Dr. Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang’s Safety Climate Lab
Safety Climate: A leading safety indicator – backed by science
Our Mission: Ensuring individuals’ well-being through promoting safety climate and culture in the workplace.
View Dr. Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang’s Faculty Profile
View Dr. Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang’s Safety Climate Lab Consulting and Research Opportunities
View Dr. Emily Huang's Safety Climate Lab and OccHealthSci’s LinkedIn Pages
Download our “A Multi-Climate Profile Score to Measure Total Worker Health® Climate” research one-pager
Download our "COVID-19 Safety Climate Assessment" consulting one-pager
Background
In recent years, safety climate has captured the attention of companies and scientists looking to reduce accidents and injuries. A leading indicator of safety outcomes, safety climate reflects what happens when the rubber (safety decisions and protocols) meets the road (competing demands such as production and delivery deadlines). Safety Climate can be seen as an organization’s temporal “state of safety,” a snapshot of the prevailing state of safety with the organization at a discrete point in time.
Organizational safety climate and organizational safety culture are related, but distinctly different, phenomena. Safety climate is defined in the scientific literature as employees’ shared perceptions of the organization’s workplace safety policies, procedures, and practices as they relate to the value and importance of safety within the organization. Safety culture is defined as shared safety values and beliefs that interact with an organization’s structures and control systems to produce behavioral norms. Safety climate is the measurable aspect of safety culture and research indicates these measures can be used to predict safety-related outcomes (e.g., accidents and injuries) and safety behavior.
Despite what looks like a strong emphasis on safety, a company may have a poor safety climate. That means that even in organizations that have implemented safety programs and protocols, when business demands are high, safety may take a backseat to other priorities such as productivity and efficiency.
Risk managers can assess safety at a company by surveying workers about management’s commitment to and support of safety and health.
Safety climate is a leading indicator of safety outcomes and is the measurable dimension of organizational safety culture.
Companies that understand and monitor safety climate can identify where problems may lie and take appropriate steps to proactively improve safety.
Safety climate can help companies recognize and address emerging problems before accidents happen.
Practical application of the safety climate survey can help companies identify ways to make focused adjustments to safety management systems that, over time, can strengthen their safety culture.
- Safety climate has a significant impact on lone workers’ safety outcomes, such as truck drivers and utility workers. When a company has good safety climate, their employees behave more safely and have fewer workplace injuries, even when no one is monitoring/watching/looking at them (e.g., Huang et al., 2013a, 2013b).
- Supervisors or workers: who rates? Our prior data showed that supervisors consistently score safety climate higher than workers do, and that their responses are not predictive of safety outcomes (Huang et al., 2014).
- The impact of safety climate is beyond safety outcomes; when a company has good safety climate, their employees have a higher level of job satisfaction, and job engagement, and the turnover rate is lower (Huang et al., 2016).
- Two levels of safety climate (organizational level “OSC” vs. group level “GSC”) significantly interacted with one another to predict safety behavior such that if either the OSC or GSC scores were low, the other’s contribution to safety behavior became stronger. These findings suggest that OSC and GSC may function in a compensatory manner and promote safe driving behavior even when either OSC or GSC scores are low. The results of this study provide critical insight into the supplementary interaction between perceptions of OSC and GSC (Huang et al., 2017).
- Short generic safety climate scale: Using an IRT analytical approach, one prior study from the research team developed shortened versions of Zohar and Luria’s (2005) 16-item OSC and 16-item GSC scales. Specifically, 8 OSC and 11 GSC items were identified with above-average discriminating ability, and further selected 4 OSC and 4 GSC items that retained at least 30% of the original total test information. It is our expectation that these shortened safety climate scales will increase the utility of safety climate assessments in both research and practice (Huang et al., 2017).
- Relationship between safety communication and safety climate: Results of this study showed that the quality of supervisor communication about safety uniquely contributes to safety outcomes, above and beyond measures of both group-level and organization-level safety climate. The construct validity of a newly-adapted safety communication scale was demonstrated, particularly focusing on its distinctiveness from safety climate and testing a model showing that communication had both main and moderating effects on safety behavior that ultimately predicted truck drivers’ injury rates. Our findings support the need for continued attention to supervisory safety communication as an important factor by itself, as well as a contingency factor influencing how safety climate relates to safety outcomes (Huang et al., 2018).
Fortis Construction Inc.
