An Assessment of Safety Climate in U.S Naval Aviation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to carry out a factor analysis of 23,968 responses by U.S Naval aviators to 12 items from the Command Safety Assessment Survey (CSAS), and identify whether there were differences in safety climate based upon rank or aviation community. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques it was possible to establish a stable two factor solution. For factor one (personnel leadership) no significant effects of rank or aviation community were found. For factor two (availability of resources) although there was not a significant main effect of rank, there was a significant main effect of aviation community, and a significant interaction. These significant findings were attributed to the unique mission of training squadrons and the junior officers in them.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bentler

P.M.

Yuan

K.-H.

(1997). Optimal conditionally unbiased equivariant factor score estimators. In Berkane

(Ed.), Latent variable modeling with applications to causality (pp. 259-281). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Butterey

O’Connor

O’Dea

Kennedy

(2010). An evaluation of the construct validity of the command safety assessment survey. CA: Naval Postgraduate School.

Clarke

(1999). Perceptions of organizational safety: Implications for the development of safety culture. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 185-198.

Cohen

(1977). Factors in successful occupational safety programs. Journal of Safety Research, 9(4), 168-178.

Desai

V.M.

Roberts

K.H.

Ciavarelli

A.P.

(2006). The relationship between safety climate and recent accidents: Behavioral learning and cognitive attributions. Human Factors, 48, 639-650.

Flin

Mearns

O’Connor

Bryden

(2000). Safety climate: Identifying the common features. Safety Science, 34, 177-192.

Gaba

D.M.

Singer

S.J.

Sinaiko

A.D.

Bowen

J.D.

Ciavarelli

A.P.

(2003). Difference in safety climate between hospital personnel and naval aviators. Human Factors, 45, 173-185.

Krosnick

J. A.

(1999). Survey research. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 537-567.

Libuser

C.B.

(1994). Organizational structure and risk mitigation (Ph.D. Dissertation). Los Angeles, CA: University of California at Los Angeles.

10.

Mearns

Flin

(1999). Assessing the state of organizational safety – culture or climate. Current Psychology, 18(1), 5-17.

11.

O’Connor

Buttrey

O’Dea

Kennedy

(under review). Identifying and addressing the limitations of safety climate surveys.

12.

O’Connor

O’Dea

Kennedy

Buttrey

(2011). Measuring safety climate in the aviation industry: A review and recommendations for the future. Safety Science, 49, 128-138.

13.

Singer

S.J

Rosen

Zhao

Ciavarelli

Gaba

(2010). Comparing safety climate in naval aviation and hospitals: Implications for improving patient safety. Health Care Management Review, 35(2), 134-146.