Previous studies have acknowledged the relevance of assessing the measurement equivalence of safety related measures across different groups, and demonstrating whether the existence of disparities in safety perceptions might impair direct group comparisons. The Griffin and Neal (2000) model of safety climate, and the accompanying measure (Neal et al. [NGH], 2000), are both widely cited and utilized. Yet neither the model in its entirety nor the measure have been previously validated across different national contexts. The current study is the first to examine the NGH measurement equivalence by testing whether their model of safety climate predicting safety performance is tenable in both English speaking and non-English speaking countries. The study involved 616 employees from 21 organizations in the US, and 738 employees from 20 organizations in Italy. A multi-group confirmatory factor analytic approach was used to assess the equivalence of the measures across the two countries. Similarly, the structural model of relations among the NGH variables was examined in order to demonstrate its cross-country invariance. Results substantially support strict invariance across groups for the NGH safety scales. Moreover, the invariance across countries is also demonstrated for the effects of safety climate on safety knowledge and motivation, which in turn positively relate to both compliance and participation. Our findings have relevant theoretical implications by establishing measurement and relational equivalence of the NGH model. Practical implications are discussed for managers and practitioners dealing with multi-national organizational contexts. Future research should continue to investigate potential differences in safety related perceptions across additional non-English speaking countries.

Does safety climate predict safety performance in Italy

Cognitive abilities are good predictors of safety performance in many occupations. However, this correlation has not been studied from the perspective of high-speed railway (HSR) dispatchers who play a vital role in ensuring the safety and punctuality of HSR transportation system. Therefore, studying factors affecting HSR dispatchers’ safety performance is not only of great importance in filling the theoretical gap, but also conducive to the selection and training of dispatchers, contributing to the reduction of human errors and the prevention of railway accidents. In this study, a total of 118 HSR dispatchers from a branch of China Railway were recruited to complete the tests that examined their cognitive abilities related to the dispatching job, including logical reasoning, visual multiobject tracking, working memory, task switching, and cognitive flexibility. Safety performance, including both the safety evaluation score obtained from the dispatchers’ monthly safety performance record of the Railway Bureau and the emergency disposal performance indicated by train delay time, was evaluated with a dispatch simulator. The results suggested that better abilities in visual multiobject tracking, working memory, task switching, and cognitive flexibility were correlated with higher safety evaluation score (reflecting daily safety performance) and shorter train delay time (reflecting safety and efficiency in emergency disposal). No significant correlation was found in logical reasoning. These findings support the recommendation that cognitive abilities investigated as predictors of safety performance could be useful for the selection and training of HSR dispatchers.

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Cognitive Abilities Predict Safety Performance: A Study Examining High-Speed Railway Dispatchers

The salience of social risks and the incidence of various crises in China have induced widespread concerns among urban residents. Encountering frequent risks places higher demands on the cognition of urban residents. The concept of safety cognition capability is defined within the context of urban residents' daily life, and measurement instruments are developed and tested to lay the foundation for grasping the current safety cognition capability of urban residents and conducting further research. In this study, the five-dimensional structure of urban residents' safety cognition capability (URSCC) was proposed by using the grounded theory method to sort out the interview transcript of interviews with 30 urban residents, and a 38-item URSCC scale was designed and used for surveys conducted in China. The results show that the scale can be used as a valid tool to measure the URSCC, and it can help city managers to better understand the safety needs of residents, as well as monitor the effectiveness of policy implementation.

How to Measure the Safety Cognition Capability of Urban Residents? An Assessment Framework Based on Cognitive Progression Theory


 Discomfort caused by long-term sitting decreases the passenger experience and may lead to musculoskeletal diseases, and this has become one of the main problems for passengers of high-speed railways. However, the comfort degradation mechanism during long-term sitting in high-speed railways is still unknown. This study aimed to reveal passengers’ sitting comfort degradation mechanism in high-speed railways. By carrying out long-term sitting tests on high-speed trains running on the Shanghai-Kunming line, the dynamic interface pressure and subjective comfort including overall and regional comfort of seven participants were obtained. Machine learning models and statistical analysis methods were combined for data analysis to reveal the effect of regional comfort and the contribution of sitting duration during the process of sitting comfort degradation. The results show that overall comfort is most significantly influenced by the comfort of the shoulders, waist and buttocks. The seats play different roles before and after 20 minutes during long-term sitting and there is a lag between the fatigue occurring and being offset. Therefore, the structure of seats affects overall comfort by affecting important regional comfort, and a long-term sitting test is necessary for accurate seat assessment. The comfort degradation mechanism can be used to define standards for long-term sitting comfort or provide guidance for seat evaluation, and the design and evaluation plan mentioned in this article for second-class seats can be applied to other cases with limited accommodating space.

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Research on the comfort degradation mechanism of high-speed railway passengers: a field study using dynamic interface pressure

Workplace safety has been a persistent issue for safety-critical organizations. Based on self-verification theory, this study investigates how authentic leadership affects safety behaviors in a collectivistic context.,This research collected 259 matching questionnaires for high-speed railway (HSR) drivers and their supervisors in China. Specifically, HSR drivers were invited to fill in their general perceived authentic leadership, person-organization fit and collectivistic orientation. In addition, their direct supervisors were invited to assess their safety behaviors.,Authentic leadership exhibits a significant positive impact on safety compliance and safety participation, implying that authentic leadership positively impacts safety behavior. The person-organization fit partially mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and safety behavior (safety compliance and participation). Furthermore, collectivistic orientation moderates the relationship between authentic leadership and person-organization fit.,The findings of this study provide important insights into authentic leadership and person-organization fit for developing effective strategies to improve workplace safety.

Authentic leadership, person-organization fit and collectivistic orientation: a moderated-mediated model of workplace safety

A relationship between cognitive ability and safety performance in car drivers has been consistently supported in previous literature. However, this relationship has been neglected in research regarding high-speed railway drivers. Drivers play a vital role in ensuring safety operation of high-speed railway in China. Therefore, it is of great significance to predict the impact of cognitive ability and railway driving experience of high-speed railway (HSR) drivers on safety performance. This study uses a standard driving adaptability system to assess driver’s cognitive abilities which predict safety performance in Chinese high-speed railway. 154 HSR drivers completed a standardized driving adaptability system test on a display device, which is widely used in the HSR drivers’ selection in China. The driving adaptability system is used to assess attention, multiple reaction ability, learning ability, short-term memory, speed anticipation and performance stability. Thereafter, monthly performance assessment data were collected after cognitive test since they truly reflect the driver's safety performance. Research found that attention, speed anticipation and performance stability were found to positively predict safety performance of HSR drivers. The railway driving experience plays a moderating role in the relationship between speed anticipation and safety performance, performance stability and safety performance. The richer the driver's driving experience, the stronger the effect of speed perception and job stability on safety performance, and vice versa. The results provide new ideas for the selection and management of HSR drivers and the improvement of driver safety performance.

Long Ye

Papers

Cognition and driving safety: How does the high-speed railway drivers’ cognitive ability affect safety performance?