1. Introduction
The petrochemical industry is considered to consist of complex and high-risk tasks and processes, such that human error can have catastrophic consequences, including death, severe economic loss, and widespread environmental pollution [
1]. Therefore, the slightest human error is not tolerated [
2]. In addition, many chemicals used during petrochemical manufacturing are toxic, flammable, and pyrophoric [
3]. These issues endanger the safety of workers and the work area. However, many accidents have been caused by repeating the same human error or improper behaviors.
Safety and environmental protections are higher priorities for petrochemical plants than those of the general construction industry [
4]. Therefore, the construction personnel of the petrochemical plant are operating under relatively high pressure. The safety of each element of the petrochemical industry must be guaranteed, which is dependent on employee behaviors in the workplace.
Safety at work is a combination of competency and attitude. In general, accidents at work occur either due to a lack of supervision, a lack of knowledge or training, or a lack of means to carry out the task safely [
5]. In addition to these factors, the short-term and transitory nature of the petrochemical industry, the lack of a controlled workplace, and the complexity and diversity of organizational procedures will influence safety performance within the industry [
6].
Given the current situation, many countries have fought against the massive spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) by establishing social distancing as a public policy and implementing screening tests in many social activities [
7]. Public policy has been published with the priority focused on people’s health. COVID-19 directly affects the physical health and emotional and social behavior of all citizens [
8].
The petrochemical industry is considered to have high health and safety standards, especially in light of the implementation of COVID-19 prevention in the workplace [
9]. Although COVID-19 transmission can drastically impact the health and safety of employees in the workplace, the petrochemical industry sector still needs to execute construction projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, including maintaining equipment and employing process safety guidelines to prevent a catastrophic petrochemical event [
10].
Therefore, this study aims to determine the level of COVID-19 prevention and safety attitude based on the workers’ affective domain. To achieve this goal, this research proposes the following research questions:
What are the workers’ perspectives on COVID-19 prevention, safety attitude, and affective domain in the petrochemical industry?
What are the workers’ views on COVID-19 prevention, safety attitude, and the affective domain according to their gender, age, position, and work experience in the petrochemical industry?
What are the connections between COVID-19 prevention, safety attitude, and affective domain based on the data obtained?
5. Discussion
Based on the results of this study,
Table 2,
Table 3 and
Table 4 reveal that most workers’ responses to COVID-19 prevention, safety attitudes, and affective domains were in a positive category. This explains that petrochemical workers’ awareness of COVID-19 prevention is excellent. The good results also followed this in measuring safety attitudes in petrochemical work. Therefore, the point of view on the two linked theories reveals that workers with good safety in their daily work also implement COVID-19 prevention. Both of these factors are intrinsic to the behavior of company workers. Therefore, this research involves a person’s affective domain to strengthen the relationship between the two factors in worker behavior. The result states that the affective domain of workers is also in line with the outcome of two behavioral factors in positive responses.
Table 5 and
Table 6 reveal no differences between categories (groups) in each characteristic of the variable being measured. This explains that awareness of COVID-19 prevention and safety in the petrochemical industry is evenly distributed among industrial petrochemical workers. Gender, position, and work experiences have both good awareness and discipline. This is also consistent when viewed from the perspective of the affective domain, and there is no difference between the categories for each characteristic. In other words, there is a link between the awareness of prevention and the discipline of safety with the affective domain of workers.
If discussed generally, the COVID-19 outbreak has been the largest global health crisis in recent years. It has had a huge impact on workforces and workplaces around the world. In addition, COVID-19 has triggered dramatic changes in the workplace and raised the level of concern among employees about their mental and physical health. The petrochemical industry also has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and faces the challenge of improving the safety and well-being of employees [
28].
Employee attitudes toward safety indicate that they generally behave safely in the workplace and accept or adhere to formal workplace rules [
29]. In addition, to improve safety, they will take the initiative to implement informal practices where necessary. Past behaviors also affect employee attitudes and safety at work [
30]. If someone has the willingness to perform a petrochemical construction task safely, then they will positively improve their knowledge regarding how to properly perform a task and are likely to repeat good behavior. Conversely, when an employee takes shortcuts and performs a task unsafely with little or no consequence, they are likely to continue working with unsafe behavior [
31].
Human well-being is generally defined as a multi-faceted construct, including both affective and cognitive aspects. In addition, both aspects are influenced by a person’s psychological, physical, and social resources and life experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced new challenges upon employees, such as uncertainty about job sustainability, which is likely impacting their well-being [
32]. Nevertheless, it would be a generalization to assume that employees were negatively influenced and mentally affected by COVID-19. Most likely, there is substantial variance in level of adjustment, where some groups of employees are more vulnerable than others. Therefore, it is necessary to identify psychological factors that can have a crucial role in the mental outcomes of an employee during a crisis.
