“Digging Deeper” into the Relationship Between Safety Climate and Turnover Intention Among Stone, Sand and Gravel Mine Workers: Job Satisfaction as a Mediator

Abstract

Employee turnover has been linked to negative business performance outcomes, increased costs, and disruptions to operations. Research to explore predictors of turnover intention is important to the mining industry, including the stone, sand, and gravel mining (SSGM) industry. Safety climate has been linked to job satisfaction and reductions in turnover intention in other fields, but investigation within SSGM has virtually been non-existent, creating a knowledge gap. This research seeks to address this dearth of information. Cross-sectional data from 452 workers in the SSGM industry were analyzed to assess the influence of safety climate on turnover intention through job satisfaction. Mediation analyses showed that job satisfaction significantly mediated the relationship between safety climate and turnover intention. The implications of these novel findings are important for SSGM administrators. It suggests that bolstering safety programs and increasing safety climate perceptions will help increase job satisfaction and reduce turnover intention among workers in the SSGM industry.