Personality and safety citizenship: the role of safety motivation and safety knowledge

Julie Laurent; Nik Chmiel; Isabelle Hansez

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03201

Personality and safety citizenship: the role of safety motivation and safety knowledge

Heliyon. 2020 Jan 16;6(1):e03201. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03201. eCollection 2020 Jan.

Authors

Julie Laurent¹, Nik Chmiel², Isabelle Hansez¹

Affiliations

¹ Human Resources Development Unit, University of Liège, Belgium.
² Department of Psychology and Counselling, University of Chichester, UK.

Abstract

Safety citizenship behaviors (SCB) have never been classified following the intended beneficiary of these behaviors. The first aim of this study was to examine Hofmann et al. (2003)'s SCB items in an attempt to identify two dimensions: SCB oriented towards individuals (SCB-I) and SCB oriented towards the organization (SCB-O). Further, by drawing on Christian et al. (2009)'s model of safety performance, we examined how distal (i.e. personality) and proximal (i.e. safety motivation and knowledge) person-related factors are associated with these behaviors. Structural equation modelling realized on a sample of 290 workers from a Belgian pharmaceutical company showed that the broader conscientiousness trait was related to both SCB-I and SCB-O, indirectly through safety motivation and knowledge, as would be predicted by Christian et al. In contrast, the altruism facet was directly related to SCB-I only. Results are discussed and practical implications considered.

Keywords: Altruism; Conscientiousness; Psychology; Safety citizenship behaviours oriented towards individuals (SCB-I); Safety citizenship behaviours oriented towards organization (SCB-O); Safety knowledge; Safety motivation.