Letter from Demetra Star of Fortis Construction Inc. to Fellow Contractors
Demetra Star, Safety Team Leader, Fortis Construction, Inc.
- "The safety climate lab provides a snapshot in time from the worker’s perspective. I can’t think of a better way to provide meaningful feedback to a safety program in the works. The survey is anonymous and the report from OHSU Safety Climate Lab is comprehensive. It was refreshing to hear from the objective observers at OHSU just how healthy our safety climate is and it was inspiring to hear the actions and plans that the study generated at Fortis Construction. I’d recommend that any company, no matter what size and no matter what level of safety maturity, measure their safety climate with the OHSU team. They are the experts and they draw from a wealth of data that most of us don’t have access to. It will help your company. Be brave ...listen to the findings, and take action."
United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC)
Daniel Hardy, Road Safety Portfolio Manager, United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC)
- "We have focused for too long on trying to train the driver to be safer, without considering the crucial impact of the safety climate. What I like about the safety climate approach is that it is a quantitative, peer-reviewed approach that allows for a baseline from which to measure impact. It also supports the development of targeted interventions, beyond traditional training and awareness campaigns. I very much enjoyed working with the team at OHSU, who are dedicated, professional and client-centred. Highly recommended."
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Roy Ben Eliezer, Global Road Safety Coordinator, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- “Addressing road safety in large organizations, often times requires a number of approaches to be taken under consideration in order to evaluate the overall safety landscape and identify additional safety elements that may require further attention. The Safety Climate Survey, used as a methodological tool, has definitely enabled us to have this additional perspective, to better address road safety and safety measures, while collaborating with our colleagues in the field within this process. The OHSU team have shown remarkable dedication, professionalism, and were very committed at any given point throughout the whole process. I would definitely encourage anyone who’s looking to implement a safety climate survey within their organization, to contact the OHSU team. It was great working with them!”
Whitaker/Ellis Builders, Inc.
Bill Ellis, President Whitaker/Ellis Builders, Inc.
- “We appreciate the information and presentation. You and your team did a great job! We enjoyed working with you and I can see how your team makes significant impacts for workplace safety.”
Brandon Sirois, Vice President Whitaker/Ellis Builders, Inc.
- “The safety climate survey and evaluation was a great experience and very insightful for us. The survey let us have a better grasp on where we could use improvement. It also informed us on where we are doing good. I would highly recommend reaching out to them.”
DeWitt Construction
Dale Lindstrom - PE, CPCU, ARM, Risk and Safety Manager
- "DeWitt Construction has been on a journey the past three years to improve the safety awareness and culture of the company through the use of safety perception surveys and industry safety recognition such as the AGC-PRIDE designation. In 2020, DeWitt partnered with OHSU's Safety Climate Lab Research Team to draw from their data and analytics to evaluate DeWitt employee's perception of the company's safety efforts compared to other companies. The anonymous survey responses when evaluated and tabulated by the OHSU Research Team provided valuable insights into what DeWitt is doing well and areas for improvement. DeWitt thanks the OHSU's Safety Climate Lab personnel for their time and assistance."
Anonymous Testimonials
XXXXXXXX, VP Safety & General Counsel
- “We also enjoyed meeting with you and learning the results of your research. The information will prove invaluable in the future development of safety culture...we look forward to working with you further. Please don’t hesitate to call if the opportunity arises to work together in the future.”
XXXXXXXX, Director Driver Training
- “The experience was far better than we imagined. It was a true pleasure working with you and your team. The benefits of the study will provide many helpful insights for months to come…actually using some of the results in a training piece I am putting together…Hope to have future opportunities to work together again.”
XXXXXXXX, VP Safety
- “Glad we could participate. I would like to thank you, XXX & XXXXX for presenting the findings of the survey and sparking some much needed conversation among the various departments at XX XXXXXX.”
XXXXXXXXX, Sr. VP & CFO
- “XXXXX, It was a real pleasure meeting you and XXXXX. We found the presentation to be extremely enlightening and feel it has given us new insight into what our focus should be in our overall program of reducing our accidents and improving our drivers’ impression of the company and managers’ commitment to safety. Thank you again for giving us the opportunity to participate in this very important study.”
XXXXXXXXXXX, Safety Director
- “We truly appreciate the opportunity you and your associates gave us to be included in your project and all that we learned from it. We’re reviewing the information and will be making changes where needed.”
