Effect of hazard warning on workers' attitudes and risk taking behavior

Until recently, the issue of job hazards has been largely ignored as a research and theoretical topic in business and management disciplines although workers' perceptions and assessments of job hazards are of significance to managers. In this paper are reported results of an experiment conducted in Egyptian chemical firms to test the generality of an implicit rational model used to explain employees' reactions to and perceptions of job hazards. Four hypotheses were tested: (1) workers' subjective estimates of their job hazards are positively related to the objective hazard, (2) workers' subjective estimates of a prospective new job hazard will vary directly with the extent of hazard communicated by the new product label, (3) workers' demand for new hazard wage premiums will vary directly with perceived prospective new work hazards, (4) workers' intention to quit the job will vary directly with subjective and objective estimates of job hazards. All hypotheses were supported. The rational worker model appears to be a general explanation for workers' responses to hazardous jobs and information on hazards. This model not only holds for USA workers but also for those in a nonwestern culture. Implications for management and the industrial setting are discussed.