Relationship Between Organizational Justice and Organizational Safety Climate: Do Fairness Perceptions Influence Employee Safety Behaviour?

This study investigated the relationships between organizational justice, organizational safety climate, job
satisfaction, safety compliance and accident frequency. Ghanaian industrial workers participated in the study
(N = 320). Safety climate and justice perceptions were assessed with Hayes, Parender, Smecko, et al.’s (1998)
and Blader and Tyler’s (2003) scales respectively. A median split was performed to dichotomize participants
into 2 categories: workers with positive and workers with negative justice perceptions. Confirmatory factors
analysis confirmed the 5-factor structure of the safety scale. Regression analyses and t tests indicated that
workers with positive fairness perceptions had constructive perspectives regarding workplace safety,
expressed greater job satisfaction, were more compliant with safety policies and registered lower accident
rates. These findings provide evidence that the perceived level of fairness in an organization is closely associated
with workplace safety perception and other organizational factors which are important for safety. The
implications for safety research are discussed.