Title: Trust in risk communication in organisations in five countries of North and South America

Authors: Lorena Perez-Floriano, Jose Flores-Mora, Joan MacLean

Addresses: Department of Management, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, Av. Camino a Santa Teresa No. 930, 10700 Mexico D.F., Mexico. ' Director of Human Resources of the Andean Development Corporation, Ave. Luis Roche, Torre CAF, Altamira, Caracas, Venezuela. ' Department of Management, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, Av. Camino a Santa Teresa No. 930, 10700 Mexico D.F., Mexico

Abstract: This paper reports on the development of the Trust in Risk Communication scale (TRC). The TRC measures beliefs in government, management and union trustworthiness. The TRC is found to be significantly associated with (1) perception of risk from industrial hazards, (2) the Mayer, Davis and Schooner trust related factors, (3) dimensions defined by the theory of reasoned action, (4) job satisfaction, and (5) hope. There was no significant relationship between Schwartz values and the TRC. The TRC is shown to have appropriate psychometric characteristics across cultural groups. Data from workers (N=506) in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States suggest that the TRC predicts workers| willingness to accept risk at the workplace. The TRC can assist researchers and practitioners by providing them with an overall assessment of workers| trust in risk management programmes.

Keywords: Argentina; attitudes; Brazil; Canada; Mexico; organisational safety; risk communication; risk perception; scale validation; trust; United States; workplaces; risk management programmes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAM.2007.011732

International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 2007 Vol.7 No.2, pp.205 - 223

Published online: 20 Dec 2006 *

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