Safety at work: A meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes.
verifiedrich profile · Journal of Applied Psychology · 2011
Nahrgang, Jennifer D.; Morgeson, Frederick P.; Hofmann, David A.
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
safety climate → burnout
safety compliance → occupational injuries
safety climate → safety participation
safety climate → safety compliance
safety climate → accidents
safety climate → job satisfaction
safety compliance → accidents
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
safety climate predicts accidents
safety climate predicts burnout
safety climate predicts job satisfaction
safety climate predicts occupational injuries
safety climate predicts safety compliance
safety climate predicts safety participation
safety compliance predicts accidents
safety compliance predicts occupational injuries
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
In this article, we develop and meta-analytically test the relationship between job demands and resources and burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes in the workplace. In a meta-analysis of 203 independent samples (N = 186,440), we found support for a health impairment process and for a motivational process as mechanisms through which job demands and resources relate to safety outcomes. In particular, we found that job demands such as risks and hazards and complexity impair employees' health and positively relate to burnout. Likewise, we found support for job resources such as knowledge, autonomy, and a supportive environment motivating employees and positively relating to engagement. Job demands were found to hinder an employee with a negative relationship to engagement, whereas job resources were found to negatively relate to burnout. Finally, we found that burnout was negatively related to working safely but that engagement motivated employees and was positively related to working safely. Across industries, risks and hazards was the most consistent job demand and a supportive environment was the most consistent job resource in terms of explaining variance in burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes. The type of job demand that explained the most variance differed by industry, whereas a supportive environment remained consistent in explaining the most variance in all industries.
What the literature says about it
Attributed, open-access quotes from other works that cite this article, plus the citation-graph verdict tally. Corroborations and disputes, in one place — the honest-broker view.
supports “An analysis of job resources revealed that knowledge, social support, leadership, and safety climate were all significantly related to engagement, compliance, and satisfaction (Nahrgang et al. 2011).”
supports “Two safety-related behaviorsdsafety compliance and safety participationdwere particularly of interest as they are proximal predictors of safety outcomes such as workplace accidents, near-miss incidents, and injuries [2,3].”
supports “An analysis of job resources revealed that knowledge, social support, leadership, and safety climate were all significantly related to engagement, compliance, and satisfaction (Nahrgang et al. 2011).”
supports “The results of several meta-analysis studies show that the safety climate affects safety outcomes such as accidents and injuries, as well as safety compliance and participation behaviors [18, 19].”
supports “Previous studies have emphasized the interconnectedness between perceived safety and health climates and several factors, such as safety practices, motivation, knowledge, accidents, and overall physical health and well-being [22].”
supports “The results of several meta-analysis studies show that the safety climate affects safety outcomes such as accidents and injuries, as well as safety compliance and participation behaviors [18, 19].”
supports “A clear safety climate is therefore an important organizational resource that promotes well-being and inhibits burnout, particularly in high-risk environments (Nahrgang et al., 2011) Drawing on these frameworks and theoretical foundations, we developed FOCUS, a multilevel fire service specific safety climate measure.”
supports “Regarding engagement and the accident rate, there is evidence that when workers are engaged, the perceived job security climate is linked to a decrease in labour demands, and in general, there is a decrease in incidents of occupational accidents, as well as a lower frequency of behaviours that expose them to accidents [30].”
supports “The results of several meta-analysis studies show that the safety climate affects safety outcomes such as accidents and injuries, as well as safety compliance and participation behaviors [18, 19].”
supports “Safety climate was one of the important factors that are closely related to safety motivation, safety compliance, and safety participation [2,3].”
supports “Regarding engagement and the accident rate, there is evidence that when workers are engaged, the perceived job security climate is linked to a decrease in labour demands, and in general, there is a decrease in incidents of occupational accidents, as well as a lower frequency of behaviours that expose them to accidents [30].”
supports “Past research has highlighted how safety and health climates are linked to a range of factors, including safety practices, motivation, knowledge, and accidents, as well as physical health and wellbeing [37,38].”
supports “Safety climate was one of the important factors that are closely related to safety motivation, safety compliance, and safety participation [2,3].”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
- 10.1007/s10111-022-00711-5
- 10.1016/j.shaw.2022.03.006
- 10.1186/s12889-021-12298-z
- 10.3934/publichealth.2024046
- 10.1016/j.ssci.2019.05.007
- 10.3390/ijerph19020890
- 10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062414
- 10.3390/ijerph19073981
- 10.15760/etd.6118
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.