The impact of empowerment and technology on safety behavior: evidence from mining companies

Major technological advances that are being introduced in the global mining industry have an impact on work and employee attitudes toward safety. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of empowerment and technology on safety behavior. The research design was cross-sectional, and the sample was composed of 403 employees in mining companies. To measure safety behavior we used Neal, Griffin and Hart scales, and psychological empowerment was measured using the Spreitzer scale. The results indicated high levels of empowerment on safety behavior and medium levels of technology's promotion and prevention factors in the employees surveyed. Also, the study revealed that the meaning dimension of empowerment and the promotion technology factor positively affect safety behavior. A further contribution of the study is in the design of a scale to measure the impact of technology on safety behavior, as there are no known scales for this.