Motivations, Attitudes, Perceptions and Skills:

What they said about work health and safety in 2010

Motivations, Attitudes, Perceptions and Skills: What they said about work health and
safety in 2010
Principal Authors
Dr Jenny Job and Mrs Dianna Smith, Safe Work Australia.
Other Contributors
Dr Elizabeth Bluff, Dr Valerie Braithwaite, Ms Monika Reinhart, Australian National
University.
Data Collection
The Motivations, Attitudes, Perceptions and Skills project was conceived and developed by
Dr Jenny Job. Sweeney Research carried out the data collection in 2010.
Disclaimer

The information provided in this document can only assist you in the most general way. This
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Territory legislation. Safe Work Australia is not liable for any loss resulting from any action
taken or reliance made by you on the information or material contained on this document.
Before relying on the material, users should carefully make their own assessment as to its
accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any
appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. The views in this
report should not be taken to represent the views of Safe Work Australia unless otherwise
expressly stated."

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1
Information collected...........................................................................................................1
Demographics..................................................................................................................... 1
Meaning of work health and safety.....................................................................................2
Diagram 1: What comes to mind when you hear the term Occupational Health and Safety
........................................................................................................................................... 2
Level of concern about work health and safety...................................................................3
Table 1: Ranking of work health and safety 1995, 1996, 1998, 2010..................................3
Workplace safety................................................................................................................ 3
Main causes of accidents....................................................................................................4
Table 2: Main causes of workplace injuries and illnesses 1995, 1996, 1998, 2010.............5
Motivation, informal leadership and raising work health and safety issues.........................5
Table 3: Self confidence to improve work health and safety................................................6
Awareness of state inspectorate.........................................................................................6
Table 4: Main sources of information on work health and safety.........................................7
Occupational and other demographic differences...............................................................8
References......................................................................................................................... 9

Introduction
There is a wealth of information on workplace culture, managing work health and safety and
specific workplace risks. Less is known about socio-psychological factors, such as
motivations, attitudes, perceptions, knowledge and skills, and how they influence work health
and safety actions and outcomes. To improve our knowledge of the socio-psychological
factors that impact on work health and safety behaviour, a project entitled Motivations,
Attitudes, Perceptions and Skills (MAPS) was undertaken in 2009-10. It collected baseline
information by computer assisted telephone interviews from 762 Australians aged 18 and
over who worked in the five industry groups at high risk of occupational injuries: Agriculture,
forestry and fishing, Construction, Health and community services, Manufacturing and
Transport and storage.
One report from this study has already been published. It is titled 'Motivations, Attitudes,
Perceptions and Skills: Pathways to Safe Work' and is available on the Safe Work Australia
website at
http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/AboutSafeWorkAustralia/WhatWeDo/Publications/Page
s/MAPSPathwaysToSafeWork.aspx.This report focuses on workers attitudes to safety and
to their bosses, their perceptions of their workplace, their views about regulatory authorities
and their motivation to take safety issues seriously.
In this second report we present an overview of the survey findings and outline some of the
basic descriptive statistics obtained from the survey data. For example, it includes
information on the demographic composition of the survey respondents, a brief summary of
the information collected in the survey, respondents views on the importance of work health
and safety, their main sources of work health and safety information, how safe they think
their workplace is and their perceptions of common causes of workplace injury and illness.
Key findings of the study include that nearly all of the workers surveyed believed that their
workplace was safe and that removing hazards as soon as possible, wearing personal
protective equipment and identifying risks and reporting accidents were ways to help keep
workplaces safe. However, work health and safety is still only a middle order health and
safety issue with workers more worried about road safety, cancer and diet and exercise than
work health and safety. Although over 90% are aware of their state inspectorate only 9% say
that the inspectorate is a source of health and safety information for them, for example via
website, inspectorate office or inspector. Workers are more likely to say that training courses
(36%) through work, apprenticeships or university or meetings at work (26%) are the main
sources of information on work health and safety.

