Assessment of Structural Equation Modelling Between Safety Attitudes, Personal Protective Equipment, Co-Worker Support with Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Compliance Among Firefighters: A Case Study in East Coast Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia (ECFRDM)

Abstract

Firefighters are employed in fire service to prevent, control, and extinguish fires, perform humanitarian services, and protect life and property in all disasters. Previously, studies have discussed occupational safety and health (OSH) compliance issues in many organisations, but current literature does not discuss this within the context of Malaysia’s fire services. Firefighters who have good beliefs and feelings about safety will reduce the incidence of unsafe behaviours in the workplace. The aims of this study were to measure the constructs and to identify the path coefficient between each construct in the model. An online questionnaire was distributed to 150 firefighters in the Malaysian East Coast Fire and Rescue Department. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the study’s hypotheses. The findings indicated that safety attitudes, personal protective equipment, and co-worker support had a significant relationship with OSH compliance. Therefore, the path coefficient values showed that safety attitudes had a strong significant relationship with OSH compliance.