Sociocultural Factors and Occupational Safety in High-Risk Environments: A Theoretical Analysis of Their Implications for the Adoption of Safe Behaviors

Abstract

The persistence of occupational accidents in high-risk work environments, even in organizations that comply with regulations, training programs, and safety management systems, indicates that unsafe behaviors cannot be explained solely by technical failures or procedural violations. This issue highlights the need to analyze the sociocultural factors that influence risk perception and the adoption of safe behaviors within organizations. This article presents a theoretical and documentary analysis aimed at understanding how elements such as organizational culture, safety education levels, social pressure, informal norms, and the normalization of risk shape workers’ preventive behavior. Using an exploratory methodology grounded in the critical review of recent studies and conceptual frameworks from labor sociology and organizational psychology, the analysis identifies cultural patterns that strengthen or weaken safety culture. The theoretical findings emphasize the importance of preventive leadership, open communication, and the construction of shared meanings as key mechanisms for consolidating sustainable safe behaviors. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that integrating sociocultural perspectives into preventive management enables more human-centered, participatory, and context-sensitive strategies capable of influencing real worker behavior beyond regulatory compliance. This theoretical contribution broadens the understanding of industrial safety by recognizing it as a complex social phenomenon, essential for reducing accident rates and promoting safer and healthier work environments.