A General Sense of Belonging at Work as a Job Resource Relates to Workplace Safety: A Test and Extension of the Job Demands-Resources Model Related to Workplace Safety

Belongingness has a long history in the social literature, yet there is a dearth of research on belongingness in the workplace. This research examined a general sense of belonging at work related to workplace safety. The job demands-resources (JD-R) model related to workplace safety framework was used to develop a conceptual model. Belongingness theory was applied to the JD-R model to examine if a general sense of belonging at work could serve as a job resource to mitigate undesirable workplace safety outcomes and strengthen positive workplace safety outcomes. Self-report measures were electronically administered online and data were collected from 1,017 employees of a pipeline operator company. As predicted, regression results showed that employees who reported higher levels of a general sense of belonging at work reported lower feelings of fatigue and emotional exhaustion, and higher safety motivation. Moreover, a general sense of belonging at work mitigated relationships between feelings of fatigue and accidents and injuries, and strengthened a safety motivation and safe behavior relationship. In addition, two studies consisting of undergraduate student work samples (n = 542 and 116) were used along with the field study to develop and validate a general belonging at work (GBW) scale.