Information collected in the survey

The information collected included:
Demographic information including age, gender, state, industry
Level of concern about health and safety issues in society
Main sources of information on workplace health and safety
Perceived motivations of supervisors or managers
Motivations to take preventative action - legal action, external action
Trust, integrity
Communication
Identification with others
Competency in workplace safety
Informal leadership, and
Motivational posturing.

Demographics
The MAPS survey was answered by Australian workers aged 18 years and over:
64% were male and 36% female (this reflects the make-up of the industries
examined)
9% were aged between 18 and 24 years, 46% were aged between 25 and 44 years
and 45% were aged 45 years and over
18% worked in the Agriculture, forestry and fishing industry, 22% in Manufacturing,
23% in Construction, 22% in Transport and storage; and 15% in Health and
community services
71% had been working in their industry for more than 5 years, 17% for between 2
and 5 years, and 13% for less than 2 years
54% worked as a manager or supervisor, 46% did not
78% worked for an employer, 4% for a labour hire firm, 18% were self-employed, 7%
working alone and 11% employing others
31% worked in companies with more than 20 but less than 200 employees, 38% in
companies with fewer than 20 employees, and 30% in companies with more than
200 employees, and
60% worked 40 hours a week or less, 40% worked more than 40 hours a week.

Meaning of work health and safety

When asked what comes to mind when you hear the term occupational health and safety
30% of people said it is about safety in the workplace. Other responses were that
occupational health and safety is about following procedure (10%), workplace
injuries/accidents (9%), prevention (8%), safety of self and others (7%) and rules and
regulations (6%). Some of the verbatim responses are shown in Diagram 1 below.

Diagram 1: What comes to mind when you hear the term

Occupational Health and Safety
Everyones safety, not just the
individual but for people around
you

Taking care of yourself at work and

knowing the rules, and being aware
of others in the workplace in regards
to their safety as well

Its using safe work

practices and methods to
reduce injuries in the
industry

To be in a healthy environment
Spoken about a lot but does not
appear to be me to be of great
concern to management

It is keeping everyone at work

safe and getting the job done
without anyone getting hurt

Just having a good working

environment. Just making sure there
are no hazards. Logical things I
suppose making sure nothing is
slippery, workers not going up
ladders, checking making sure

Lots of paperwork
Safe workplace.
Documented safe work
practices by employers.
Culture of safety

About preparing work

areas and workforce to
prevent accidents and
work related illness

Safety being
aware and aware of
others

Being inspected by the

relevant authorities

Accidents in the
workplace and trying to
prevent them
Main safety work
related e.g., following
procedures when
working, putting
down cones so no one
slips or falls

It is very important that

you are very safe at work
and go home safely and
peace of mind

Safe work place and work

practices. Everyone
working together to keep
a safe place

My best interest

Level of concern about work health and safety

In late 1995, ANOP Research Services Pty Ltd found that work health and safety was only a
middle-order health and safety issue with just slightly less than one in ten (9%)
respondents spontaneously mentioning work health and safety as an important health and
safety issue. Even when prompted only a third said that they were worried or very worried
about work health and safety. In 1995 people were more worried about road safety (69%),
cancer (54%) and heart disease (50%) than work health and safety (37%) as highlighted in
Table 1 below.
In 1997-98 ANOP Research Services Pty Ltd conducted a follow up survey and found that
while community awareness of work health and safety had increased since 1995, it was still
regarded as a middle-order health and safety issue and was not a major community
concern (42% were personally worried about it).
Over the 15 years since the first ANOP Pty Ltd research, the importance of work related
injury and illnesses has not changed in health and safety concerns ranking. It is still fourth
46% say they are concerned about work health and safety. Road accidents (59%), cancer
(54%) and diet and exercise (48%) are now the top three concerns.

