The Scale of Safety Perspective’s SBLM Development and Validation

Purpose: Supervisor bottom-line mentality (SBLM) suggests that supervisors sacrifice other priorities (e.g. employee well-being) for achieving the bottom-line results in the business sector. Although similar phenomenon exists in the safety industries, little research has paid attention to it. This article explores why supervisors’ addiction to pursuit of safety outcomes would lead to unsatisfactory results. Method: In study 1, we text data was coded based on grounded theory to propose the initial safety perspective’s SBLM scale. In Study 2, we improved the safety perspective’s SBLM scale by using the Delphi method, reliability analysis, factor analysis, discriminant validity analysis and regression analysis based on multi-wave data (n = 746). Results: the final scale consisted of two dimensions and 8 items with shows ideal content validity (Cronbach’s α = 0.862), convergent validity (CMIN/DF = 2.652; RMR = 0.069; GFI, NFI, IFI, CFI > 0.9), discriminant validity, and predictive validity. Conclusion: The safety perspective’s SBLM scale is a valid tool to assess whether safety supervisors focused only on safety outcomes in their management process. The findings are expected to advance research related to safety management research to reconsider poor management practices.