• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2018

Background: Since the Republic of Korea became a labor-force-importing country, the number of foreign workers has increased gradually, especially in the construction industry. The main objective of this study was to examine the differences in safety perception between domestic and foreign workers at Korean construction sites. Methods: A total of 891 Korean and foreign workers were surveyed: 140 foreign and 751 Korean workers. The general characteristics and 25 factors influencing safety perception were considered in the questionnaire. Regression and correlation analyses were conducted to examine the variables of workers' safety perception. Results: Differences of nationality (F = 7.379, p < 0.001) and workplace accidents were statistically significant for both domestic (F = 1.503, p < 0.05) and foreign workers (F = 7.868, p < 0.05). In contrast, age, education, and Korean language level were significant variables only for foreign workers. Correlation coefficients of $0.428^{**}$ for Korean and 0.148 for foreign workers between two items - namely, "management's commitment to safety" and "blaming staff when they make mistakes" - support the conclusion that foreign workers do not trust management's commitment to safety, while Korean workers have confidence in these commitments. Conclusion: Foreign workers' level of safety perception should rise to the same level as Korean workers, especially in terms of obeying safety rules, safety education performance, and safety beliefs. Therefore, an improvement plan for the Korean construction industry is suggested in order to have a better safety level at construction sites with foreign workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.300-309
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• 2024

Background: Risk perception plays a crucial role in workers' unsafe behaviors. However, little research has explored why workers generate biased risk perceptions, namely underestimating or overestimating the risks of unsafe actions. Cognitive biases in risk perception arise from uncertainties about the dangers of unsafe behaviors. As a typical heuristic strategy, the anchoring effect is critical in decision-making under uncertain conditions. Consequently, this study empirically analyzed the influence of anchoring effects on workers' risk perception. Methods: In 2022, a survey was conducted with 1,418 coal mine workers from Shanxi Province, China. The survey instruments assessed workers' risk perception of unsafe behavior, anchoring effects, need for cognition, and safety knowledge. Multivariable linear regression models were employed to analyze the associations among these variables. Results: The findings verified the proposed anchoring effects. Specifically, experimenter-provided high-risk anchors led workers to overestimate unsafe behavior risks, thus reducing their tendency to engage in such behavior. In contrast, experimenter-provided low-risk anchors and accident-injury experiences (self-generated anchors) decreased workers' risk perception, increasing their propensity to engage in unsafe behavior. Additionally, workers' safety knowledge and need for cognition significantly affected anchoring effects. Conclusion: This research enhances workplace safety studies by applying the anchoring effect from psychology to risk perception research. Suggestions for improving risk perception encompass implementing hazard warnings, fostering safety education, and providing training. Furthermore, managers should give special attention to workers with accident-injury experience and promptly correct their accident fluke mentality, thereby improving overall risk awareness.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.245-254
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• 2017

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effects of organizational support, risk perception and job satisfaction on safety consciousness in confined space works. Background: Confined space works are rated as hazardous works with high injury frequency and fatalities. But there were few researches for the occupational injury of the confined space workers. Method: Questionnaire survey targeting 236 workers working in confined spaces were carried out to construct the structural equation model on safety consciousness. The participants were all male workers, and they install and maintain or clean facilities mainly in the confined spaces. Results: A structural equation model for safety consciousness was proposed, and validated based on perceived organizational support, risk perception and job satisfaction factors. Perceived 'organizational support' contributed significantly to 'worker's safety consciousness' both directly and indirectly. Also, perceived 'worker's safety consciousness' was also affected by perceived 'job satisfaction' and 'risk perception'. In terms of magnitude of relationships, the direct effect of perceived 'job satisfaction' on 'worker's safety consciousness' was the greatest among the interrelationships among latent factors. Conclusion: Workers' safety consciousness can function as a leading indicator for safety and hazard prevention of workers. Application: The results can be used in developing safety prevention programs for confined space workers.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.145-152
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of risk awareness on injury experience in quick delivery service workers. Risk awareness has complicate characteristics such as its level of worker and worker's decision about the level of other's risk perception. Data were collected by interview survey with structured questionnaire about injury experience, risk perception, work characteristics, and socio-demographic characteristics of quick delivery service workers by cross sectional survey design in 2012. The sample size was 120 respondent of quick delivery service workers. Statistical method for this study was hierarchical logistic regression method with 3 different models using socio-demographic characteristics and work characteristics and risk perception, etc. The difference between the level of risk perception of quick delivery service and other's was statistically significant effect on the experience of injury. Especially the higher the level of risk perception of quick delivery service workers is than other's, the lower the injury experience of quick delivery service worker is. The limitation of this study can be found in survey design. The future study for investigation of mechanism of the combined effect of risk perception of quick delivery service workers and others on injury experience.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

Objectives: This study examined factors influencing hospital workers' perception of patient safety culture, job boredom and job crafting in reporting of safety compliance. Methods: Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 245 hospital workers who were full-time staff for six months or more. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and hierarchical multiple regressions with SPSS/WIN version 22.0. Results: The mean score for perception of patient safety culture was 3.16±0.32, for job boredom was 2.52±0.52, for job crafting was 3.35±0.49 and for degree of safety compliance was 2.87±0.3. The hierarchical multiple analysis revealed that hospital work environment (β=.27, p<.001), communication process (β=.27, p<.001) of subarea perception of patient safety culture and cognitive crafting (β=.15, p=.039) of subarea job crafting were predictive of patient safety compliance (R2=.47, p<.001). Conclusions: The findings indicate that perception of patient safety culture and job crafting are important factors to be considered in working to improve hospital workers' safety compliance. Therefore, education and systematic programs to improve perception of patient safety culture and job crafting should be developed.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.57-70
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• 2012

