The Double-Edged Sword of Safety Training for Safety Behavior: The Critical Role of Psychological Factors during COVID-19

Xin Ning, Jiwen Huang, Chunlin Wu (), Tong Liu and Chao Wang
Additional contact information
Xin Ning: School of Investment and Construction Management, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian 116025, China
Jiwen Huang: School of Investment and Construction Management, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian 116025, China
Chunlin Wu: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Tong Liu: School of Investment and Construction Management, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian 116025, China
Chao Wang: Bert S. Turner Department of Construction Management, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: Safety training (ST) is the primary means of avoiding unsafe behaviors, but it has not achieved the expected impact on improving workplace safety because of the high psychological stress it brings to workers. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) further threatens workers’ psychological conditions, thereby diminishing the effectiveness of ST. However, the existing literature has mainly laid emphasis on the bright side of ST and neglected examining its impact on safety behavior (SB) from detrimental psychological factors. Drawing from the conservation of resources theory, a novel two-staged model was established to understand how these psychological factors mediate and moderate the association between ST and SB. We incorporated resource consumption (e.g., role overload (RO) and COVID-19-related task setbacks) and resource generation (e.g., psychological resilience) into the model to consider both detrimental and protective psychological factors against ST. We then implemented a time-separated, three-wave data collection on a sample of frontline workers to validate this hypothetical model. Consistent with our hypothesis, RO played a significant mediating role between ST and SB, that is, ST leads to RO, and in turn, holds up SB. Surprisingly, contrary to our hypothesis, COVID-19-related task setbacks weakened the negative and indirect impact of ST on SB via RO. This is one of the first empirical studies to highlight how detrimental psychological factors caused by ST constrict or amplify SB. In practice, the efficacy of ST can be enhanced by cultivating psychological resilience and clarifying employees’ job responsibilities to reduce the ambiguity of roles.

Keywords: conservation of resources theory; role overload; safety behavior; safety training; task setbacks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10951/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10951/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10951-:d:904818

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().