Managing Risk in the Shipping Industry: Methodological, Theoretical and Applied Implications for Safety Climate Research

Abstract

The present study addresses methodological, theoretical, and applied issues in safety climate research. Thirty SWOT-based semi-structured interviews were carried out in a large shipping company and its organizational network. This measurement approach was evaluated on its ability to produce data important for safety climate. The results show that this approach gives accurate indications of the construct: 77.3 % of safety-related statements in the interviews reflected the Safety Climate Model (Flin, Mearns, O’Connor, & Bryden, 2000). A qualitative evaluation of this model was also carried out to give a theoretical contribution to the model’s construct validity. The model was compared with an applied model for human factors – the Campaign Model – constructed from a safety campaign developed in the community of high-risk industries. Results indicate that communication – as defined in the Campaign Model – should be included in the Safety Climate Model: 47.6 % of the statements not reflected in the Safety Climate Model, were accounted for by the communication dimension in the Campaign Model. The statements reflected in the Campaign Model were further applied as an indication of the campaign’s effectiveness in raising awareness on human factors: 71.5 % of all the statements were reflected in the Campaign Model, hence also in the safety campaign, indicating a high level of awareness on human factors probably due to the campaign.