Safety climate and the theory of planned behaviour: towards the prediction of unsafe behaviour

The present study is concerned with the human factors that contribute to violations in aviation maintenance. Much of our previous research in this area has been based on safety climate surveys and the analysis of relations among core dimensions of climate. In this study, we tap into mainstream psychological theory to help clarify the mechanisms underlying the links between climate and behaviour. Specifically, we demonstrate the usefulness of Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to understanding violation behaviours in aircraft maintenance. A questionnaire was administered to 308 aircraft maintenance workers. Constructs measured by the survey included perceptions of management attitudes to safety, own attitudes to violations, intention to violate, group norms, workplace pressures, and violations. A model based on the TPB illustrated hypothetical connections among these variables. Path analyses using AMOS 4.01 suggested some theoretically justifiable modifications to the model. Fit statistics of the revised model were excellent and R-Squared values for all endogenous variables were encouraging. The model highlighted the importance of management attitudes and group norms as direct and indirect predictors of violation behaviour. We conclude that the TPB is suitable for the analysis of this type of safety behaviour but that to be truly useful it should be extended to incorporate management attitudes