A Comparison of Safety Expectations between New Recruits and Employers

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Psychology
Degree name
Master of Science
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Psychology
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2011
Authors
Wallis, Danielle
Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the safety expectations of new recruits and their managers in the workplace. For most informational exchanges, researchers have begun to look at the psychological contract for guidance, although very few studies have actually looked at whether this concept could be applied to safety research. Entering a working environment with unrealistic safety expectations poses danger, not only for the individual, but it can also affect everyone around them. Previous research in the safety field has provided little information as to what new recruits expect, and has failed to identify who these individuals are trusting with the responsibility of their safety. The current research looks to establish the existence of three different hypotheses looking at new recruits’ safety expectations, their trust and also their degree of perceived risk. Eighty participants were obtained via a Government funded program named the Gateway, half the participants were new recruits from high school (with a mean age of 17) who were beginning a new job, and the other half were their managers (with a mean age of 42). For the new recruits’, there was an even split in gender, although for the managers, there were 24 females and 16 males. All participants were asked to complete a safety questionnaire. Results were supportive for two of the three hypotheses and provided information that showed unrealistic safety expectations from the new recruits. The data also demonstrated that new recruits with high expectations were more likely to trust their co-workers and management with their safety. Finally, when looking at perceived job risk for new recruits, no significant results were found, which suggests that risk, has very little influence upon new recruits’ safety expectations. Future research could examine how information could be exchanged during the recruitment phase in order to provide more realistic safety expectations.

Description
Citation
Keywords
Safety, New Recruits, Employers, Expectations
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
Copyright Danielle Wallis