Abstract:
The health and safety of workers, irrespective of the type of work, is crucial for the growth of the
economy and the well-being of the workforce. Several studies have been conducted in the formal sector
to find out the antecedents, correlates, determinants or predictors of safety performance. However, there
is a dearth of empirical studies regarding the health and safety of workers in the informal sector. This
study investigated the extent to which causal attributions predict safety performance among Ghanaian
local artisans and the moderating role of their perception of how meaningful their work is to them. One
hundred and seventy-seven workers (172 males and 5 females) involved in welding and fabrication,
auto-mechanics, auto spraying and vulcanizing purposively sampled were studied in a cross-sectional
survey. The results showed that both external and internal causal attributions significantly predicted
safety performance of the artisans, with external relating stronger to safety performance than internal
attributions. When meaningfulness of work was entered into the equation, the effect of external
attribution was still significant, but internal attribution was not. Meaningfulness of work moderated the
effect of internal (but not external) causal attribution on safety performance. The practical significance
and implications for further research were discussed.
