This article explores the impact of the main occupational safety and health (OSH) factors in the overall OSH climate of production organizations in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, South Serbia, as an important segment of their strategic development. The article aims to validate and test the proposed conceptual model of OSH. Hence, the SmartPLS methodology was applied. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 21.0. The hypothesized model was developed and tested on a sample of 871 participants employed in production companies. The results indicate that the development of an OSH climate in production organizations primarily depends on the commitment of the management to the OSH system. The results obtained indicate that the methods used in this research can be successfully used in order to identify the OSH factors in the work process, and thus to manage the quality of the work environment.
Keywords: involvement of employees; modeling; occupational safety and health factors; occupational safety climate; the commitment of the management.