Dare to share: A path analysis and social exchange investigation of workplace social courage and safety knowledge sharing
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The purpose of this study is to investigate both the organizational and individual influences on safety knowledge sharing. Using social exchange theory, we propose that safety climate positively affects safety knowledge sharing by means of reciprocity when the firm values employee safety. However, since workers are often fearful of the consequences of discussing safety issues, we posit that workplace social courage is necessary to facilitate the reciprocal relationship between safety climate and safety knowledge sharing. We also suggest that safety voice is required for employees to engage in safety knowledge sharing. Data collection involved 158 employees in a manufacturing firm across three facilities in the United States. Using path analysis, we found that there is not a direct relationship between safety climate and safety knowledge sharing. Our results suggest that safety climate positively influences safety knowledge sharing only through a serially-mediated chain of workplace social courage and then safety voice. As such, our work exhibits the idea that it always requires courage to speak up and share safety ideas, even in a robust safety climate. This furthers our current understanding of how safety climate can influence employee actions and what personal and organizational factors affect the sharing of safety knowledge.
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09257535

