Revisiting vulnerability: Comparing young and adult workers' safety voice intentions under different supervisory...

In this study, we test the widely held belief that young workers (aged 15-24) are less likely than adults (aged 25 and over) to speak up about safety concerns. Counter to this belief, and in line with age-related resource selectivity theory, we hypothesized that older workers would actually be less likely than younger workers to speak up about workplace safety concerns ("safety voice intentions") when their supervisors are unclear about their own commitment to safety. To test this, we created two realistic scenarios in which we manipulated clarity of supervisor commitment to safety: (1) it is clear the supervisor clearly cares about/is open to hearing suggestions about safety (the "clear commitment" condition) and (2) it is unclear whether the supervisor cares about/is open to hearing suggestions about safety (the "unclear commitment" condition). We randomly assigned participants (N = 80; 58 % women; 40 % over the age of 24) to one of the two scenarios and measured their safety voice intentions. In the face of clear supervisor commitment to safety, younger and adult workers did not differ on their safety voice intentions. However, compared to younger workers, adult workers were less likely to speak up about safety in the face of unclear signals about the supervisor's commitment to safety. These findings have implications for our understanding of young and adult worker safety voice, and the importance of how supervisors signal commitment to safety.