Effect of perceived risk on nuclear power plant operators’ safety behavior and errors

Abstract

Safety behavior and human errors are major concerns for nuclear power plant operators. The present study investigated how nuclear power plant operators’ perceived risk influences the quality of their own work performance in terms of safety behavior and errors. In total, 349 operators from two nuclear power plants in China participated in the present study. We found that perceived risk had a negative linear relationship with safety behavior and a quadratic relationship with errors. Leader support played a moderating role in the relationships between perceived risk, safety behavior, and errors. These results supported the job demands–resources model and provided further evidence for the relationship between perceived risk and outcomes related to safety behavior and errors. Our findings suggest that an effective way to address the issue of high perceived risk is to provide a supportive environment.

Keywords:

• perceived risk
• safety behavior
• error
• nuclear power plant

Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, No. 2011CB711000), the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KSCX2-EW-J-8), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31170976; 31300843; 71201163; 71071149). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China, 973 Program [grant number 2011CB711000]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31170976], [grant number 31300843], [grant number 71201163], [grant number 71071149]; the Key Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [grant number KJZD-EW-L04]; Foundation for the Supervisor of Beijing Excellent Doctoral Dissertation [grant number 20138012501].