Safety Motivation and Work Pressure as Predictors of Occupational Accidents in the Petrochemical Industry

The best way to reduce occupational injury and accident rates seems to be to investigate the social and organizational factors influencing workplace safety. The present study examines relationships of safety motivation and work pressure with occupational accident rate among workers of Khorasan petrochemical company. In this cross-sectional study, the population consisted of all line employees working in Khorasan petrochemical company (n = 1160). Stratified sampling was used to select 300 employees. They completed measures of safety motivation, perceived work pressure, and incident reporting rate. Regression analysis was performed by SPSS software in main stage and confirmatory factor analysis was performed by AMOS software in validation stage. Both safety motivation and work pressure were significantly correlated with occupational accident rate (P < 0.0001). Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that both safety motivation and work pressure were significant predictors (R2 = 0.302, P < 0.0001). Safety motivation and work pressure are important predictors of occupational accident rate. Therefore, increasing safety motivation and reducing work pressure in high-risk jobs are effective ways in which organizations can decrease occupational accident rates.