TABLE 1 - uploaded by Seth Gyekye (GAS)
Content may be subject to copyright.
External and internal causal factors
Source publication
The paper addresses the causal attribution theory, an old and well-established theme in social psychology which denotes the everyday, commonsense explanations that people use to explain events and the world around them. The attribution paradigm is considered one of the most appropriate analytical tools for exploratory and descriptive studies in soc...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... long line of research exists that shows a predominance of external attributions by subordinate workers (accident victims and/or perpetrators) and internal attributions by supervisors (e.g., DeJoy, 1990;Gyekye, 2001;Gyekye & Salminen, 2004;Kouabenan et al., 2001). Table 1 provides a model list of external and internal causal factors. ...
Citations
... Drawing on Kouabenan's model of naive causal explanation of accidents (1999,2013) and Kelley's work on causal attribution (1972), we believe that Moroccan drivers' explanations for traffic accidents can contribute to a better understanding of their behavior. Indeed, the studies on this topic all agree that spontaneous or naive causal explanations can have a positive or negative effect on behavior depending on their internal or external orientation (Britt & Garrity, 2006;Gonçalves et al., 2008;Gyekye, 2010;Kouabenan, 1999;McIlroy et al., 2020;Nees et al., 2020;Ngueutsa, 2012;Niza et al., 2008;Salminen & Gyekye, 2007). For example, in a study among two Portuguese companies, Gonçalves et al. (2008) showed that participants who are victims of workplace accidents tended to provide external causal explanations and engage in less safe behavior. ...
This paper examines the role of fatalistic beliefs and naïve or spontaneous causal explanations for road accidents with the aim of better understanding road safety behavior in Morocco. We hypothesize that strong fatalistic beliefs will be more related to an explanation of accidents by external factors and to less safe behaviors. The study was conducted with a sample of 1017 Moroccan professional and private drivers, using a questionnaire with scales measuring fatalistic beliefs, naïve causal explanations of road accidents and reported road safety behavior. The results show that drivers with very strong fatalistic beliefs tend to explain road accidents by causes that are external to the drivers and engage in less safe behaviors. We also note that professional drivers tend to be more fatalistic than private drivers and provide more external causal explanations. In addition, we find that when drivers provide internal or dispositional causal explanations, they tend to engage in safer behaviors. The results support the need to consider fatalistic beliefs and naïve causal explanations provided for accidents when designing relevant and targeted prevention messages for motorists.
... The notion of causal attribution is proposed by Heider (1958) to account for the way in which individuals explain their behavior and that of others. For Heider (1958), causal Article History Several studies show that status or hierarchical position in the organization can affect the way in which individuals explain accidents (Gyekye, 2010;Kouabenan, 1990; Kouabenan et al., 2001;Ngueutsa, 2012). For example, in a study of 320 French telecommunications workers, Kouabenan (1985b) found that individuals with a high hierarchical position within the organization tend to explain accidents by factors implying the causal responsibility of their subordinates (inexperience, inattention, non-compliance with safety measures, etc.). ...
... Additional studies are still needed to better clarify the link between gender and naive causal explanations of accidents. In addition to gender, studies (Gletty, 2017;Gyekye, 2010;Niza et al., 2008) show that age is a source of variation in naive causal explanations of accidents. ...
... When we talk about the effect of age on causal explanations, we are talking about the variations that exist in individuals' explanations depending on their age. In a review of studies conducted in the industrial context on the effect of sociodemographic and organizational variables on causal attributions, Gyekye (2010) Gyekye, 2007). This finding is consistent with that of Niza et al. (2008), who observe that older supervisors explain workplace accidents as being caused by external and unexpected events, while younger people explain them more by organizational factors. ...
This study aimed to elucidate the relationship between causal attribution for traffic accidents and the desire for control among professional and semi-professional drivers in Morocco. Given the prevalent traffic accidents in the country, understanding the human factor, specifically the cognitive attributions, is paramount. A survey, comprising two scales, was administered to a sample of 401 drivers: 201 from ride-sharing platforms (Indrive, Uber & Heetch) and 200 professional small taxi drivers. The research employed scales inspired by the Levinson Scale (1972) for causal attributions and the Desire for Control Scale by Burger & Cooper (1979), appropriately adapted for cultural relevance. Findings indicated that both social and professional factors significantly influence drivers' attribution styles and their control desire. Furthermore, a notable correlation was found between these two variables. These insights have potential implications for tailored interventions, training modules, and policy formulations aimed at enhancing road safety in Morocco by addressing the human cognitive elements in driving behaviors.
Key words: Causal Attribution, Naïve Psychology, Desire for Control, Traffic Accident, Professional and Semi-Professional Drivers.
