This study focused on the reality that despite the recent increase in industrial accidents among school operational staff, practical safety and health management systems fail to function effectively due to the structural and institutional limitations ...
This study focused on the reality that despite the recent increase in industrial accidents among school operational staff, practical safety and health management systems fail to function effectively due to the structural and institutional limitations of supervisors. Therefore, through comparative analysis with university hospital organizations possessing relatively mature safety and health systems, this study aimed to empirically clarify the structural relationship between ‘organizational support and resources’ and supervisors' ‘safety awareness’, ‘safety and health competency’, and ‘conducting on-site inspections’.
To this end, a survey was conducted from July to October 2025 targeting supervisors at public schools under the jurisdiction of Education Office A and two university hospitals. A total of 271 valid responses were utilized for the final analysis. The collected data were verified using basic statistics and t-tests with SPSS 21, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis with JMP 18. The main research findings are as follows.
First, the analysis of group differences (t-test) revealed that university hospitals had statistically significantly higher levels of ‘organizational support and resources’, ‘supervisory capacity’, and ‘on-site inspection implementation’ compared to schools. This suggests that compared to university hospitals, school organizations exhibit inadequate safety and health activities due to structural constraints such as the disconnect between authority and responsibility and lack of expertise.
Second, the structural equation modeling analysis revealed that in both organizations, ‘organizational support and resources’ had a significant positive (+) effect on supervisors' ‘safety awareness’. However, while university hospitals showed a significant indirect effect pathway where organizational support influenced competency and performance only through safety awareness as a mediator, public schools exhibited a significant direct effect pathway where organizational support directly influenced competency and on-site inspection performance without passing through safety awareness.
Third, the integrated model validation results showed that the university hospital's strong mediating effect (β > 1.0) drove the entire model, leading to a fully mediating structure. Additionally, analysis of latent variable differences revealed that public school supervisors' safety awareness, capacity, and on-site inspection performance were significantly lower (p< .05) compared to university hospitals. This confirms that school organizations are system-dependent structures that respond immediately to external systemic support (personnel, budget, manuals, etc.) to achieve outcomes, rather than relying on supervisors' inherent perceptions. Conversely, university hospitals represent an internalized structure that builds capacity based on the safety awareness of specialized supervisors.
Fourth, the latent variable difference test between university hospitals and public schools showed no significant difference in organizational support/resource variables between the two organizations. However, public schools exhibited significantly lower levels in all three variables: supervisors' safety awareness, competency, and on-site inspection implementation. Considering that all three variables identified in this study are promoted by organizational support and resources, these results suggest that public schools may have insufficient or ineffective organizational support and resources compared to university hospitals.
In conclusion, this study indicates that the school safety and health management system suffers from a lack of organizational-level support. Consequently, policy improvements are needed to overcome the structural limitations of school supervisors, such as assigning dedicated personnel, granting substantive authority, and providing safety awareness enhancement training.
Fourth, the results of testing for latent variable differences between university hospitals and public schools showed no significant differences between the two organizations in organizational support and resource variables. However, public schools exhibited significantly lower levels in all three variables: supervisors' safety awareness, competence, and performance of on-site inspections. Considering that all three variables identified in this study are promoted by organizational support and resources, these results suggest that public schools may have insufficient or ineffective organizational support and resources compared to university hospitals.
In conclusion, this study proposes policy improvements to overcome the structural limitations of school supervisors based on the lack of organizational-level support for the school safety and health management system. These include assigning dedicated personnel, granting substantive authority, and providing safety awareness enhancement training.
Key words : Supervisor, Supervisor Safety Awareness, Supervisor Competency, On-site Inspection Performance, School Safety and Health Management System