Research into Individual Factors Affecting Safety within Airport Subsidiaries

Abstract

This study’s purpose is to demonstrate that, from the point of view of employees in subsidiary companies, individual factors, notably attitude towards risk, cognitive bias, knowledge and experience, and risk perception, have generated unsafe behavior and unsafe conditions and have undermined safety performance through risk tolerance. The data underpinning this research were derived from a survey of employees working in subsidiary companies within the vicinity of Incheon International Airport. In total, 409 questionnaires were analyzed using network structural equation modeling (SEM), a methodology representing, estimating, and testing relationships. This analysis has demonstrated within the bounds of statistical significance (a) that the attitudes towards risk, knowledge and experience, and cognitive bias affect risk tolerance and (b) that risk tolerance influences unsafe behavior, unsafe conditions, and safety performance. This research is the first to apply the accident causal model to the airport industry, and its conclusions can be used for accident prevention within Incheon International Airport’s subsidiaries.