Influencing Mechanism Of Construction Workers’ Safety Motivation On Safety Behavior:The Moderating Effect Of Role Identity

The safety situation of construction projects in China is still poor.According to the previous literatures,construction workers’ safety behavior has been regarded as a key contributor to construction accidents and incidents.Previous studies have confirmed that safety motivation can predict safety behavior,but the level of their correlations is somewhat inconsistent as discussed in the current literature,and little attention has been paid on why the influence of safety motivation on safety behavior varies.To address this issue,the current study sets a hypothesis that role identity plays a moderating effect on the relationship between safety motivation and safety behavior.To test this hypothesis,data was collected from 333 construction workers using questionnaires,and subjected to a series of statistical analysis,including exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis,and Hierarchical Multiple Regression method.The results of PLS-SEM show that autonomous safety motivation positively related to safety compliance and safety participation;while controlled safety motivation only has positive relationship with safety participation.The results of Hierarchical regression analysis further show that role identity negatively moderate the relationship between safety motivation(i.e.,autonomous safety motivation and controlled safety motivation)and safety behavior(i.e.,safety participation and safety compliance).That is when construction workers’ role identity changed from a low level to a high level,the positive effect of safety motivation on safety behavior was decreased.According to the results of AVONA,there is significant difference in construction workers under the condition of different role identity levels.The findings highlighted the important role of autonomous safety motivation in inducing safety behavior.Moreover,the findings suggest that role identity should be taken into consideration when designing measures to support behavioral change.Safety behavior interventions will be more effective when they are carried out within the context of a positive role identity.The contribution of this research to the current body of knowledge includes providing reasonable explanation to the paradoxes about the relationship between safety motivation and safety behavior and expanding the knowledge about the relationship mechanism between safety motivation and safety behavior,as well as providing a potential answer by addressing role identity in safety behavioral intervention programs.