Exploring relationships between organizational factors and hydrocarbon leaks on offshore platform

• There is a need to understand factors that influence risk levels on offshore platforms.
• Hydrocarbon leaks are one of the most important risk factors.
• Few studies have explained variation in hydrocarbon leaks between platforms using organizational factors.
• The results of the study suggest substantial relations between organizational factors and severity of hydrocarbon leaks.
• The study provides suggestions on how to understand and prevent accidents on offshore platforms.

In general, it is important to understand drivers of safety performance. The issue of hydrocarbon leaks on offshore platforms is one of the most important safety performance indicators based on risk related to major accidents. In this study, a longitudinal design was used to investigate the relationships between work climate and hydrocarbon leaks from a broader organizational perspective. Confirmatory factor analyses tested on a sample of offshore workers (N = 3320), supported the validity of the Scandinavian Work Climate Instrument (SWCI). Complementary results also supported the measurement model. Pearson’s correlations indicated significant associations between work climate dimensions and hydrocarbon leaks occurring in the post survey period. All correlations were negative, supporting the proposed hypothesis. Generally, the results supported the assumption and model that guided the overall investigation. Specifically, work climate was associated with safety performance. The findings indicated that several work climate factors could function as leading indicators, implying that the work climate approach has been underestimated in safety research. Correlations with hydrocarbon leaks indicate that the organizational factors explored in this study can predict different levels of leaks. This suggests that the work climate approach used in this study represents an important contribution to achieving a holistic understanding of safety performance. Future research should replicate the study design in other settings and investigate the possibility of exploring relationships with other types of safety performance indicators using SWCI.