THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE SAFETY CLIMATE ON SAFETY BEHAVIOR IN SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Purpose of the study: The objective of this study is to examine the mediation effect of ESC on the relationship between climate constructs and intention to Safety in small and medium enterprises. Methodology: A structured self-administrative questionnaire was distributed to the employee of the small-medium enterprise in Peninsular Malaysia using simple random sampling. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) procedure were carried out to filter the items and validate the constructs in the study. The study tested the proposed hypotheses using the second-generation method of multivariate analysis Structural Equation Modelling (SEM. Furthermore, the results were confirmed through the bootstrapping procedure. All analysis of this study was conducted using IBM-SPSS-AMOS version 24.0. Main Findings: All items retained from EFA results were rearranged for the field study questionnaire. The CFA results indicated that the absolute fit index (RMSEA= 0.071) CFI = 0.975, TLC = 0.964, chisq/df = 2.431 achieved the requirement level. The results of this present study revealed that employee safety climate mediated the relationship between WO, IWE, and intention to safety behavior. Additionally, results indicated that ESC is the most prominent factor of intention to safety behavior. Applications of this study: The results from this study contribute to the improvement of proactive safety performance measures in small-medium enterprises, but further efforts are required for achieving an excellent safety performance level. Novelty/Originality of this study: The present study adds to the literature of safety performance and provides direction for future research work in this area. Additionally, the results of this present study mark an important step towards standardizing the measurement of safety climate in small and medium industries.