An investigation into the relationship between perceptions of safety climate and organizational justice

Abstract

To date the relationship between perceptions of safety climate and organizational justice does not appear to be empirically tested. There are no known studies that examine the relationship of distributive, procedural, informational and interpersonal justice on perceptions of safety climate. To address this gap in the literature I conducted three separate studies. In study one I test a structural model examining the relationship between four justice factors, safety climate, safety behaviours and incidents. In study 2 I tested the same proposed structural model using a different sample of workers. In the third study I tested the longitudinal effects of organizational justice on perceptions of safety climate using a general sample of employed people from the province of Nova Scotia Study. Overall results indicated a complicated relationship between organizational justice and safety climate in that procedural justice was the only consistent predictor of safety climate perceptions in all three studies. Overall the findings of all three studies provide empirical support for the relationship between justice and safety climate, safety behaviours and incidents. These results address the current gap in the literature and make a significant contribution to what we know about the antecedents of perceptions of safety climate.