Introduction:​ Despite substantial investments in workplace safety conditions, industries are troubled by the thinning returns in corresponding injury reduction. As a result, researchers have begun to examine organizational factors such as safety climate in order to improve occupational safety. This study aimed to better elucidate the relationship between safety climate and occupational injury.

Methods:​ Existing safety climate studies were first described and summarized. Safety climate survey data from 18 companies with 2,680 participants were used to evaluate a set of four hypothesized climate dimensions:​ perceived qualities of 1) management commitment, 2) retum-to-work policies, 3) post-injury administration, and 4) safety training. A model associating safety climate with self-reported injuries through a factor described as employee safety control was then tested. The four climate dimensions then were used to generate composite safety climate scores for another group of 33 companies, representing 19 industrial sectors. Safety climate scores’ association with three measures of objective injury rates was tested. The companies’ Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was used to derive controls to adjust for differences in degree of hazard among industries.

Results:​ The four hypothesized climate dimensions were found to be significant. Results confirmed safety climate’s association with self-reported injury, and employee safety control mediated the relationship. Analysis of the association between climate scores and objective injury rates showed that in an unadjusted relationship, higher or better safety climate scores appeared to be significantly associated with lower injury rates;​ however, the association disappeared when the analysis controlled for the industry hazard differences.

Conclusions:​ This study demonstrated that safety climate was an observable phenomenon associated with occupational injury. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating organizational factors when attempting to improve organizational safety performance. The significance of powerful controls for industry hazard differences showed that safety climate is not necessarily independent from the differences in the industries’ risk baseline.