Religiosity and safety performance: mediating role of safety behaviour
International Journal of Workplace Health Management
ISSN: 1753-8351
Article publication date: 31 August 2022
Issue publication date: 11 October 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Safety science research has largely focused on areas such as oil and gas, mining and construction, with a paucity of research in the agricultural sector which constitutes over 60% of the workforce in Ghana. This paper investigated the extent to which religiosity of rice farm workers predicts their safety performance through safety behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 469 respondents, comprising 347 males and 122 females from three large rice irrigation schemes in southern Ghana in a cross-sectional survey, and analysed the data with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
Religiosity had a moderate positive direct relationship with safety behaviour, while safety behaviour had a very weak relationship with safety performance. Also, safety behaviour played a competitive partial mediating role in the relationship between religiosity and safety performance.
Practical implications
The findings led to the conclusion that religiosity is an essential direct antecedent of safety behaviour at work and an indirect antecedent of safety performance. Accordingly, the authors recommend that safety practitioners, managers and supervisors put mechanisms in place to cautiously encourage optional religious programmes that would enable organisational members to get a deeper understanding and knowledge of their religion and promote religious freedom and diversity at the workplace.
Originality/value
This paper has contributed to the debate on the relevance of religiosity at work and occupational safety and health promotion in the African context. This seems to be the only study in Ghana that has investigated how religiosity relates to safety behaviour in production agriculture, specifically, rice farming. Another contribution of this study is the evidence supporting the mediating role of safety behaviour in the relationship between religiosity and safety performance.
Keywords
Citation
Asamani, L., Asumeng, M., Anum, A. and Twumasi, E. (2022), "Religiosity and safety performance: mediating role of safety behaviour", International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Vol. 15 No. 6, pp. 745-760. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-06-2020-0096
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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