Organisational research investigating climate perceptions often use constructs reflecting dispersion and disagreement, termed ‘climate strength’, to investigate situational pressures on behaviour expression. Within safety-specific contexts, research has tended to emphasise the prediction of climate strength rather than an examination of its effects on behaviour. The present paper investigates the important first pathway in the prediction of safety behaviour by investigating the influence of safety climate strength on the relationship between safety climate perceptions and individual safety motivation in a safety critical context using multilevel analyses. Contrary to expectations, results initially indicated that safety climate strength negatively influenced the relationship between safety climate perceptions and safety motivation, such that greater variability was associated with greater motivation. Post hoc analysis re-grouping responses into broader functional levels found support for an interaction, suggesting a difference in the scope of influence for safety climate strength between the two levels of analysis. These findings are discussed in light of self-determination theory, and suggestions for future research and practice made.

调查气候感知的组织研究通常使用反映分散和分歧的结构，称为“气候强度”，以调查行为表达的情境压力。在安全特定的背景下，研究倾向于强调预测气候强度，而不是检查其对行为的影响。本文通过使用多层次分析研究安全气候强度对安全临界环境中安全气候感知与个人安全动机之间关系的影响，研究了预测安全行为的重要第一条途径。与预期相反，结果最初表明安全气氛强度对安全气氛感知和安全动机之间的关系产生负面影响，因此更大的可变性与更大的动机相关联。事后分析将响应重新分组为更广泛的功能级别，发现支持相互作用，表明两个分析级别之间安全气候强度的影响范围存在差异。