Washington State University Vancouver, United States.
Accid Anal Prev. 2013 Oct;59:580-7. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2013.07.020. Epub 2013 Aug 1.
Each year, more than 4 million U.S. workers are injured on the job - several thousand die (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). Despite these staggering numbers, research suggests that they are gross underestimates of the true volume of workplace related illnesses and injuries due to accident under-reporting. Although accident under-reporting has been well-documented, less is known regarding why this occurs. The current study suggests that under-reporting may in part be due to high levels of perceived production pressure. Specifically, this study tested the hypotheses that production pressure would be related to more experienced accidents overall and more negative attitudes toward reporting accidents. Further, we expected that production pressure would exacerbate the under-reporting of accidents. Survey data were collected from a sample of 212 copper mining workers located in the southwestern United States. The survey measured employee perceptions regarding production pressure, attitudes toward reporting accidents, perceived consequences of reporting accidents, and actual reporting behaviors (e.g., types and numbers of accidents experienced vs. reported). As predicted, the average number of experienced accidents per employee was significantly higher (M=2.84) than the number of reported accidents (M=.49). In addition, production pressure was related to more negative reporting attitudes. Individuals who had positive reporting attitudes were injured less frequently; however, when an incident occurred, they were more likely to report it. Finally, higher levels of production pressure were related to greater accident under-reporting. Additionally, employees who perceived high levels of production pressure not only experienced more accidents overall, they also reported fewer of them to the organization. Implications for occupational safety initiatives--particularly in the current economic climate--are discussed, as are methodological challenges of conducting research in this area.
每年，超过 400 万美国工人在工作中受伤-其中几千人死亡（劳工统计局，2008 年）。尽管这些数字令人震惊，但研究表明，由于事故报告不足，这些数字严重低估了真正的工作场所相关疾病和伤害的数量。尽管事故报告不足已经得到充分记录，但对于为什么会发生这种情况知之甚少。本研究表明，报告不足可能部分是由于感知到的生产压力较高。具体来说，本研究测试了以下假设：生产压力与总体上更频繁的事故经历和对报告事故的更负面态度有关。此外，我们预计生产压力会加剧事故报告不足的情况。调查数据是从位于美国西南部的 212 名铜矿工人样本中收集的。该调查衡量了员工对生产压力、报告事故态度、报告事故后果的看法以及实际报告行为（例如，经历和报告的事故类型和数量）。正如预期的那样，每位员工经历的平均事故数量明显高于报告的事故数量（M=2.84）（M=.49）。此外，生产压力与更负面的报告态度有关。报告态度积极的人受伤频率较低；但是，当发生事故时，他们更有可能报告。最后，生产压力越高，事故报告不足的情况就越严重。此外，那些认为生产压力较高的员工不仅总体上经历的事故更多，而且向组织报告的事故也更少。讨论了职业安全倡议的意义-特别是在当前的经济环境下-以及在该领域进行研究的方法学挑战。
