Safety Climate and Workers’ Trust in Safety Systems: Key Determinants of Safety Behavior in Construction
Downloads
This study explores how safety climate in safety systems influences workers' behavior, specifically focusing on safety compliance and participation in high-risk industries like construction. The goal was to examine how safety climate dimensions, such as management safety empowerment and workers' trust in safety systems, affect safety behavior. This study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. A questionnaire was administered to 438 construction workers, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and multiple regression. The results show significant positive correlations between safety climate dimensions and safety behavior. Management safety empowerment was identified as the most prominent factor associated with both safety compliance and safety participation. In addition, workers’ trust in the effectiveness of safety systems was significantly associated with safety compliance. Age and worker status significantly affected safety perceptions, with older workers and permanent workers demonstrating higher levels of safety compliance and participation. The study found that safety climate factors could explain 21.7% of the variance in safety compliance and 17.0% of the variance in safety participation.
Abegaz, T., Deressa, W., & Moen, B. E. (2025). The Relationship Between Safety Climate and Safety Performance in the Large-Scale Building Construction Industry in Ethiopia: A Structural Equation Model Using the NOSACQ-50 Tool. Safety, 11(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/safety11010028
Alamoudi, M. (2022). The Integration of NOSACQ-50 with Importance-Performance Analysis Technique to Evaluate and Analyze Safety Climate Dimensions in the Construction Sector in Saudi Arabia. Buildings, 12(11), 1855. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12111855
AlMousa, N., Althabet, N., AlSultan, S., Albagmi, F., AlNujaidi, H., & Salama, K. F. (2022). Occupational Safety Climate and Hazards in the Industrial Sector: Gender Differences Perspective, Saudi Arabia. Frontiers in Public Health, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.873498
Arooj, A., Majid, M., Alam, A., & Bilal, M. F. (2022). Assessment of workplace safety climate among power sector employees: A comparative study of cross-culture employer in Pakistan. PLOS ONE, 17(8), e0272976. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272976
Brondino, M., Bazzoli, A., Peiró, J. M., & Pasini, M. (2025). Safety climate, safety behaviors, and workplace accidents: What are the mechanisms? A multi-level lagged study. Journal of Safety Research, 94, 459–468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2025.08.008
Chen, W. T., Merrett, H. C., Huang, Y.-H., Bria, T. A., & Lin, Y.-H. (2021). Exploring the Relationship between Safety Climate and Worker Safety Behavior on Building Construction Sites in Taiwan. Sustainability, 13(6), 3326. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063326
Chen, W. T., Merrett, H. C., Huang, Y.-H., Lu, S. T., Sun, W. C., & Li, Y. (2019). Exploring the Multilevel Perception of Safety Climate on Taiwanese Construction Sites. Sustainability, 11(17), 4596. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174596
Dera, A. K., Adedokun, M. W., & Iyiola, K. (2025). The Psychosocial Safety Climate’s Influence on Safety Behavior and Employee Engagement: Does Safety Leadership Really Count? Behavioral Sciences, 15(2), 179. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15020179
DeVellis, R. F., & Thorpe, C. T. (2022). Scale development: Theory and applications (Fifth edition). SAGE.
Elosta, M., & Alzubi, A. (2024). The Interplay Between Safety Leadership and Construction Workers’ Safety Behavior: Do Perceived Employer Safety Obligations Matter? Buildings, 14(11), 3650. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14113650
El-Sayed, B., Mohmed, E. A. T., Baddar, F. M., & Khattab, S. M. K. (2025). Insights From Critical Care Nurses: Role of Leadership Coaching in Enhancing Incident Reporting Culture: A Cross-Sectional Study. BMC Nursing, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-025-03791-6
Flin, R. (2004). Leadership for Safety: Industrial Experience. BMJ Quality & Safety, 13(suppl_2), ii45–ii51. https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2003.009555
Gay, L. R. (2012). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (10th ed). : Macmillan Pub. Co.
