Impact of emotional intelligence on the stress and safety of construction workers' in Saudi Arabia

PurposeIn a country like Saudi Arabia, where the construction industry is witnessing an impressive growth in the post-oil era, it is important to examine the occupational health and safety behaviors of construction workers (CWs).Design/methodology/approachThe present study aims to investigate the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) on workers' stress and safety behaviors. Data were collected from CWs (n = 265) at a major construction site in the city of Jeddah. Two questionnaires comprising 25 and 32 questions were used to measure their EI and stress levels, respectively. Furthermore, structured interviews were conducted with the managers and supervisors to inquire about the safety behavior of their respective workers. Descriptive statistics, simple and companion regression were used for data analysis.FindingsThe findings indicate that EI plays an important role to enhance the safety behaviors of the CWs besides reducing their workplace stresses. Furthermore, workers' stress levels are found to negatively impact their safety behaviors, indicating that any reduction in occupational stress can reciprocally enhance their safety compliance. The findings are further discussed with the concerned stakeholders to recommend a seven-point therapeutic role of EI for the safety of CWs.Originality/valueResults of the study can be used by managers and supervisors of the Saudi construction industry to reduce workplace accidents and improve the productivity of their organizations.

“Next, it will be you”: Women’s Fear of Victimization and Precautionary Safety Behaviors in Informal Settlement Communities in Nairobi, Kenya

Around one billion people live in informal settlements globally, including over half of Nairobi, Kenya’s 3 million residents. The purpose of this study was to explore women’s fear of victimization within Mathare, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya and how fear of victimization influences women’s behaviors. Fifty-five in-depth interviews were conducted with women in 2015–2016. A modified grounded theory approach guided data collection and analysis. Findings suggest fear of victimization is a serious concern in informal settlements, but women have found ways to adapt their behaviors to cope and to continue to function and protect their children despite fearing victimization.

Influence of job insecurity on coal miners’ safety performance: the role of emotional exhaustion

Purpose Under the de-capacity circumstances of coal production in China, the purpose of this paper is to examine the processes underlying the association between job insecurity (JI) and miners’ safety performance, proposing that resource consumption is a prominent theoretical explanation for this association. By developing a mediation model, the authors examined the mediating role of emotional exhaustion (EE) between JI and miners’ safety performance. Design/methodology/approach Through the time-lagged survey method, the authors collected 349 samples from three coal mines in Shanxi Lu’an Group, the hypotheses were tested through confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation model analysis and bootstrapping in AMOS software. Findings Results shed light on that JI negatively predicts the safety performance subfactors, including safety compliance (SC) and safety participation (SP). EE plays a partial mediating role between JI and safety performance. In particular, the finding indicated that JI exerts a more significant impact on SP than SC, revealing that JI produces a more significant adverse effect on miners’ conscious safety behaviors than skill-based safety behaviors. Originality/value This study contributes to display the influence path of JI as a stressor on miners’ safety performance in the coal mine rather than a stimulus. The mediation model results not only help us understand the association between JI and safety performance but also provide a feasible way to mitigate the negative effects of JI.

Adolescent Safety Behaviors and Social Anxiety: Links to Psychosocial Impairments and Functioning with Unfamiliar Peer Confederates

Socially anxious adolescents often endure anxiety-provoking situations using safety behaviors: strategies for minimizing in-the-moment distress (e.g., avoiding eye contact, rehearsing statements before entering a conversation). Studies linking safety behaviors to impaired functioning have largely focused on adults. In a sample of one hundred thirty-four 14 to 15 year-old adolescents, we tested whether levels of safety behaviors among socially anxious adolescents relate to multiple domains of impaired functioning. Adolescents, parents, and research personnel completed survey measures of safety behaviors and social anxiety, adolescents and parents reported about adolescents’ evaluative fears and psychosocial impairments, and adolescents participated in a set of tasks designed to simulate social interactions with same-age, unfamiliar peers. Relative to other adolescents in the sample, adolescents high on both safety behaviors and social anxiety displayed greater psychosocial impairments, evaluative fears, and observed social skills deficits within social interactions. These findings have important implications for assessing and treating adolescent social anxiety.

The relationship between emotional intelligence, personality traits and safety behaviors in metal industries workers; confirmatory factor analysis

BACKGROUND: Human errors cause accidents in the workplace. Screening workers at employment can prevent future accidents from happening. Two important tools that can be helpful in screening are determining the emotional intelligence score and personality traits score of the workers. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Personality Traits and safety behaviors in metal Industries workers. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to determine the relationship between the components of emotional intelligence, unsafe behaviors, and personality. To collect data for this study, Five –factor Goldberg questionnaire, BAR-ON Emotional questionnaire and Safety behavior questionnaire were used. The collected data were entered into software (SPSS version22) and refined. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that there was a significant positive correlation between personality traits, emotional intelligence and safe behaviors (P-Value = 0.000). The confirmatory factor analysis showed that personality traits influence safe behaviours. Also, studies have shown that emotional intelligence has a positive effect on safe behaviours. The amount indicators of goodness of fit (GFI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) and root mean square error approximation (RMSEA) were 0.944, 0.970, 0.965 and 0.061, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that personality traits and emotional intelligence influence safe behaviours in the workplace. Employers can use these two tools in the employment phase and prevent future human-related accidents.