THE DIRECT EFFECT OF CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND SAFETY CLIMATE ON INTENTION TO SAFETY BEHAVIOR: A STUDY

Abstract

Purpose of the study: The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of climate emergence (i.e., work ownership, Islamic work ethic, and employee safety climate) on the intention of safety behavior. Methodology: The research framework was developed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Exchange Theory. Stratified random sampling was used to collect data from 400 first-line operators and supervisors within the Small Medium Enterprise. A total of 250 useable questionnaires with a response rate of 75% were used for data analysis. The five proposed hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in IBM-SPSS-AMOS. Main Findings: The results indicate that climate emergence factors have a positive and significant effect on employee intention to safety behavior. Furthermore, employee safety climate found to be the strongest predictor of employee intention to safety behavior, while other climate emergence factors do not have a direct effect on the intention of safety behavior. The model accounted for 76% of the variance in climate emergence in the context of intention to safety behavior. Applications of this study: The results obtained from this study contribute to the improvement of proactive safety performance measures in the small-medium enterprise. However, further efforts are required to achieve the enhanced safety performance level Novelty/Originality of this study: This study adds to the existing psychological literature on climate and employee safety behavior. This present study enhanced the climate-based construct by improving the safety performance measurement for small-medium enterprises.