Ranking of working shift groups in an Iranian petrochemical company using ELECTRE method based on safety climate assessment results

An effective safety management requires paying attention to human factors for accident prevention. The aim of this study was to evaluation and analysis of safety climate in order to select the best work shift group in an Iranian petrochemical company, in 2010. A cross-sectional study was designed in that safety climate questionnaire were distributed between 151 workers. We used ELECTRE method to find the best work shift group. The number of returned valid questionnaires was 134 out of 151 and response rate was 88.74%. Questionnaire's reliability assessed by Cronbach's alpha was 0.928. The results indicated that 68.7% of workers had positive safety climate. The results also notified a significant relationship between age and safety climate (p < 0.05). Using ELECTRE method, most effective shift group and the least attractive alternatives for intervention were selected in this company. This study showed the importance of attention to positive safety attitude promotion between employees.