Perceived Safety Culture Among Workers in Selected Commercial Banks in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Occupational safety and health is relevant to all workplaces, including predominantly office-based service organisations. Although commercial banking is generally associated with lower physical risks than sectors such as construction, manufacturing and oil and gas, bank workers may still encounter fire, electrical, ergonomic, psychosocial, security and other occupational hazards. Safety culture provides an organisational basis for identifying, communicating and managing such risks.
Objective: This study assessed workers' perceptions of selected safety-culture indicators in commercial banks in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and examined whether perceptions differed between managers and other bank workers.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was employed. Data were collected from 30 workers in five selected commercial banks, comprising 10 managers and 20 other bank workers. A structured questionnaire containing 11 safety-culture statements assessed safety policy, management commitment, teamwork, workforce involvement, safety rules and procedures, safety training, incident learning, safety communication, reporting, accident investigation and safety prioritisation in relation to business pressures. Responses were recorded on a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, were used to summarise responses. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to examine differences between managers and other bank workers.
Results: Respondents reported generally favourable perceptions across all 11 assessed safety-culture indicators. Mean scores ranged from 3.97 ± 0.67 for workforce involvement in safety to 4.97 ± 0.18 for management commitment to safety. Management commitment, incident learning and safety policy received the highest ratings. Managers generally reported somewhat higher mean scores than other bank workers on several indicators, particularly workforce involvement, teamwork, safety reporting and personnel training. However, no statistically significant differences were detected between the two groups across any of the 11 indicators (p > .05).
Conclusion: Workers in the selected commercial banks reported generally favourable perceptions of the assessed safety-culture indicators. Management commitment appeared to be a particular strength, whereas workforce involvement represented a relative area for improvement. The absence of statistically significant manager–worker differences should be interpreted cautiously because of the small sample size. The findings provide preliminary local evidence and suggest the need for continued employee participation, safety communication, reporting, training and organisational learning.

Safety culture; perceived safety culture; occupational safety; commercial banks; bank workers; management commitment

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