XXXXXXXXX, VP Safety, Health & Environment
- “It was our pleasure. We can't thank XXXXX XXXXX enough for all the time and effort to help us better understand our safety climate and the steps we need to take to improve it. The workshop was both interesting and enlightening.”
Dr. Emily Huang’s research team focuses on improving the quality of life for individuals through building a healthy and safe workplace, mainly through improving organizational safety culture and climate. Over the past two decades, Dr. Huang has developed and applied an interdisciplinary approach in order to ensure employees’ health, well-being and safety at work. Besides conducting scientific research, her team has also provided consulting services to the field by putting scientific approaches into practice. In addition, her lab is focusing on examining and evaluating possible interventions that could help improve workplace safety culture and climate and, in turn, promote organizational and societal well-being.
Some of Dr. Huang’s current research projects involve field applications that aim to improve safety culture and safety climate at work through various aspects, such as promoting management commitment
For example
- Reality-to-Research: Utilizing Safety Climate Survey data to Advance Safety Climate Research
- Purposes: continue collecting safety climate data from companies by implementing safety climate surveys to build the database and provide benchmarks.
- A systematic review of the safety climate intervention literature: Past trends and future directions. Lee J, Huang YH, Cheung JH, Chen Z, Shaw WS. J Occup Health Psychol. 2019: 10.1037/ocp0000113. PMID: 29697992
- Does talking the talk matter? Effects of supervisor safety communication and safety climate on long-haul truckers' safety performance. Huang YH, Sinclair RR, Lee J, McFadden AC, Cheung JH, Murphy LA. Accid Anal Prev. 2018 Aug;117:357-367. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2017.09.006. Epub 2018 Feb 28. PMID:29500055
- A sociotechnical systems approach to enhance safety climate in the trucking industry: Development of a methodology. Murphy LA, Robertson MM, Huang YH, Jeffries S, Dainoff MJ. Appl Ergon. 2018 Jan;66:82-88. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.08.001. Epub 2017 Aug 29. PMID: 28958433
- A sociotechnical systems approach to enhance safety climate in the trucking industry: Results of an in-depth investigation. Murphy LA, Huang YH, Robertson MM, Jeffries S, Dainoff MJ. Appl Ergon. 2018 Jan;66:70-81. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.08.002. Epub 2017 Aug 29. PMID: 28958432
- Use of portable ladders - field observations and self-reported safety performance in the cable TV industry. Chang WR, Huang YH, Brunette C, Lee J. Ergonomics. 2017 Nov;60(11):1540-1550. doi: 10.1080/00140139.2017.1332392. Epub 2017 Jul 14. PMID: 28705111
- Improvements in musculoskeletal health and computing behaviors: Effects of a macroergonomics office workplace and training intervention. Robertson MM, Huang YH, Lee J. Appl Ergon. 2017 Jul;62:182-196. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.02.017. Epub 2017 Apr 6. PMID: 28411728
- An item-response theory approach to safety climate measurement: The Liberty Mutual Safety Climate Short Scales. Huang YH, Lee J, Chen Z, Perry M, Cheung JH, Wang M. Accid Anal Prev. 2017 Jun;103:96-104. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2017.03.015. Epub 2017 Apr 7. PMID: 28391093
- Individual employee's perceptions of " Group-level Safety Climate" (supervisor referenced) versus " Organization-level Safety Climate" (top management referenced): Associations with safety outcomes for lone workers. Huang YH, Lee J, McFadden AC, Rineer J, Robertson MM. Accid Anal Prev. 2017 Jan;98:37-45. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2016.09.016. Epub 2016 Sep 28. PMID: 27685174
- Straight ladder inclined angle in a field environment: the relationship among actual angle, method of set-up and knowledge. Chang WR, Huang YH, Chang CC, Brunette C, Fallentin N. Ergonomics. 2016 Aug;59(8):1100-8. doi: 10.1080/00140139.2015.1115897. Epub 2016 Mar 23. PMID: 26672809
- Beyond safety outcomes: An investigation of the impact of safety climate on job satisfaction, employee engagement and turnover using social exchange theory as the theoretical framework. Huang YH, Lee J, McFadden AC, Murphy LA, Robertson MM, Cheung JH, Zohar D. Appl Ergon. 2016 Jul;55:248-257. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2015.10.007. Epub 2015 Nov 21. PMID: 26611987
Dr. Emily Huang recognized as prolific author on safety climate
Dr. Huang’s Safety Climate Lab embarks on a collaboration with SAIF
Recruiting participants to develop a Total Worker Health® climate survey
COVID-19 Safety Climate Assessment available from the Safety Climate Lab under Dr. Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang
Prioritizing safety: Dr. Huang’s partners in construction
Podcast: "What's Work Got To Do With Safety Climate?"
