Development of occupational health and safety service areas competencation scale for occupational safety experts: Validity and reliability results

The main aim of this research is to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to determine the competencies of occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals in the field of OHS services. This study was patterned in methodological design and based on the definition of competence, the competencies of occupational safety specialists in OHS service areas were conceptualized according to their features that ensure their performance in the implementation process. The study group of the research consists of 447 OHS professionals. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale items were grouped under 6 factors. These factors are personal performance, incident management, strategy, occupational health safety and legislation, positive safety culture development, and risk management. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, and the R2 values ranged from 0.217 to 0.671, indicating that the items strongly explained the dimensions. The goodness-of-fit indices of the model belonging to OHS services (χ2/df = 2.097, RMSEA = .07, GFI = .93, AGFI = .95, NFI = .93, IFI = .91, CFI = .91, SRMR = .06) were within acceptable limits, indicating a good fit of the model. According to the results of the confirmatory factor analysis, the factor distributions of the scale were confirmed. In the reliability study of the scale, Cronbach's alpha internal consistency reliability coefficients were found to be 0.906, 0.857, 0.836, 0.791, 0.839, and 0.761 for the 6 factors, respectively. Based on these results, it can be seen that the reliability of the sub-dimensions of the scale is very good and good. The overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale was found to be 0.956. This result indicates that the model is highly reliable. In conclusion, the developed scale, based on the findings obtained, is seen as a valid and reliable measurement tool for assessing the competencies that OHS professionals should possess in OHS service areas.