Safety knowledge and safe practices at work: A study of Polish industrial enterprises

BACKGROUND: Knowledge management is a central resource in achieving the goals of occupational safety efforts. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between the implicit (tacit) and explicit (formal) safety knowledge of employees and their effects on employee propensity to follow safe practices at work. METHODS: A survey with seven safety constructs: 1) tacit safety knowledge, 2) explicit safety knowledge, 3) attitudes toward safety: psychological aspects, 4) attitudes toward safety: emotional aspects, 5) safety culture: behavioral aspects, 6) safety culture: psychological aspects, and 7) propensity to follow safety regulations and safe work practices (safety at work), was designed and used for data collection. A total of 468 production workers from three manufacturing companies located in southeastern Poland provided valid responses to the self-administered survey. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data. RESULTS: The results support the hypothesized relationships among tacit and explicit knowledge of safety requirements, procedures, and practices, and the propensity of employees to follow work practices at work through the mediating variables of safety culture (with behavioral and psychological factors) and attitudes toward safety (with psychological, emotional, and behavioral factors). CONCLUSIONS: While both tacit and explicit safety knowledge affect safe practices, tacit knowledge has an important influence on the use of explicit safety knowledge at work.