The effect of safety communication network characteristics on safety awareness and behavior in a liquefied natural gas terminal

Relatively few studies have investigated the safety awareness and behavior that are substantially influenced by the characteristics of safety communication. It is very important to comprehend what kind of attributes play a role in adequate safety information flow in a communication network. For these reasons, the current study aimed to explore the effectiveness of safety communication on safety awareness and behavior. The data were collected by performing interviews with employees of teams at a liquefied natural gas terminal located in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. A social network analysis (SNA) was applied to visualize the pattern of the safety communication network and calculate the typical SNA metrics such as density, tie strength, betweenness and degree centrality. In addition, the number of communication channels was also considered as a crucial differentiator between teams. Then, a correlation analysis was applied to investigate the impact of calculated SNA metrics on safety awareness and behavior. As a result, density, tie strength, degree centrality and the channel variety showed a direct influence on safety awareness and behavior. Conversely, betweenness centrality was not an active metric. This study demonstrated that raising the level of SNA metrics such as density, tie strength and degree centrality, and using various channels to communicate safety information within teams, could support better safety awareness and behavior.