Fortis and the Safety Climate Lab collaborate to assess safety climate internationally
The Safety Climate Lab and the construction industry celebrate Whitaker/Ellis Builders, Inc.!
Safety Climate Lab and SAIF: Two-year collaboration on the Ansbro Safety Culture Spectrum and Survey
Team Members
Anna Kelly - Senior Research Assistant, Project Manager/Coordinator
Anna Kelly is a Project Manager/Coordinator for Dr. Emily Huang’s Safety Climate Lab in the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences. She holds a Masters in Applied Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Colorado State University and degrees from the University of Oregon and Portland State University in Art and Psychology. Her professional experience includes executive and operations coordination in international arts, non-profit, corporate, and academic settings. Anna is dedicated to putting research into practice with a focus on safety, occupational health, and employee well-being.
Elisa Rega - Senior Research Assistant, Project Manager/Coordinator
Elisa Rega is a Project Manager/Coordinator for Dr. Emily Huang’s Safety Climate Lab and earned a B.A. in Psychology from Oberlin College. Previously, Elisa conducted research at the National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan and published articles on creativity training. Some research interests include occupational safety and health, intervention design, dissemination, mindfulness, autism, sleep, diversity, equity, inclusion, game based learning, memory, and music and cognition. In addition to psychology research, Elisa is a concert violist who has performed in orchestras internationally, and teaches music.
Frank Giordano - Research Associate, Project Manager
Dr. Frank Giordano is a Project Manager for Dr. Emily Huang’s Safety Climate Lab in the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. from Kansas State University in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and earned his M.S. at Kansas State University, and his B.S. at Manhattan College. His research interests are occupational safety and health, risk perception, and work arrangement. His aim is to bridge the gap between science and practice by using research to inform actionable and communicable intervention plans that improve safety, health, and well-being.
Cassandra Chlevin - Research Associate
Cassandra Chlevin is a Research Associate for Dr. Emily Huang's Safety Climate Lab. She received her B.S. in Psychology from Andrews University and an M.S. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Kansas State University. She is currently earning her Ph.D. from Kansas State in the same field. Her research interests include scale development, occupational health psychology, well-being promotion, and workplace stress contagion. Specifically, Cassandra examines how perceptions of coworkers contribute to the exacerbation or reduction of personal work-related stress.
Tsukumi Tondokoro - Post Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Tsukumi Tondokoro is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Emily Huang's Safety Climate Lab. Prior to this position, Dr. Tondokoro worked as a researcher at the Health Care Science Institute in Japan. She earned her Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from International University of Health and Welfare in Tokyo, Japan, and earned her Master's degree in Occupational Health from University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan in Kitakyushu, Japan. Her research interests include workplace intervention, occupational stress, and sleep aimed to improve workers’ health and well-being.
Margaret Rothwell - Research Associate
Margaret Rothwell serves as a safety climate subject matter expert for the team. She has worked with Dr. Emily Huang on safety climate and culture projects for over 18 years. Peg has a background in education with a B.S. in Education from Kent State University in Ohio. She has over 20 years of experience assisting safety research in various disciplines, e.g., engineering, physical ergonomics, epidemiology, behavioral/social sciences, and disability/return to work.
Yimin He, PhD. - Statistical Consultant
Dr. Yimin He is an Assistant Professor in Industrial/Organizational Psychology within the Department of Psychology at University of Nebraska at Omaha. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Texas A&M University and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Peking University. Yimin’s research interests include occupational health psychology, diversity and inclusion, personality assessments, social network, and quantitative methodologies. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ECRFCggAAAAJ&hl=en
Jin Lee, Ph.D. - Statistical Consultant
Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Psychological Sciences at the Kansas State University and a director of the Work Systems & Occupational Health Psychology lab. He got his Ph.D. and M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Connecticut and his M.A. in Clinical Psychology at the Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea). Dr. Lee’s research focus is primarily on workplace safety, health, and well-being promotion. Specifically, he holds research interests in safety climate assessment and management in high-risk industries, and the application of advanced quantitative methodology in multidisciplinary research efforts.
