The Relationship Between Reporting Occupational Injuries, Job Control, and Safety Citizenship Sub-dimensions of Action

Abstract

More than five thousand workers lost their lives in 2018 due to occupational incidents. Research suggests that increased job control and safety citizenship can help mitigate occupational incidents. This study aims to answer the following research question: Does a relationship exist between the behavior of reporting occupational injuries and both job control and safety citizenship? This exploratory cross-sectional study used an employee perception questionnaire to examine the behavior of reporting occupational injuries, employee job control, and six safety citizenship sub-dimensions of action (i.e. stewardship, civic virtue, whistleblowing, initiating safety-related change, voice, and helping) at two companies in the Midwestern region of the United States. The survey consisted of 34 items and used a 5-point Likert Scale to quantify the data gathered along with other demographic variables. An ordinal logistic regression analysis to investigate the relationship between the behavior of reporting occupational injuries, job control, and the six sub-dimensions of safety citizenship was conducted. Results indicate that job control ( X2 = 8.512, df = 1, p < 0.05) and whistleblowing (X2 = 4.836, df = 1, p < 0.05) predict the behavior of occupational injury reporting.