Assessing the Mediating Role of Safety Communication Between Safety Culture and Employees Safety Performance

Decoding stakeholder priorities of safety culture preferences in the oil and gas industry

Safety culture is a critical determinant of organisational performance, particularly in high-risk industries especially in oil and gas. Understanding stakeholder preferences is essential for developing effective strategies that enhance safety culture. This study utilised the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritise stakeholder preferences, identifying key elements of safety culture in Malaysia's oil and gas sector. This study employed a structured methodology to evaluate safety culture within the oil and gas industry, focusing on 18 sub-elements across three key domains: psychological, behavioural, and situational factors. A diverse sample of industry experts was recruited using purposeful and snowball sampling to ensure a comprehensive representation of stakeholder views. The AHP framework was applied to analyse the data, utilizing structured questionnaires and multicriteria decision-making techniques to prioritize the identified safety culture elements. The AHP analysis identified distinct priorities among different professional groups within the oil and gas sector. Safety and Health Practitioners emphasized practical elements such as safety rules and management commitment, while academicians prioritized knowledge and training. Management personnel highlighted the importance of safety ownership and communication, whereas policymakers focused on broader, policy-oriented aspects. The findings suggest that safety culture improvement initiatives should be tailored to address the specific needs and priorities of each professional group. A nuanced understanding of stakeholder preferences is crucial for developing comprehensive strategies that integrate observable behaviours, situational conditions, and psychological factors, ultimately fostering a robust safety culture in the oil and gas industry.

The Affective Domain, Safety Attitude, and COVID-19 Prevention of Employees in the Petrochemical Industry

The petrochemical industry is relatively strict regarding safety rules in the workplace. The workplace involves high-risk categories that are intolerant of human error. Especially in the current situation with COVID-19, concerns regarding prevention and safety in the workplace have increased. In light of this pandemic, the company must know whether all employees recognize the implementation of COVID-19 prevention. In addition, employee awareness of safety grounded in the affective domain of human thought is lacking. This study investigates the safety attitudes and COVID-19 prevention in the workplace based on the affective domain of employees. A survey questionnaire based on the Likert scale was utilized to collect data from 618 employees in the petrochemical industry. Descriptive analysis and analysis of variance were used to examine the data. The results reveal that employees in the petrochemical industry have a positive degree of responses to COVID-19 prevention, safety attitudes, and the affective domain, regardless of employment characteristics such as gender, age, position, and work experience. This study concludes that a positive affective domain of employees is followed by a positive safety attitude; thus, effective COVID-19 prevention was established in the workplace based on the perspectives and attitudes of the employees.

Safety culture and perception of warning signs of chemical hazards among hospital cleaning workers: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Due to the type of activities and the long-term exposure to chemicals, hospital cleaning workers require the necessary knowledge about the chemicals used and proper safety culture. This study aimed to evaluate the safety culture and perception of hospital cleaning workers' warning signs of chemical hazards.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2022 with the participation of 68 cleaning workers with the mean age ± (SD) and work experience ± (SD) of 36.19 ± (7.619) and 9.21 ± (5.462), respectively, in four selected Tehran hospitals in Iran. After ensuring the confidentiality of the received information and completing the demographic information checklist, each participant completed Global Harmonization System (GHS) sign perception and the safety culture questionnaires in this survey. Data were analyzed using regression and Pearson correlation tests.

RESULTS

This study showed that the participant's correct perception in nine cases (81.8%) of presented GHS signs was lower than the ANSI Z535.3 standard. Among the investigated signs, "Flammable substances" and "Harmful to the environment" signs had the highest, and "Skin irritant" signs had the lowest correct perception. In addition, it was found that 55 people (80.9%) had an overall positive attitude toward the safety culture. The levels of "Work environment" (83.8%) and "Information exchange" (76.5%) had the highest and lowest positive scores for safety culture. Furthermore, there is a direct and significant relationship between the overall score of safety culture and the overall perception of the symptoms of GHS (CC = 0.313, P = 0.009).

CONCLUSION

According to the obtained results, it is recommended to take the necessary measures to increase the employees' perception of the signs of chemical substances and improve their safety culture.

Impact of Teachers’ Commitment to the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Sustainable Teaching Performance

In the field of education, ongoing processes, and optimal schoolwork outcomes require educational leadership, especially in developing countries, due to the lack of sustainable teaching performance and effective leadership. The present study aims to examine the mediating role of teachers’ commitment to transformational leadership and sustainable teaching performance. The sample of the study was selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Out of the 450 copies distributed to the participants, only 374 were retrieved as valid. The hypotheses of the study were tested using PLS–SEM. The findings showed a positive effect of transformational leadership on teachers’ commitment. Moreover, transformational leadership was also found to positively impact teachers’ performance. In contrast, the teachers’ commitment was revealed to positively affect sustainable teaching performance. Finally, the study showed that the teachers’ commitment mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and sustainable teaching performance. This study is unique for being among the few studies that examine the effects of principals’ transformational leadership. It provides educational leaders and policymakers with significant insights by providing a roadmap that aids in understanding the most influential factors on teaching performance sustainability. Consequently, this study holds significant practical relevance for leaders in the field of education and policymakers, as they provide valuable insights into policies and practices that can be implemented to foster sustainability in the school environment.