Background : The purpose of this study was to understand healthcare workers' perception of patient safety culture and medical error reporting to provide basic resources for the settlement of patient safety culture in medical institutions in Korea. Methods : For this purpose, convenience sampling by self-selection was applied to healthcare workers at a university hospital in Gyeonggi-do and a total of 482 people responded. The survey used the translated version of AHRQ in Korean and distributed through the Intranet system of the hospital. Result : The ratio of positive response was low overall. Among the responses, the response for 'Nonpunitive Response to Error' was the lowest at 17.7%, followed by the responses for 'Staffing' at 21.3%, 'Handoffs & Transitions' at 32.9%, and 'Communication Openness' at 44.3%. In result of surveying whether the responders have reported patient safety incidents during the past 12 months, 68.3% responded 'not once.' Conclusion : The perception of healthcare workers' patient safety culture and medical error reporting, when compared to AHRQ, was lower overall. It is important for healthcare workers to pay greater attention to patient safety to create a safe hospital culture where they do not punish or criticize related individuals or departments.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.164-171
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• 2018

Background: In recent years, the interest in health and safety in the workplace has increased. Agriculture is one of the human work activities with the highest risk indexes. Studies on risk perception of agricultural workers are often referred to as specific risk factors (especially pesticides), but the risk perception plays an important role in preventing every kind of accident and occupational disease. Methods: The aim of this research is to test a new method for understanding the relation between risk perception among farmers and the main risk factors to which they are exposed. A secondary aim is to investigate the influence of training in risk perception in agriculture. The data collection was realized using a questionnaire designed to investigate the risk perception; the questionnaire was given to a sample of 119 agricultural workers in central Italy. Through the use of the "principal components analysis" it was possible to highlight and verify the latent dimensions underlying the collected data in comparison with scales of attitudes. Results: Results show that the highest percentage of strong negative attitude is among the people who have worked for more years, while farmers who have worked for fewer years have a marked positive attitude. Conclusion: The analysis of the questionnaires through the synthetic index method (Rizzi index) showed that agricultural workers involved, in particular the elderly workers, have a negative attitude towards safety; workers are hostile to safety measures if they have not attended special training courses.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.427-433
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the influence of workers' perceived workload, accident experiences, supervisors' safety leadership, and an organization's safety climate on the cognitive and emotional risk perception. Methods: Six hundred and twenty employees in a variety of manufacturing organizations were asked to complete to a questionnaire. Among them, a total of 376 employees provided valid data for analysis. To test the hypothesis, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used. Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS program, version 23. Results: The results indicated that workload and accident experiences have a positive influence and safety leadership and safety climate have a negative influence on the cognitive and emotional risk perception. Workload, safety leadership, and the safety climate influence perceived risk more than accident experience, especially for the emotional risk perception. Conclusion: These results indicated that multilevel factors (organization, group, and individual) play a critical role in predicting individual risk perceptions. Based on these results, therefore, to reduce risk perception related with unsafe behaviors and accidents, organizations need to conduct a variety of safety programs that enhance their safety climate beyond simple safety-related education and training. Simultaneously, it needs to seek ways to promote supervisors' safety leadership behaviors (e.g., site visits, feedback, safety communication, etc.). In addition, it is necessary to adjust work speed and amount and allocate task considering employees' skill and ability to reduce the workload for reducing risk perception.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2023

This study would analyze a survey conducted with 609 workers to use the results as materials for the settlement of safety culture for the characteristics of the establishment by assessing the status of the workers' exposure to harmful risks and the impact on safety culture to present the following conclusions. This study has significance in that it found that exposure to harmful/dangerous factors in the establishment and the workers' experiences of occupational accidents affect their perception of safety culture and that in particular, 'worker safety priority' of the safety cultural factors was an important factor, and it is judged that continuous studies are necessary so that the perceptions of safety culture will spread in the establishment.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.89-105
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• 2011

Background : The purpose of study in to grasp the level of perception of hospital workers on the patient safety culture, consider the difference in perception of patients safety culture according to medical service and finally find out a way to establish patient safety culture in hospital. Methods : As for the data, the analysis on frequency, t-test, ANOVA and tukey test were carried out by using SPSS 12.0. Result : The results of comparison among the positive response ratios on the patients culture of hospital workers showed that the subjects had perceived the teamwork within units most positively(74.1%), and perceived most negatively on the non-punitive response to error(16.2%)and the staffing(26.2%). 68.6% of subjects answered that the medical error were mostly of always reported. when daytime working hours are longer, perception of patient safety culture ranked low. In general, departments for direct medical service than departments for indirect medical service assessed patient safety culture high. Conclusion : Organizational learning and teamwork within units, communication openness, active support of hospital management for patient safety, and cooperation across the units would be crucial to promote the overall perceptions of patients safety of hospital workers and the level of patients safety in the units and to improve the quality of the event reporting system.