Support was found for a hypothesis of a second order safety climate factor. A theoretically suggested distinction between safety climate and individual safety attitudes was supported. Safety climate was found to significantly predict self-reported safety behaviour 7 months later. This was true also with previous safety behaviour under control, supporting a causal relationship between safety climate and how workers behave with regard to safety.

The frequency of occupational accidents in Swedish farming is high. An intervention methodology aimed at influencing safety attitudes and behaviour was previously tested. The aims of the present st ...

Introduction Patient safety climate/culture is attracting increasing research interest, but there is little research on its relation with organizational climates regarding other target domains. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between patient safety climate and occupational safety climate in healthcare. Method The climates were assessed using two questionnaires: Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Questionnaire. The final sample consisted of 1154 nurses, 886 assistant nurses, and 324 physicians, organized in 150 work units, within hospitals (117 units), primary healthcare (5 units) and elderly care (28 units) in western Sweden, which represented 56% of the original sample contacted. Results Within each type of safety climate, two global dimensions were confirmed in a higher order factor analysis; one with an external focus relative the own unit, and one with an internal focus. Two methods were used to estimate the covariation between the global climate dimensions, in order to minimize the influence of bias from common method variance. First multilevel analysis was used for partitioning variances and covariances in a within unit part (individual level) and a between unit part (unit level). Second, a split sample technique was used to calculate unit level correlations based on aggregated observations from different respondents. Both methods showed associations similar in strength between the patient safety climate and the occupational safety climate domains. Conclusions The results indicated that patient safety climate and occupational safety climate are strongly positively related at the unit level, and that the same organizational processes may be important for the development of both types of organizational climate. Practical applications Safety improvement interventions should not be separated in different organizational processes, but be planned so that both patient safety and staff safety are considered concomitantly.

Introduction The often applied engineering approach to safety management in the construction industry needs to be supplemented by organizational measures and measures based on how people conceive and react to their social environment. This requires in-depth knowledge of the broad preconditions for high safety standards in construction. The aim of the study was to comprehensively describe the preconditions and components of high safety standards in the construction industry from the perspective of both experienced construction workers and first-line managers. Method Five worker safety representatives and 19 first-line managers were interviewed, all strategically selected from within a large Swedish construction project. Phenomenographic methodology was used for data acquisition and analysis and to categorize the information. Nine informants verified the results. Results The study identified four main categories of work safety preconditions and components: (1) Project characteristics and nature of the work, which set the limits of safety management; (2) Organization and structures, with the subcategories planning, work roles, procedures, and resources; (3) Collective values, norms, and behaviors, with the subcategories climate and culture, and interaction and cooperation; and (4) Individual competence and attitudes, with the subcategories knowledge, ability and experience, and individual attitudes. Discussion The results comprehensively describe high safety standards in construction, incorporating organizational, group, individual, and technical aspects. High-quality interaction between different organizational functions and hierarchical levels stood out as important aspects of safety. The results are discussed in relation to previous research into safety and into the social-psychological preconditions for other desired outcomes in occupational settings. Impact on Industry The results can guide construction companies in planning and executing construction projects to a high safety standard.

Empowering leadership practise among leaders in the construction industry contributes to improve occupational safety, by stimulating participative safety behaviour among construction workers. Socialization into working life in the construction industry begins during vocational education and training (VET). It is therefore important to understand how VET influence young people’s expectations on empowering leadership, i.e. their implicit leadership theories (ILT). The aim of the present study was to assess if empowering ILT of students change during VET, and if students’ empowering ILT are influenced by the empowering leadership practice of teachers and workplace supervisors that the students interact with during VET. Questionnaire data were gathered from students (n = 1907) at seven construction VET-schools in Sweden and Denmark at two occasions, 1 year apart. Accelerated longitudinal design was employed and data were analysed using mixed method growth curve modelling. The empowering ILT of the VET-students was found to increase during VET. The leadership of supervisors’, but not of teachers’, was found to be positively related to the empowering ILT of the VET-students. VET-students, in the beginning of their professional life, appear to alter their beliefs and assumptions about the characteristics of effective leaders. The ILT of VET-students may thus be regarded as dynamic and responsive, inclined to change as the students socialize into working life.