Abstract:
The study sought to determine the effect of safety culture on Quality-of-Work-Life
(QoWL), the lived safety culture experiences, and how these experiences produced
QoWL perceptions among mental health workers in Ghana. Eight research
questions were formulated to guide the study. Employing a mixed methods design,
576 mental health workers were recruited purposively from Accra, Ankaful and
Pantang Psychiatric Hospitals for the quantitative data collection. Additionally,
purposive and snowball sampling strategies were used to collect data from fifteen
health workers with interviews until data saturation. A questionnaire from preexisting
instruments and semi-structured interview guide were used for data
collections. Chi-Square, Factorial Analysis of Variance, Multiple Analysis of
quantitative data analysis while Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
was used for qualitative data. The results indicated positive associations between
workplace violence and working at mental health facilities. Also, safety culture had
turnover intentions partially mediating the effect of safety culture on QoWL.
Moreover, working at the mental health facilities produced a significant
moderating effect on the effect of safety culture on turnover intentions and QoWL.
Also, IPA showed that poor job satisfaction and high turnover intentions were
formed due to poor safety culture experiences. Psychiatric hospital settings are
posing serious safety culture risk to the QoWL perceptions of professionals.
Management needs to provide a strong safety commitment in these facilities to
increase the health and safety of the workers.