... In 1940s, Heinrich concluded that unsafe behavior is accountable for 88% of industrial accidents (1). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that person-factor, such as risky conduct, are the main determinant for industrial accidents, along with other factors including engineering, technology, unsafe working environments, and system malfunction (2). Similarly in Malaysia's manufacturing industry, main causes of accidents are stated as unsafe acts i.e., cutting corners and failure to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). ...
Introduction: Workplace accidents have been a persistent problem in Malaysia’s manufacturing industry, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Employee behavior has been identified as a significant contributing factor to these accidents, and research has suggested that improving safety knowledge and attitudes can enhance safety behavior. Despite this, there have been no empirical intervention studies in Malaysia to investigate the effectiveness of safety intervention programs aimed at improving SME worker safety behavior. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the efficacy of the Occupational Hazard Self-Evaluation Module (OHSEM) intervention in enhancing safety knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (KAB) among SME workers in the manufacturing sector. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with control group was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of the OHSEM intervention. The intervention was implemented over a 12-week period on production workers in the experimental group, while the control group received no intervention. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 88 production workers in both groups before and after the intervention to measure the improvement of safety KAB. Descriptive analysis and an independent t-test were used to analyse the data. Results: The post-test results showed that safety KAB for the control group was moderate (mean = 2.11), while the mean score in the experimental group was high (m=4.17). Furthermore, the t-test result revealed a significant difference in safety KAB mean scores between the experimental and control groups. Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the OHSEM intervention in enhancing safety KAB in SMEs in the Malaysian SME (manufacturing) sector.
... In 1940s, Heinrich concluded that unsafe behavior is accountable for 88% of industrial accidents (1). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that person-factor, such as risky conduct, are the main determinant for industrial accidents, along with other factors including engineering, technology, unsafe working environments, and system malfunction (2). Similarly in Malaysia's manufacturing industry, main causes of accidents are stated as unsafe acts i.e., cutting corners and failure to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). ...
Introduction: Workplace accidents have been a persistent problem in Malaysia's manufacturing industry, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Employee behavior has been identified as a significant contributing factor to these accidents, and research has suggested that improving safety knowledge and attitudes can enhance safety behavior. Despite this, there have been no empirical intervention studies in Malaysia to investigate the effectiveness of safety intervention programs aimed at improving SME worker safety behavior. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the efficacy of the Occupational Hazard Self-Evaluation Module (OHSEM) intervention in enhancing safety knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (KAB) among SME workers in the manufacturing sector. Methods: A quasi experimental design with control group was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of the OHSEM intervention. The intervention was implemented over a 12-week period on production workers in the experimental group, while the control group received no intervention. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 88 production workers in both groups before and after the intervention to measure the improvement of safety KAB. Descriptive analysis and an independent t-test were used to analyse the data. Results: The post-test results showed that safety KAB for the control group was moderate (mean = 2.11), while the mean score in the experimental group was high (m=4.17). Furthermore , the t-test result revealed a significant difference in safety KAB mean scores between the experimental and control groups. Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the OHSEM intervention in enhancing safety KAB in SMEs in the Malaysian SME (manufacturing) sector.
... A healthy, yet limited, discussion of bias has taken place in the legal workplace investigation literature (Lattal, 2016) and occupational health and safety (OHS) literature (Gyekye, 2010). Both areas of scholarship have considered the factors that bias the investigative process and investigators' causal attributions for workplace events. ...
Psychological research demonstrates how our perceptions and cognitions are affected by context, motivation, expectation, and experience. A mounting body of research has revealed the many sources of bias that affect the judgments of experts as they execute their work. Professionals in such fields as forensic science, intelligence analysis, criminal investigation, medical and judicial decision-making find themselves at an inflection point where past professional practices are being questioned and new approaches developed. Workplace investigation is a professional domain that is in many ways analogous to the aforementioned decision-making environments. Yet, workplace investigation is also unique, as the sources, magnitude, and direction of bias are specific to workplace environments. The workplace investigation literature does not comprehensively address the many ways that the workings of honest investigators' minds may be biased when collecting evidence and/or rendering judgments; nor does the literature offer a set of strategies to address such happenings. The current paper is the first to offer a comprehensive overview of the important issue of cognitive bias in workplace investigation. In it I discuss the abilities and limitations of human cognition, provide a framework of sources of bias, as well as, offer suggestions for bias mitigation in the investigation process.
... Within the scope of this notion, Didla et al. (2009) stressed that in-role safety behavior (e.g., compliance with safety rules and regulations) and extra-role safety behavior (e.g., employee participation in safety briefings) are the key behaviors to reduce the risk of workplace incidents. It is also acknowledged that apart from the working environment, unsafe behavior is an underlying cause of occupational incidents (Adaku, Ankrah, & Ndekugri, 2021;Gyekye, 2010;Vatankhah, 2021). Therefore, both safety compliance and safety participation were used in our model to understand and elucidate nurses' safety behavior (Griffin & Hu, 2013;. ...