Table 1: Ranking of work health and safety 1995, 1996, 1998, 2010

Note Drugs and violence/personal safety were not included in the ANOP surveys

Workplace safety
Nearly 90 per cent of the workers in the survey believed that their workplace was safe,
though this was a sentiment that was held by more people in a supervisory role (91%) than
workers without supervisory roles (82%). No other significant differences were found
between respondents by age, state or size of business.

When asked how consistently certain actions are taken in their workplaces,1 respondents
said that the following are done always or most of the time - removing hazards as much as
possible (88%), making work practices safe (88%), using personal protective equipment
provided (87%), identifying health and safety risks (84%), reporting accidents and near
misses (81%) and discussing health and safety concerns with managers, supervisors and
co-workers (77%). Over half of respondents said they have access to the work health and
safety regulator (58%).
A very positive finding is that the majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the
statements that making the workplace safe is the right thing to do (100%) and making the
workplace safe ultimately advantages everyone (98%). These findings suggest a strong,
commitment to work health and safety among respondents.

Main causes of accidents

When they were read a list of possible causes of work-related injuries and illnesses, and asked
to say which three they thought were the most important causes in their own workplaces,
respondents were more likely to identify workers being careless (41%), pressure or stress
(38%), just not thinking (37%) and lack of education and training (28%). In the 1990s, nearly
half of the ANOP survey respondents also nominated worker carelessness as one of their top
three perceived causes of work-related injury and illness (47%) however more respondents
(64%) identified lack of education and training as one of the three most important causes.
The comparative survey data suggest that community perceptions of worker carelessness have
changed little over the last 15 years. On the other hand, respondents are much less likely to
identify lack of education and training as an important cause of work-related injury and disease.
This may reflect the trend to incorporate work health and safety in secondary, vocational and
university level education from the mid-to late-1990s in Australia.

They were not asked who takes these actions.

Table 2: Main causes of workplace injuries and illnesses 1995, 1996,

1998, 2010

Motivation, informal leadership and raising work health and safety

issues
Respondents were asked what encourages you to take action to improve health and safety at
work. The majority strongly agreed or agreed with the following listed statements - wanting to
do the job more easily or efficiently (87%), concern about being personally responsible for
someone being injured or made ill through work (85%), and when weighing up the cost you
realise it actually doesnt take too much time or effort to take action (81%). Other common
reasons for taking action were management or supervisor requirements (78%), wanting to
avoid time off work (76%), receiving positive feedback, recognition or reward from
management/supervisor for taking action (74%), wanting to avoid a workers compensation
claim (71%) and enforcement action by an inspector (67%). Respondents appeared to have a
series of positive rationales for taking action to improve work health and safety.
When asked about their level of agreement with a series of statements concerning informal
leadership and raising work health and safety concerns, most respondents strongly agreed or
agreed with the statements you are not afraid to challenge unsafe situations or unsafe work
practices (90%), employees are encouraged to raise health and safety concerns in your
workplace (89%) and in your workplace managers and supervisors express concern if an
unsafe situation occurs (86%). The majority of respondents also strongly agreed or agreed with
the statement that management corrects unsafe situations or unsafe practices when they
become aware of them (86%), and there is good communication in your workplace about
health and safety (84%). These findings suggest positive views and leadership for work health
and safety in the respondents workplaces. This interpretation is also supported by the finding
that the majority of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that when
other people ignore unsafe situations or unsafe practices in your workplace, you feel it is none
of your business (93%).
Most respondents also responded favourably to statements regarding their personal
competency and capacity, and work health and safety. The majority agreed or strongly agreed
with statements such as, you have thought about and taken on board the safety issues in your
workplace (95%), you are confident acting in accordance with the safety principles in your

workplace (95%), you are confident that you have the knowledge and skills to protect yourself
and others at work (94%) and you can solve most health and safety problems if you try hard
enough (92%). However, younger workers aged between 18 24 years were more likely than
older workers (45 years or more) to agree or strongly agree with the statements that you get so
involved in the work you are doing you sometimes forget about safety (42%) and you and your
colleagues sometimes skylark at work and take risks that jeopardise each others safety (25%).

