Safety climate dimensions and their relationship to construction safety performance: A meta-analytic review

This study investigated the empirical relationship between measures of construction safety climate dimensions and safety performance. A comprehensive review of existing literature of construction safety climate was conducted to: (1) review the questionnaires used to measure safety climate dimensions in the construction industry; (2) identify the salient dimensions of safety climate; and (3) establish a consistent definition of each safety climate dimension. Then, a statistical meta-analysis of the empirical relationship between construction safety climate dimensions and safety performance was performed. 107 studies were reviewed, and 11 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The review indicated that 14 construction safety climate dimensions were commonly used to assess safety climate. Of the 14 dimensions, five supervisor's safety role (r = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.07 to 0.50), management commitment to safety (r = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.23 to 0.31), safety rules and procedures (r = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.12 to 0.37), individual responsibility to health and safety (r = 0.23, 95% CI = 0.17 to 0.31, and training (r = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.03 to 0.17) were identified as commonly used predictors of injury rates. The results can be used by researchers and practitioners in this burgeoning field to standardize the assessment of safety climate and to validate the use of safety climate as a predictor of safety performance.