Analyzing the impact of psychological capital and work pressure on employee job engagement and safety behavior

Introduction

Buildings and infrastructure are the primary focus of the construction industry, which also includes related activities such as design, planning, demolition, renovation, maintenance, and repair. Safety performance is crucial to the industry's ability to work effectively in spite of hazardous conditions on the job site during any given project. Improving construction workers' safety performance in Malaysia requires an in-depth examination of the interplay between workers' psychological capital, work pressure, employee engagement, and safety participation.

Methods

Administrative and field workers from different divisions across Malaysia's six regions were randomly sampled to collect data for this study. The workers were given a total of 500 questionnaires, of which 345 were returned to the team of researchers. Based on the data analysis, there is an effective interaction between the factors tested toward safety performance.

Results

According to findings, psychological capital positively and significantly affected workers' work engagement. Also, work engagement greatly impacted both workers' safety performance outcomes. Also, as expected, worker pressure significantly and negatively affected workers' safety performance.

Discussion

Insights gained from this research have helped us better organize work and involve employees in safety activities/policies to boost workplace safety performance. The study also suggested that firms should reduce their employees' workloads because doing so would not lower their Psychological Capital but would instead fortify them to better carry out their duties in a risk-free manner.

Integrated Approach for Safety Culture Factor Evaluation from a Sustainability Perspective

Traditionally, sustainable development has been seen as a combination of three pillars: economic, social and environmental development. In recent years, another one has been added to these three pillars, namely culture, as being indispensable in achieving sustainable development. This study proposes an integrated approach for the identification and classification of safety culture factors in the company in a sustainability context. The research design was based on the assumption that safety culture is part of organizational culture that should support the development of corporate sustainability. Firstly, the identification of the safety culture factors (SCFs) based on the literature review was presented. Then, the ISM method was used to identify the interaction between SCFs and to develop the hierarchical structure of these factors. In the next step, ISM was integrated with the MICMAC method to cluster the factors based on driving power and dependence power into four categories. Finally, safety culture factors with high driving power were rated using the fuzzy TOPSIS method from the sustainability dimension perspective. This approach was used in an automotive industry company to improve and develop the company's practices aimed at implementing a sustainable development strategy. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to monitor the robustness of the approach.

Fostering Academic Engagement in Post-graduate Students: Assessing the Role of Positive Emotions, Positive Psychology, and Stress

Aim

The current study attempted to assess the effect of positive emotion on post-graduate students' psychological capital (PsyCap) as well as on their academic engagement behavior. Also, the direct relationship between PsyCap and academic engagement behavior was assessed alongside the presence of Stress as a moderating variable between PsyCap and academic engagement behavior amongst post-graduate students in Malaysia.

Materials and Methods

A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection from 373 post-graduate Ph.D. students registered in various universities throughout Malaysia with a non-probabilistic sampling technique. Research respondents belonged to management, humanities, engineering, computer science, and health sciences domains, and they responded through a questionnaire copy. Statistically, structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to evaluate confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability analysis, validity analysis, measurement model, structural model, and path analysis. Furthermore, the (5000) bootstrapping approach was utilized to test the final model.

Results

For the hypothesized model, our results confirmed that positive emotions had a positive and significant effect on students' psychological capita as well as on their academic engagement behavior. Further, PsyCap also had a positive and significant effect on academic engagement behavior. Our results also reported that stress as a moderating variable has a negative and deteriorating effect on the relationship between PsyCap and the academic engagement of students.

Conclusion

The study's findings support the theoretical assumption that positive emotions help individuals generate cognitive resources, which in turn help them manage their engagement behavioral requirements. However, the stress caused by their study needs may deplete their psychological resources, consequently influencing their academic engagement behavior. Interventions like personal coaching/counseling, appropriate follow-up, and flexible goal settings with other measures may help post-graduate students in achieving their daunting tasks.

Do Leadership, Organizational Communication, and Work Environment Impact Employees' Psychosocial Hazards in the Oil and Gas Industry?

Workplace hazards can have a significant influence on a worker's physical and mental health, reducing an organization's effectiveness in terms of safety. However, psychosocial hazards are being recognized as a crucial component that must be addressed for the individual's and organization's safety. The purpose of this research was to propose and statistically evaluate a brief theoretical framework based on leadership, organizational communication, work environment, and psychosocial hazards in Malaysia's upstream oil and gas sector. The framework was tested on 380 Malaysian upstream oil and gas workers. The collected data were analyzed using partial least squares and structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The study's findings revealed that in the Malaysian oil and gas industry, leadership, communication, and work environment negatively influenced the psychosocial hazards. This negative association between predictors and psychosocial hazards, particularly job expectations, control, role, and relationships, indicates new grounds for research. It is discussed how the findings could be used to track employees' well-being over time and generate focused treatments.