Griffin, M. A., & Neal, A. (2000). Perceptions of safety at work: A framework for linking safety climate to safety performance, knowledge, and motivation. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(3), 347–358. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.3.347
Han, B., Son, S., & Kim, S. (2021). Measuring Safety Climate in the Construction Industry: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 13(19), 10603. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910603
He, C., Hu, Z., Shen, Y., & Wu, C. (2023). Effects of Demographic Characteristics on Safety Climate and Construction Worker Safety Behavior. Sustainability, 15(14), 10985. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151410985
Hertanto, A., Erwandi, D., Widanarko, B., & Tejamaya, M. (2023). Relationship between Safety Climate and Safety Behavior in Company X in Indonesia. Safety, 9(4), 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/safety9040089
Kadir, A., Lestari, F., Sunindijo, R. Y., Erwandi, D., Kusminanti, Y., Modjo, R., Widanarko, B., & Ramadhan, N. A. (2022). Safety Climate in the Indonesian Construction Industry: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Influential Demographic Characteristics. Buildings, 12(5), 639. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12050639
Khoshakhlagh, A. H., Sulaie, S. A., Yazdanirad, S., & Park, J. (2023). Examining the effect of safety climate on accident risk through job stress: A path analysis. BMC Psychology, 11(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01133-2
Kim, M.-J., Ahn, S.-P., Shin, S.-H., Kang, M.-G., & Won, J.-H. (2025). Comparison of Influencing Factors on Safety Behavior and Perception Between Contractor Managers and Subcontractor Workers at Korean Construction Sites. Buildings, 15(6), 963. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15060963
Lagerstrom, E., Magzamen, S., Kines, P., Brazile, W., & Rosecrance, J. (2019). Determinants of Safety Climate in the Professional Logging Industry. Safety, 5(2), 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/safety5020035
Omidi, L., Bahrami, M., Mostafaee Dolatabad, K., Zakerian, S. A., & Azam, K. (2024). Mindful organizing mediates the relations between group safety climate and safety-related behaviors among operating room team members. Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management, 34, 100351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcorm.2023.100351
Payne, M., Roache, D., Subero, J., & Zhang, G. P. (2025). How safety leadership styles impact safety performance: A case study. Journal of Safety Research, 93, 214–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JSR.2025.02.006
Quansah, P. E., Zhu, Y., & Guo, M. (2023). Assessing the effects of safety leadership, employee engagement, and psychological safety on safety performance. Journal of Safety Research, 86, 226–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JSR.2023.07.002
Saleem, F., & Malik, M. I. (2022). Safety Management and Safety Performance Nexus: Role of Safety Consciousness, Safety Climate, and Responsible Leadership. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(20), 13686. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013686
Sankar, S. S., Anandh, K. S., & Prasanna, K. (2024). Safety Leadership: A Catalyst for Positive Safety Climate on Construction Sites. Buildings, 14(6), 1806. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061806
Shabani, S., Moen, B. E., Abegaz, T., & Mamuya, S. H. (2025). Safety Climate and Occupational Injuries in the Iron and Steel Industries in Tanzania. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(9), 1372. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22091372
Shohet, I. M., Naveh, R., & Shahin, F. (2025). Safety Climate in High-Rise Construction. Buildings, 15(9), 1398. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15091398
Silla, I., Gajudo, J. A., & Gracia, F. J. (2025). Safety in high-reliability organizations: The role of upward voice, team learning, and safety climate. Journal of Safety Research, 93, 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JSR.2025.02.002
Song, H., Khatibi, A., & Tham, J. (2024). A Data-Driven Study of the Patterns of Influence of Transformational Leadership Styles on Worker Safety Behavior in the Construction Industry. Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences, 9(1), 20242865. https://doi.org/10.2478/amns-2024-2865
Tavakol, M., & Dennick, R. (2011). Making sense of Cronbach’s alpha. International Journal of Medical Education, 2, 53–55. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd
Wang, D., Mao, W., Zhao, C., Wang, F., & Hu, Y. (2023). The cross-level effect of team safety-specific transformational leadership on workplace safety behavior: The serial mediating role of team safety climate and team safety motivation. Journal of Safety Research, 87, 285–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2023.05.001
Copyright (c) 2026 JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright notice
Ownership of copyright
The copyright in this website and the material on this website (including without limitation the text, computer code, artwork, photographs, images, music, audio material, video material and audio-visual material on this website) is owned by JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN and its licensors.
Copyright license
JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN grants to you a worldwide non-exclusive royalty-free revocable license to:
- view this website and the material on this website on a computer or mobile device via a web browser;
- copy and store this website and the material on this website in your web browser cache memory; and
- print pages from this website for your use.
- All articles published by JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This permits anyone to copy, redistribute, remix, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited.
JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN does not grant you any other rights in relation to this website or the material on this website. In other words, all other rights are reserved.
For the avoidance of doubt, you must not adapt, edit, change, transform, publish, republish, distribute, redistribute, broadcast, rebroadcast or show or play in public this website or the material on this website (in any form or media) without appropriately and conspicuously citing the original work and source or JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN prior written permission.
Permissions
You may request permission to use the copyright materials on this website by writing to [email protected].
Enforcement of copyright
JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN takes the protection of its copyright very seriously.
If JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN discovers that you have used its copyright materials in contravention of the license above, JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN may bring legal proceedings against you seeking monetary damages and an injunction to stop you using those materials. You could also be ordered to pay legal costs.
If you become aware of any use of JURNAL INFO KESEHATAN copyright materials that contravenes or may contravene the license above, please report this by email to [email protected]
Infringing material
If you become aware of any material on the website that you believe infringes your or any other person's copyright, please report this by email to [email protected].
