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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Michael J. Burke, PhD¹, Suzanne Chan-Serafin, BA¹, Rommel Salvador, MBA¹, Alexis Smith, BA¹, and Sue Ann Sarpy, PhD². (1) School of Business, Tulane University, 7 McAlister Dr., New Orleans, LA 70118, 504-862-3328, mburke1@tulane.edu, (2) School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, 1430 Tulane Avenue, SL-29, New Orleans, LA 70112

A recent, large-scale study indicated that as the method of safety training becomes more engaging (i.e., requiring trainees' active participation), workers demonstrated greater knowledge acquisition, improved behavioral performance, and were involved in fewer accidents, illnesses, and injuries.1 Because training effects for the more distal outcomes such as on-the-job performance and injuries are likely to be more affected by intervening variables than training effects for more proximal measures such as knowledge assessments, the need exists to examine the influence of situational (contextual) variables on safety and health training effectiveness. Therefore, using training program effects from Burke et al.'s (2006) meta-analysis and archival data on national culture and organizational safety culture, this study tested hypotheses concerning the moderating role of national culture and organizational safety culture on the effectiveness of safety and health training. An organizational safety culture dimension (i.e., management commitment to safety) was positively correlated with training-related safety performance. A national culture dimension, uncertainty avoidance (i.e., the extent to which members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or ambiguous situations), was negatively correlated with reducing negative outcomes such as accidents and illnesses. The implications of these findings will be discussed with respect to creating environments that enhance the effectiveness of safety interventions and facilitate transfer of safety training. 1. Burke MJ, Sarpy SA, Smith-Crowe K, Chan-Serafin S, Salvador RO, Islam G. Relative effectiveness of safety and health training methods. Am J Public Health. 2006; 96(2).

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Describe the taxonomies of organizational safety culture and national culture variables that might moderate the effectiveness of safety training interventions.
• 2. Discuss how a dimension of organizational safety culture (management commitment to safety) and a dimension of national culture (uncertainty avoidance) moderate the transfer of safety training to the job in terms of improving behavioral safety performance and reducing negative outcomes such as accidents, respectively.
• 3. Discuss the practice implications related to creating environments that will facilitate the transfer of safety training.

Keywords: Workplace Safety, Safety Training Materials

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Handout (.ppt format, 56.5 kb)