According to the literature, males and females act the same with regards to COVID-19 prevention in the work area [
9]. This is also true when comparing young with old employees, subordinates with supervisors, and new workers with experienced workers. After all, preventive behavior in the workplace is mostly a system established by the company. To implement work safety, all employees will generally need to abide by the rules of the system [
33].
Safety attitude is a higher-order concept that is necessary for safety work improvement. The dynamic hazards in petrochemical plants make safety awareness one of the significant factors for the plants’ safety culture [
34]. Moreover, regular safety training and specific observation among management can help employees improve safety knowledge, which in turn improves attitudes toward participation in plant safety programs [
35]. Continuous improvement has a strong impact on employee safety performance.
Considering the affective domain, males and females usually exhibit similar behaviors in the workplace [
36]. This is also the same for young and old employees, subordinates and supervisors, and new and experienced workers. The affective component reflects a human value and how they may feel about a certain object or situation, such as an emotional reaction. These emotions and feelings are transformed by past experiences that may resurface when similar situations or conditions are relived.
Based on the results, we conclude that workers in petrochemical industries exhibit a positive affective domain and safety attitude, and care about COVID-19 prevention [
37]. Employees with a positive affective domain will promote safe behaviors in the workplace, and they are more prepared to face the pandemic situation at work or in their daily life.
Employees who have positive emotional domains tend to gain a great deal of satisfaction from daily life and work activities. Positive employees rarely give up [
38]. They generally perform well in the workplace because they are encouraged to embrace new ideas, pay attention to details, and consider the possible outcomes of their behaviors. These employees develop safe work habits and look for ways to improve.
Additionally, employees with positive attitudes tend to think before acting. These employees recognize potential hazards before they have time to cause problems, and then deal with them appropriately [
39]. Another characteristic of a positive attitude is a person’s ability to focus on the task at hand, for example, always considering safety first when machinery and equipment are involved.
On the other hand, employees with a negative attitude complain about everything, including having to practice safety. They are less likely to care about the expected quality of the work or how they accomplish a given task. In other words, negative work attitudes can lead to unsafe working habits and accidents. Negative attitudes can force people into dangerous situations, causing them to lose interest or maintain pride in their poor work habits. Negative attitudes about safety will reduce employee safety, morale, quality, profitability, and business reputation, and increase production costs.
The discussion is compared with the previous study results conducted by Al-Rasheed et al. in 2021 [
40], which explained that 98.6% had an overall positive attitude of safety and security workers toward good and safe COVID-19 prevention practices. This is in line with the results of this study which show that a good safety attitude or worker behavior at the workplace will provide good readiness and practice for preventing COVID-19. In contrast, other comparisons in research conducted by Zebley et al. in 2021 [
41] explained that affective responses also connect with the emergence of stressors in COVID-19 healthcare workers. Indeed, it does not explicitly define the practice of preventing COVID-19 but describes the relationship between the two factors, namely, the affective domain and COVID-19 healthcare workers. This is corroborated by the results of this study which explain that preventing COVID-19 is in line with the affective domain of workers.
6. Conclusions
This study found that employees in the petrochemical industry have a positive degree of responses to COVID-19 prevention, safety attitudes, and the affective domain. The degree of implementation of COVID-19 prevention, safety attitude, and affective domain are not significantly dependent on employment characteristics such as gender, age, position, and work experience. The implementation of safety behavior appears to be evenly accepted and understood across employees from varying categories. Ultimately, a positive affective domain of employees is followed by a positive safety attitude; thus, effective COVID-19 prevention was established in the workplace based on the perspectives and attitudes of the employees.
6.1. Theoretical Implication
From a theoretical point of view, we can highlight the implications of the results of this study. One’s affective factors can be observed not only in education but also in work. Affective factors can also be interpreted as worker behaviors. The affective domain can reflect the behavior of workers in their daily work.
6.2. Practical Implication
From a practical point of view, the affective domain of a worker can be observed through their behavior and personality. Like this study, affective domain observations were carried out by adopting an effective questionnaire that refers to a person’s behavior in the workplace. This is proven by observing workers’ behaviors in line with understanding and applying COVID-19 prevention in work activities.
6.3. Study Limitation
This study is based on a survey with a random sample of employees from the petrochemical industry who are already familiar with the stringent work rules in the workplace. Therefore, the affective domain’s contribution to safety behavior compared to the workplace/other fields is different. In other words, it cannot be generalized to all occupations. This is because the petrochemical industry has a high work discipline.
6.4. Future Suggestions
This research was conducted on workers in industries with a high work discipline so that the three identified factors (affective, COVID-19 prevention, and safety) were aligned with each other because of the work culture that has been built. Therefore, in the future, similar research can be carried out, especially in the affective domain of workers in other industrial segments, so that it can be compared with the results of this study.