Introduction:
This paper investigates the relationships among safety leadership, safety motivation, safety knowledge, and safety behavior in the setting of a tertiary hospital in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
Method:
Underpinned by the self-efficacy theory, we argue that high-quality safety leadership enhances nurses' safety knowledge and motivation and subsequently, improves their safety behavior (safety compliance and safety participation). A total of 332 questionnaire responses were gathered and analyzed using SmartPLS Version 3.2.9, revealing the direct effect of safety leadership on both safety knowledge and safety motivation.
Results:
Safety knowledge and safety motivation were found to directly and significantly predict nurses' safety behavior. Notably, safety knowledge and safety motivation were established as important mediators in the relationship between safety leadership and nurses' safety compliance and participation.
Practical applications:
The findings of this study offer key guidance for safety researchers and hospital practitioners in identifying mechanisms to enhance safety behavior among nurses.
... In this context, attribution theory has been used most often in studies on human resource management (see: Hewett et al., 2018;Sanders & Yang, 2016;and Martinko, 2004). More specifically, attribution theory has been applied to studies in the areas of personnel decisions (Carless & Waterworth, 2012;Struthers et al., 1998), organizational change (Chen & Wang, 2014), employee discipline (Cole, 2008), employee commitment and satisfaction (Fontinha et al., 2012;Tandung, 2016), performance reviews (Levy et al., 1998), and work safety (Gonçalves et al., 2008;Gyekye, 2010). ...
Program leadership's decision to include an evaluator during the program planning and design phase is the critical first step necessary for evaluators to provide the programmatic benefits associated with the evaluation profession. Several recent developments have promoted evaluator inclusion in program planning and design activities, including federal legislation that mandates evaluator inclusion and advocacy efforts from evaluation academics. However, the evaluation literature presents a collective frustration within the evaluation field due to ongoing exclusion from program planning and design activities. Utilizing the defensive attribution hypothesis, this quantitative study gathered responses from 260 American Evaluation Association members and 61 Project Management Institute members to determine an evaluator exclusion rate, develop a taxonomy of exclusion factors, and explore the extent to which program leaders and program evaluators demonstrate defensive attributions when rating these factors' influence on evaluator exclusion in program planning and design activities. Results indicated an approximately 70% evaluator exclusion rate in respondents' most recent program experiences. Furthermore, the defensive attribution hypothesis was not supported in the study, as program evaluators more strongly attributed their lack of inclusion to deficiencies outside of the evaluation practice, but program leaders also more strongly attributed evaluator exclusion to deficiencies outside of the evaluation practice. Program evaluators most strongly attributed their exclusion to program leaders' insufficient training and knowledge on the role of evaluation during the program planning and design phase. Program leaders most strongly attributed evaluator exclusion to their own staffing decisions, indicating a preference to not include evaluators in program ii planning and design activities due to achieving previous program success without them, assigning evaluation activities to non-evaluation staff, and a funding process that allows the practice to occur. As the first study to explore evaluator exclusion in the program planning and design phase, it sets a foundation for future research studies to corroborate and build upon its findings, identify policies that encourage evaluator inclusion, and continue efforts to establish mutually beneficial relationships in the program planning and design phase.
... Heinrich (1941) concluded that 88% of the industrial accidents are contributed by unsafe behaviour, whilst, the remaining percentage are from unsafe conditions and fate. Furthermore, it is stated that human factors, such as dangerous behaviour, are the primary predictors of industrial accidents, alongside engineering factors, technology factors, work system failure, and unsafe working conditions (Gyekye, 2010;Bowonder, 1987). Similarly, individual factor and unsafe acts such as jumping the SOP and failing to wear PPE are the main causes of accidents, followed by hazardous workplace"s conditions, in Malaysia"s manufacturing industry (Mansur et al., 2011;Hussin et al., 2009). ...
Over the last decade, work-related accidents have been a major concern in Malaysia. Manufacturing continues to be the leading cause of accident cases. Previously published research revealed that unsafe behaviour committed by workers is the predominant factor for workplace accidents. Programs that promote safe behaviour among employees may help prevent work-related accidents. In Malaysia, various studies on safety behaviour as antecedents of workplace accidents have been undertaken, and it has been determined that failing to follow SOP and appropriately use PPE are the primary risky behaviours that result in accidents. Thus, intervention programs aimed at preventing such risky activities appear to be critical for reducing workplace accidents, particularly in the manufacturing sector. However, there is a dearth of such empirical intervention studies conducted in the Malaysian industry. The purpose of this study is to perform an intervention program aimed at enhancing worker safety behaviour through the supervisor's guidance in doing hazard self-assessment. Supervisors from high-risk manufacturing enterprises received a one-day instruction on the workplace hazard self-assessment module and were instructed to perform the intervention for 12 weeks with their employees. To test the effectiveness of the intervention program, a quasi-experimental design with a control group was employed. The findings demonstrated a substantial difference in safety behaviour between the intervention and control groups following the program, confirming the intervention's effectiveness.
