Role of safety stressors and social support on safety performance

Action theory is used as a framework to explore the extent to which relationships between occupational safety stressors (i.e., safety obstacles and safety uncertainty) and safety performance vary as a function of type of performance (i.e., safety compliance and participation) using a sample of unionized pipefitters. The study also explores whether supervisor support, in the form of positive job-related communication and non-job related communication, moderates the relationships between stressors and safety compliance and participation. Safety uncertainty and safety obstacles were negatively related to safety participation, while only safety uncertainty was negatively related to safety compliance. Although supervisor support did not moderate the relationships between safety stressors and safety performance, there were significant positive relationships between supervisor support consisting of positive job-related communication and both types of safety performance. The relationship between positive job-related communication and safety participation was stronger than that with safety compliance. Non job-related communication only had a significant positive relationship with safety participation. This research suggests that it is important to explore the relationships between specific safety stressors and aspects of job performance. The study also highlights the importance of general job-related communication compared to safety-specific communication.