https://www.k-state.edu/psych/people/LeePage.html
Theodore K. Courtney, M.S., CSP - Research Consultant
With over 25 years’ experience in safety and health research and consulting, Ted Courtney brings unique insight into improving today’s workplace challenges. Ted is currently President of TKC Consulting, LLC, a research and innovation consulting firm, Vice President for Product Strategy at Concorde Health, Inc., and Instructor in Injury, Safety and Ergonomics at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. At Liberty Mutual for many years previously, Ted played key roles in the development of the Workplace Safety Index including widely-cited CFO surveys of injury and safety costs, perception-based falls risk assessment, and safety climate research in retail settings.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodore-courtney/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Courtney+TK
W. Kent Anger, Ph.D. – Professor, Director for Applied Research, Mentor
Dr. Anger is the Associate Director for Applied Sciences and Professor at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences and Professor at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. He is an Institute Mentor for the Safety Climate Lab. He is an experimental psychologist who has focused on broad areas of prevention research and practice. Over Dr. Anger’s extensive career he has (a) developed behaviorally-based computer training technology to teach the broadest range of populations (with very limited to extensive education) in the workplace; and, (b) applied the training technologies to prevent health and safety hazards, teach job skills, improve work-family balance, reduce the impact of domestic violence in the workplace and increase supervisor effectiveness and well-being of employees in construction and agriculture, in the context of intervention effectiveness. Over the past decade, Dr. Anger has expanded his research to Total Worker Health (TWH) and served as the Director of the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center 2011-2020. https://www.ohsu.edu/people/w-kent-anger-phd
Primary Research Collaborators
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Dov Zohar, Ph.D.
Dr. Dov Zohar is a Professor and Faculty of IE & Management at the Technion – Israel Institute of technology. In 1980 he published the foremost paper on Safety Climate, defining the concept and developing the original measurement scale, a current standard in the field. His recent work has focused on development of a conceptual model linking organizational culture and climate; testing incremental effects of industry-specific safety climate scales; new strategies for safety leadership and safety climate improvement and the effect of sustainability policy-practice gaps. His work throughout the world has garnered him numerous awards including the Human Factors & Ergonomics Award for the Outstanding Scientific Contribution in 1981 and 1982; APA/CDC Best Safety Intervention Awards in 2003 and 2013; and the American Psychological Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
https://web.iem.technion.ac.il/en/people/userprofile/dzohar.html
- Mo Wang, Ph.D.
Dr. Mo Wang is the Lanzillotti-McKethan Eminent Scholar Chair at the Warrington College of Business at University of Florida. He is also the Department Chair of the Management Department, as well as the Director of Human Resource Research Center at University of Florida. He specializes in research areas of retirement and older worker employment, occupational health psychology, expatriate and newcomer adjustment, leadership and team processes, and advanced quantitative methodologies. https://warrington.ufl.edu/directory/person/5309/
- Marvin Dainoff, Ph.D.
Dr. Dainoff is a research scientist/leader with extensive experience in optimization of human-technology interaction with specific focus on integration of effectiveness (accomplishment of mission), efficiency (optimization of resources), and safety (avoidance of injury, damage) at both organizational and individual levels. He has conducted and/or facilitated leading-edge scientific research on technology impacts on workplace and surface transportation with emphasis on translation from research to practice reflected in years of service on technical standards committees and practical expertise in ergonomic training for users. Dr. Dainoff is a Board Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE) with experience in research, teaching, and professional service.
www.linkedin.com/in/marvindainoff
- Lauren Murphy, Ph.D.
Dr. Murphy is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. Her primary role is as the Director of the Occupational Ergonomics and Health program, which focuses on a graduate certificate for current students and working professionals. Dr. Murphy completed her Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology with a concentration in occupational health psychology at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Her current research projects involve examining safety climate in the trucking and construction industries, as well as investigating work-family issues as they relate to workers’ health and safety outcomes.
https://bouve.northeastern.edu/bchs/directory/lauren-murphy/
- Larry Hettinger, Ph.D.
Dr. Hettinger is a researcher and consultant in the areas of performance and safety in complex work systems. His career has focused on identifying and improving organizational and technical influences on system performance.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-hettinger/
- Michelle M. Robertson, Ph.D.
Dr. Robertson is a board certified Professional Ergonomist and received her PhD in Instructional Technology, M.S. in Systems Management, from the University of Southern California and her B.A. in Human Factors from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She conducts applied field and laboratory research projects in human factors/ergonomics and management.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-m-robertson-ph-d-cpe-55b80b42