Exploring the Relationship between Construction Workers’ Personality Traits and Safety Behavior

Abstract

In the workplace, some workers tend to have a higher probability of incurring an accident. Such individuals might behave unsafely because they assign low priority to safety. Some evidence in the literature suggests that people’s personalities could influence their safety behavior at work. However, it seems that the correlation between construction workers’ personality traits and safety behavior has been insufficiently addressed in the existing literature. This paper attempts to provide evidence on this issue. Two hundred and eighty workers were surveyed to gather data concerning personality traits and safety behavior. The results indicated that across the set of Big Five personality traits, conscientiousness revealed the strongest correlation with workers’ safety behavior, followed by extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. In addition, agreeableness and conscientiousness were found to be positively correlated with workers’ safety behavior whereas extraversion and neuroticism were negatively correlated with workers’ safety behavior. These findings seem to imply practical implications. For example, some tasks, such as operating construction machinery, require focused attention and stable emotions, which may not be suitable for people who score high in neuroticism. Site managers may take into consideration the personality traits of an individual when selecting personnel and allocating tasks.

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