Organisational culture, safety climate, supervisory accountability and engagement as drivers of safety behaviour in a platinum mining organisation

Abstract

The mining industry plays a significant role in the South African economy. In 2019, the sector contributed R360.9 billion (8.1%) to the total gross domestic product (Minerals Council South Africa, 2020). With almost half a million employees reporting to work in the South African mining industry each day, a relentless commitment to safety and health compliance is required to manage the inherent risks and hazards associated with the sector. Previous research has shown that frontline supervisors have a direct impact on the safety behaviour of individuals and that their leadership significantly influences team safety performance. The objectives of this study sought to contribute to the body of research on organisational culture, frontline supervisory engagement and accountability as levers for enhancing organisational performance and creating sustainable competitive advantage through resilient safety behaviour. Quantitative, confirmatory research methods were used to gain insights into the effect of organisational culture and safety climate on safety behaviour, while examining the influencing effects of frontline supervisory engagement and accountability on safety behaviour in the process division of a single platinum mining organisation in South Africa. A total of 104 survey based responses from frontline supervisors were analysed using factor analysis and multiple regression tactics. The key findings indicate that the tendency of a supervisor to hold herself and her team accountable is positively correlated to good safety behaviour, and is the strongest predictor of safety behaviour when considering safety climate and supervisory engagement and supervisory accountability. Furthermore, safety climate was found to be a significant contributor to safety behaviour. All three organisational culture factors – organisational practices, supervisory support and work attributes – were found to be strong predictors of safety climate, with only work attributes contributing to predicting supervisory accountability. These results indicate a significant influence between organisational culture, safety climate, supervisory accountability and safety behaviour. Supervisory engagement, although found to be positively correlated, was not a statistically significant predictor of safety behaviour. The findings from this research add to the literature on safety behaviour, frontline supervisory behaviours and organisational culture.