Development of a work behavior taxonomy for the safety function in industry

Area of Science:

• Occupational Safety and Health
• Industrial Psychology
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• The safety function is critical for industrial operations.
• Understanding the core activities of safety professionals is essential for effective safety management.
• Existing frameworks for describing safety roles may not fully capture the nuances of modern industrial safety practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an instrument for describing the safety job activity within industry.
• To identify the principal dimensions of the safety professional's role based on perceived importance and time allocation.
• To examine variations in the safety function across different industrial sectors and organizational sizes.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 24-item safety job activity questionnaire.
• Distribution to a stratified-proportionate sample of 1,190 safety professionals across 10 industrial categories.
• Application of factor analysis to identify underlying dimensions of the safety role based on importance and time spent ratings.

Main Results:

• A 40% response rate yielded 465 usable questionnaires.
• Factor analysis revealed similar five-factor solutions for both perceived importance (56% variance) and time spent (52% variance).
• The five key dimensions identified were: safety consultant/advisor, compliance/control coordination, control effectiveness assessment, hazard/loss analysis, and specialized studies/reviews.
• Minimal differences in these job dimensions were observed across various industries and operational sizes.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully delineated five core dimensions of the safety professional's role.
• The identified dimensions provide a robust framework for understanding and evaluating safety positions.
• The consistency of the safety function across different industrial contexts suggests a generalized model for safety professional activities.