Evaluation of Safety Climate Differences among Employees’ Demographic Variables: A Cross-sectional Study in Two Different-sized Manufacturing Industries in Malaysia

AbstractIntroduction. Demographic information is one of the key parameters that organizations utilize to modify their practices in order to respond to the existing risk within work environments. The present paper aims to assess the level of safety climate factors as well as to evaluate the influence of personal factors on safety climate in two different-sized industries. Methods. A total of 216 employees in two large and three small and medium-sized chemical manufacturing industries responded to a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to measure the safety climate level; 2-independent sample (Mann-Whitney U- Test) and Kruskal Wallis test were run to compare the difference of safety climate scores among different demographic variables. Results. The lower level of safety climate in small and medium-sized industries revealed the lower understanding and performance of management and non-management with regard to the safety climate compared to the large industries. Additionally, significant mean diffe...