... Attribution theory is a practical theoretical orientation which researchers (Gyekye, 2010;Gyekye & Salminen, 2004;Kouabenan, et al., 2001;DeJoy, 1990;Mbaye & Kouabenan, 2013, etc.) employs in empirical studies on causal attributions about accidents and its prevention. Kouabenan (2013) noted that lack of causal explanation arouses a state of temporary and unbearable psychological imbalance. ...
... On the other hand, Gyekye's (2010) review on causal explanations in organizations recognized that older workers provide more external causal explanations than younger workers who explain accidents more by internal causes. Equally, older supervisors are likely to explain accidents by external and unexpected causes while younger supervisors give more internal explanations. ...
... Several studies (Boua, 2021;Gletty, 2017;Gyekye, 2006;Kouabenan, 1999Kouabenan, , 2009Ngueutsa, 2012;Niza et al., 2008) have been carried out to understand how individuals attribute causes to the accidents they face at work or on the road and how these causal explanations impact on their behaviour towards risks. Certainly, causal explanations are essential for assessing risks and accidents in the organizations because they establish the activities of organizations in accident prevention and management to minimize or avoid reoccurrence (Gyekye, 2010). ...
This thesis aims to examine the relationship between beliefs (fatalistic, control and normative), naive explanation of accident, perception of risk, perception of preventive actions and protective behaviour. This thesis consists of two studies. The first study aims to identify the causes of accidents in Nigerian hospitals, the perceived risks, the various forms of beliefs that exist among healthcare workers towards hospital risks and accidents, the perception of preventive actions and the protective behaviour of health workers in the workplace. This study was carried out through semi-structured interviews with 45 health workers belonging to three categories, namely doctors (professionals and generalists), scientists/laboratory technicians and nurses (professionals and midwives). It appears that health care workers are faced with risks and causes of accidents that result from individual actions and external elements. In addition, fatalistic beliefs and control beliefs emerge as the types of beliefs most identified as being involved in hospital work safety in Nigeria. The second study was conducted among 611 healthcare workers using a self-reported questionnaire, to test the link between beliefs (fatalistic, control and normative), causal explanations of accident, perception of risk, perception of preventive actions and safety behaviour. Our results show that fatalistic beliefs are linked to dangerous behaviours and to a low perceived effectiveness of preventive actions in the workplace. Additionally, healthcare workers with high perceived behavioural control tend to overestimate the severity and controllability of hospital risk and perceive high effectiveness of preventive actions. Furthermore, normative beliefs are associated with high perceived likelihood and severity of hospital risk and high perceived efficacy of preventive actions. Moreover, perceiving the effectiveness of preventive actions encourages the adoption of safety behaviours. Furthermore, workers who explain accidents by external factors perceive preventive actions as ineffective. It has also been observed that the overestimation of the perceived seriousness of hospital risks leads healthcare workers to adopt safe behaviours. Interaction analysis shows that the positive relationship between internal causal explanations and perceived effectiveness of preventive actions is stronger in younger healthcare workers. Finally, the results show that the effect of control beliefs on safety behaviour is mediated by internal causal explanation of accident. In general, the results of this thesis are mainly in line with past studies in this field and contributes some enhancement to the theoretical considerations. The practical implications and targeted recommendations of this thesis indicates that several intervention strategies can improve the safety and well-being of healthcare workers in Nigerian hospitals. Among which are programs that targets reducing or changing healthcare workers fatalistic beliefs to improve workers recognition of personal contributions to accident occurrence and safety.
... Workplace accidents occur mostly due to unsafe working conditions and behaviors, low visibility, and a hazardous atmosphere. These variables can result in life-threatening illness, accidents, lifelong disability, or death [14]. ...
The automotive industry is a significant contributor to the economy. Additionally, it is prone to occupational accidents. The current study focuses on organizational accidents in high-risk activities, particularly occupational accidents in the automobile and manufacturing industries. This investigation aims to rank and quantify the causes of occupational accidents. These reasons are identified through a literature review and are investigated utilizing the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). An AHP model is built based on a literature review. This model created a questionnaire and its evaluation via a survey of experts' opinions. This study shows that the most significant and dominant elements in accidents are human and organizational factors since they receive roughly equal weighting, whereas environmental factors weigh less.
