Antecedents of workplace safety behavior: Meta-analysis in the construction industry

Despite a recent surge in publications on construction safety, the findings on the effect sizes of antecedents of safety behavior are still dispersed and equivocal. This research aimed to analyze the influences of diverse antecedents on safety behavior by accumulating the effect sizes through a meta-analysis of existing studies on the high-risk construction industry. Data were gleaned from 58 primary articles to calculate effect sizes for 21 antecedents. The results quantified effects among three categories of safety behavior antecedents: proximal personal factors (i.e., safety knowledge, motivation, and strain), distal situational factors (i.e., job demands and job resources), and distal personal factors (i.e., key resources and job attitudes). We also exploratively showed that safety behavior antecedent effect sizes were stronger in cultures with high uncertainty avoidance and varied inconsistently when safety behavior was measured with an industry-specific scale compared with a universal one. An exemplar path model verified that the three factors, namely safety knowledge, motivation, and strain, partially mediated the effects of situational antecedents (job demands and job resources) on safety behavior. Through a cumulative assessment, this research contributes to the construction safety literature by quantifying the relationship between safety behavior and its antecedents, emphasizing the fundamental significance of contingent factors and confirming a synthesized conceptual model that informs the mechanisms liking safety behavior and its antecedents. Practical Applications Workplace safety is a critical issue in the construction industry. Failure to effectively intervene in the unsafe behavior of construction workers will result in serious consequences such as accidents and casualties. Previous studies have mostly uncovered behavioral antecedents from a single perspective. However, in the process of management practice, safety behavior is not the result of a single factor, which makes it necessary to effectively identify factors as comprehensively as possible. Using meta-analysis, this study summarizes 21 antecedents in three categories: proximal personal factors (i.e., safety knowledge, motivation, and strain), distal situational factors (i.e., job demands and job resources), and distal personal factors (i.e., key resources and job attitudes). The effect sizes of these 21 antecedents with safety behavior were also calculated, which may help the management make decisions on safety behavior interventions when resources are constrained. Furthermore, the cultural background of construction workers also needs to be considered in the implementation of interventions. When there is a high level of fear of uncertainty in a culture, the strain of construction workers can force them to act more unsafely. Finally, it should be stressed that the antecedents are not isolated: job demands and job resources will influence safety behavior through safety knowledge, motivation, and strain.