Measuring safety climate at an aircraft maintenance facility: Can training change attitudes?

摘要

A significant percentage of aircraft accidents have occurred due to maintenance error. Numerous accident investigations have identified organizational failures as being contributory to the accident chain of causal factors. These failures may have been due, in part, to the safety culture of the organization---but more specifically---the safety climate that existed at the time just prior to an accident. Safety climate can be considered a "snapshot in time" of the overall safety culture of an organization. Although safety climate is ubiquitous and can have a profound influence on safety behavior, many aircraft maintenance technicians are not aware of its existence or how it may affect them. This study investigated the effects of a safety climate training course to determine what differences, if any, existed between a baseline (pre-measure) and a 30-day delayed post-measure of safety climate. The Hall Safety Climate Instrument was used to collect the data. The Hall Safety Climate Instrument is a survey tool that is based on the theory of planned behavior which suggests that behavior is largely dictated by subjective norms, attitude, and perceived behavioral control, which combine to form intentions. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to determine if significant differences existed between pre and post intervention measures of safety climate. Although the results were not statistically significant, the study's practical significance and insights learned will undoubtedly aid future researchers in a replication or expansion of this work.