The role of effective error management practices in increasing miners’ safety performance

• Error management climate predicted co-worker and supervisor safety support.
• Error management climate predicted within-team safety communication.
• Error management climate predicted safety behavior.
• Within-team safety communication predicted workers’ safety behaviors.
• Supervisor and co-worker safety support predicted within-team safety communication.

Despite advancements in the science and practice of safety, workers continue to experience injuries. Nowhere are these human costs more apparent than in countries such as South Africa, where the fatality rate for underground miners is well above that in developed countries. In an effort to further improve workplace safety, scholars and practitioners have sought to identify additional predictors of individual safety performance. Two concepts show considerable promise: error management climate and safety communication. This study sought to investigate the relationships between two understudied constructs in safety research: error management climate and safety communication. We found that organizational error management climate predicted co-worker and supervisor safety support, and safety behavior. In addition, co-worker safety support and safety communication exhibited particularly strong relationships with safety performance as compared to the influence of supervisor safety support and upwards safety communication. Theoretical and practical implications for error management and safety communication are discussed.