The influence of safety climate, motivation, and knowledge on worker compliance and participation: An empirical study of indonesian smes

Abstract

In the workplace, safety behavior has been regarded as an important safety performance factor that is generally expressed based on the degree of safety compliance and worker participation. Previous studies have proposed several models for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), but the human factor and situation-related matters seem yet to be included. This study aims to investigate the role of motivation and knowledge (as person-related constructs) and safety climate (as a situation-related construct) in SMEs’ compliance and participation. Based on a more comprehensive model, a questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 23 Indonesian metal manufacturing SMEs. The results showed that safety climate positively influenced safety knowledge, motivation, compliance, and participation. Safety knowledge and motivation were found to mediate the relationship between safety climate and behavior (i.e., compliance and participation). Safety knowledge only affected compliance, while motivation influenced compliance and participation. This study suggests that SMEs should consider situation-related constructs (safety climate) and person-related constructs (motivation and knowledge) to improve their safety behavior.