Assessing employee safety motivation /

This study is the first step towards the development of an assessment tool for evaluating employees motivation to work safely The creation of the SDSM scale was based on the theoretical framework of Self- determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) The SDSM scale is designed to assess five different types of safety motivation (i.e., amotivation, external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic) [...] The goal of this research was to develop and pilot test a survey instrument that can be used to assess employee’s safety motivation and provide preliminary information about the reliability and validity of the instrument. [...] Therefore, the purpose of this project was to develop and provide preliminary information on the reliability and validity of a P a g e. | 8 safety motivation scale designed to assess and understand the reasons why employees are motivated to work safely. [...] Evidence of the effectiveness of both behaviour-based and safety culture strategies for motivating employees to work safely support the argument that there are different types of safety motivation, one type of safety motivation that is driven by external reward (or punishment) and a second that is based on the relative value employees place on safety. [...] If the employees conduct the hazard assessment because they value the information they obtained from the activity, their motivation is still extrinsically driven because they are performing the activity to obtain an outcome (i.e., the information it provides); however, the employees have internalized the value of the outcome; therefore, the behaviour will be autonomous and self- directed.