An analysis of safeness of work environment in Korean manufacturing: The “safety climate” perspective

► We analyze factors on safeness of work environment through a safety climate perspective. ► Safety compliance will affect safeness of work environment. ► Safety participation will affect safeness of work environment. In Korea, the safety climate of working environments is a crucial aspect of the issue of establishing an industrial accident-prevention policy. However, there have been insufficient studies on safety climate in South Korean working environments. The purpose of this study is to examine the safety climate factors that influence a safe working environment using a South Korean sample. A total of 500 surveys targeting manufacturing industry employees were conducted, and 131 valid samples were used for evaluation. Safety knowledge, safety compliance, safety motivation, and safe working environment were established as the main factors affecting safety climate awareness, and structural equation modeling was performed to confirm significant relationships. Out of eight hypotheses, three were rejected, and safety knowledge and safety motivation were shown to have no statistically significant effect on the safeness of the work environment. This result reflects the limitations of South Korea’s government-led Occupational Safety and Health training and promotion programs and of systematic knowledge transfer and the encouragement of participation.