Table 3: Self confidence to improve work health and safety

Awareness of state/territory inspectorate

In 2010, 94 per cent of people in the survey said they had heard of the work health and safety
regulator in their state/territory (the regulator was named).

Diagram 2: Awareness of state/territory inspectorate

Yes
94%

No
6%

Q4 .

Now thinking about OHS laws and OHS inspectorsHave you heard of
INSPECTORATE]
?

[INSERT STATE

Also, most agreed or strongly agreed with the statements that the regulator is trusted by me to
administer the OHS laws and rules fairly (76%), acts in the interests of all workers (73%), and
respects the individuals rights as a worker (72%). A high proportion agreed or strongly agreed
with the statement that the regulator treats people/businesses as if they can be trusted to do
the right thing (62%). This positive stance towards health and safety regulators is consistent
with the finding that 72 percent of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the
statement that the regulator is more interested in catching you for doing the wrong thing with
OHS, than helping you do the right thing.
Despite the quite positive views about work health and safety regulators, only 9 per cent of
the respondents said the inspectorate (eg website, inspectorate office or inspector) was
among the three main sources from which they had learned something useful about work
health and safety in the last year or so. In contrast, 36 per cent named training courses (work,
apprenticeship, university) among their three main sources. These were all unprompted
responses. Other main sources named by respondents were the media (30%) and meetings
at work (26%), which is similar to the situation found in the ANOP research in 1995 and 1998.
In contrast, in 2001/2002, research by KPMG Consulting which looked at the key
management motivators for work health and safety found that chief executive officers (CEOs),
senior managers and persons with supervisory responsibilities in small and medium
businesses principally obtained their information from work health and safety regulators or
industry associations. The difference may relate to the proportion of respondents in the
current survey who were workers.

Table 4: Main sources of information on work health and safety

Occupational and other demographic differences

There are statistically significant differences in the way that people look at work health and
safety depending on the industry that they work in, age and size of business. Respondents
who work in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry were more likely to agree with the
statement that departing from work health and safety requirements is acceptable (38%
compared to 29% overall). They were less likely to have access to health and safety training
at work (47% compared to 60%) or to elect a work health and safety representative in their
workplace (52% compared to 68%). Construction workers were more likely to agree with the
statement that they will tick the boxes and complete paperwork but do no more than this (18%
compared to 11%). Younger workers were more likely to agree that they resent dealing with
work health and safety requirements (28% compared to 14%). They were also more likely to
agree that they get so involved with work that they forget about safety (42% compared to
29%) and that they and others sometimes skylark at work and take risks that jeopardise each
others safety (25% compared to 12%).
There was a lower level of engagement with work health and safety in small business. More
than half of respondents who work in small business agreed with the statement that it is
impossible to satisfy all the work health and safety requirements (53% small, 39% large) and
that they only do what they legally required to do to make a workplace safe (36% small, 23%
large). More of those in a managerial or supervisory role (43%) agreed with the statement
that accidents happen because people are not thinking than those who did not work in these
roles (30%).
Overall, the majority of people think that their workplace is safe. They claim that they have
the knowledge and the confidence to put that knowledge into practice to ensure their
workplace is safe and healthy. The findings suggest that there are positive views for work
health and safety in the respondents workplaces. Respondents said that most people will
not ignore unsafe work practices or situations. Workers are more likely to gain their
knowledge on work health and safety from training or meetings at work than from their
regulator. Nevertheless, most said that they were aware of their regulator and the
respondents trusted the regulator to administer the work health and safety laws and rules
fairly.

References
ANOP Research Services Pty Ltd (1995) Community Awareness of, and Attitudes to,
Occupational Health and Safety: Detailed Report of ANOP National Benchmark Study.
ANOP Research Services Pty Ltd (1998) Community Awareness of Occupational Health and
safety.
KPMG Consulting (2001) Key management motivators in Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 1: Main Report. A report for the National Occupational Health & Safety Commission.