Investigating the relationships between individual differences, safety-related constructs, and individual work performance

Abstract

Individual differences are known predictors of various outcomes in the workplace, including safety-related constructs. Although some studies have indicated that individual differences only explain a small variance in predicting organization constructs, examining the interaction between each individual factor may improve the results. This thesis focused on specific individual differences known to relate to safety, such as personality traits, decision-making ability, and risk-taking propensity. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate how individual characteristics interact with each other in predicting individual perception and attitude toward safety.

Study 1 explores how sensation seeking can be directed through learning mechanisms to develop rationality so that workers positively perceive individual safety climate. Study 2 demonstrates how the interaction between conscientiousness and decision-making ability helps to explain why conscientious nurses do not rely on reinforcements from the workplace. Study 3 analyzes the interaction between sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity in predicting how nurses justify their behavior, and how openness to experience directs sensation seekers justify their actions as results of external factors. Study 4 explains the difference between sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity in predicting individual performance as influenced by perceived individual safety attitude.

The findings of this thesis suggest that the development of rationality helps individuals to be more functional than dysfunctional at work, as they perceive that organizational support is not crucial to work safely. The results also show that the interaction between each individual factor more effectively explains perception of individual safety climate, particularly in relation to perceived individual safety motivation and perceived risk justification. The results are also indicated that there are differences between sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity in predicting safety-related constructs. Lastly, it is suggested that reinforcements for safety behavior at work are important, as they may increase the likelihood of unsafe and risky behavior.

In general, this thesis supports the idea that it is more beneficial to investigate the interaction between individual characteristics in predicting safety-related constructs than to analyze each individual characteristic toward organization outcomes.