This study aimed to examine the effect of safety education on major disaster response capability among industrial workers, and to clarify the mediating roles of safety performance and safety culture in this relationship. In addition, the study investi...
This study aimed to examine the effect of safety education on major disaster response capability among industrial workers, and to clarify the mediating roles of safety performance and safety culture in this relationship. In addition, the study investigated whether the levels of the key variables differed according to industry type, work experience, and the number of employees at the workplace. For this purpose, data were collected from 371 workers employed in the machinery and metal, shipbuilding and automobile, chemical and food, and other industrial sectors. To examine differences in the variables according to industry type, work experience, and workplace size, a one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) and post-hoc tests were conducted. Correlation analysis was performed to identify the relationships among the variables. Finally, a serial multiple mediation analysis using the PROCESS Macro was conducted to verify whether safety education influences major disaster response capability sequentially through safety performance and safety culture. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, regarding differences by industry type, safety education was higher in the chemical and food sector and the shipbuilding and automobile sector than in the machinery and metal sector and the other industrial sectors, and the post-hoc tests confirmed significant differences between these sectors and the machinery and metal sector. Safety performance was highest in the chemical and food sector, with a significant difference found between the chemical and food sector and the machinery and metal sector. Safety culture was also highest in the chemical and food sector, and the post-hoc tests showed that the chemical and food sector and the shipbuilding and automobile sector were significantly higher than the machinery and metal sector. Major disaster response capability was likewise highest in the chemical and food sector, with a significant difference from the machinery and metal sector. Second, with respect to work experience, safety education was highest among workers with less than one year of experience, and the post-hoc test revealed a significant difference from the group with 10 to less than 20 years of experience. In contrast, no significant differences by work experience were found for safety performance, safety culture, or major disaster response capability. Third, with respect to the number of employees, safety education was highest in workplaces with 1,000 or more employees, and the post-hoc test indicated significant differences between this group and the groups of 50 to fewer than 100 employees and fewer than 1,000 employees. However, no significant differences by workplace size were found for safety performance, safety culture, or major disaster response capability. Fourth, the correlation analysis among safety education, safety performance, safety culture, and major disaster response capability yielded coefficients ranging from .445 to .995, indicating strong positive correlations among the variables. Fifth, the analysis of direct effects showed that safety education had significant direct effects on safety performance, safety culture, and major disaster response capability. Safety performance had a significant direct effect on safety culture, and safety culture had a significant direct effect on major disaster response capability. However, the direct effect of safety performance on major disaster response capability was not significant. Sixth, the mediation analysis showed that the simple mediating effect of safety performance in the relationship between safety education and major disaster response capability was not significant, whereas the simple mediating effect of safety culture was significant. Furthermore, the serial multiple mediation analysis confirmed that safety education influenced major disaster response capability sequentially through safety performance and safety culture; that is, safety performance affected major disaster response capability via safety culture, demonstrating a significant serial multiple mediating effect. These results indicate that safety culture functions as a key mediating mechanism in the process through which safety education leads to major disaster response capability, and that safety performance affects major disaster accident response capability not on its own but through safety culture. Keywords: safety education, safety performance, safety culture, major disaster response capability