• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.58-64
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• 2023

This study aims to analyze the differences between the safety leadership of the laboratory director, safety climate, safety motivation, and safety behavior of research workers based on whether they have participated in the certification system for exemplary laboratories in safety management (CSEL). An online survey was conducted among research workers to analyze the effect of the CSEL. The independent variables used in the survey were participation and non-participation in the CSEL, while the dependent variables were the safety leadership of the laboratory director, safety climate, safety motivation, and safety behavior of research workers. The results demonstrate that the group that participated in the CSEL had statistically significantly higher levels of safety leadership, safety climate, safety motivation, and safety behavior than the one that did not do so. Therefore, it can be concluded that the CSEL has a positive impact on the establishment of an autonomous safety management system in a laboratory by improving the safety culture and safety behavior of research workers. Further, the extrinsic factors, which are subfactors for safety motivation, did not reflect a significant difference between the group that participated in the CSEL and the one that did not. Thus, a reward system for research workers with excellent safety activities should be operated by research institutes since it is necessary to strengthen the intrinsic safety motivation of individual research workers which can be strengthened by compensation. The government should consider measures such as providing research incentives to researchers participated in CSEL.