Factors Influencing Safety Behavior in the Malaysian Army

Much attention has been focused on workers’ perception of workplace safety. However, relatively limited studies focus on Malaysian Armed Forces particularly the Malaysia Army. This organization experiences a significant accident rates which are not reported publicly or contributed into the SOCSO statistics. Improving occupational health and safety in the Army organization is not an easy task despite adequate safety legislation and regulative institutions. It is because the Armed Forces are not obliged to the OSHA 1994 (Act 514). This framework is a replication of Shang et.al (2009) which examined the effects of safety climate on container operation terminal employees’ perceptions of safety performance. However, the technique used to determine the perception and compliance with safety behavior among army personnel in the Malaysian Army organization is by using the Work Safety Scale (WSS) of Hayes et al.(1988). The purpose of this study is to examine whether the five critical factors of safety culture dimensions related to the safety behavior of the Malaysian Army personnel. The WSS measures five factorially distinct constructs: (a) job safety, (b) coworker safety, (c) supervisor safety, (d) management safety practices, and (e) satisfaction with the safety program. All those independent variables were measured on the perception of workplace safety towards the compliance of safety behavior as the determinants among 217 army personnel in one army unit based in Kem Terendak, Melaka. Based on the analysis there was a positive relationship between these five facets and safety behavior. It was found that satisfaction with safety programs, co-worker safety and management safety practices each made significant contributions to compliance with safety behavior, whilst job safety and supervisor safety made least contributions in the study. Results also suggest that management can enhance and refine the Army units’ safety culture by focusing especially on the variables mentioned thereby increasing and strengthening safety culture and soldiers’ safety behavior thereby reducing injuries and accidents