Problem: Çok uluslu bilimsel çalışmalara yönelik olarak son otuz yıldır artan bir ilgi bulunmaktadır. Bununla birlikte, bu gelişme söz konusu çalışmaların ulusal kültür boyutlarıyla ilişkilendirmesi konusunda aynı performansı yansıtmamaktadır. Benzer şekilde, aynı eksiklik ulusal kültür boyutlarının, ölümcül iş kazaları üzerindeki etkilerini inceleyen araştırmalarda da görülmektedir. Bu çalışma, ampirik bulgularla bu boşluğu doldurmayı ve son dönemde Türkiye'nin Soma ve Ermenek maden sahalarında meydana gelen facialara benzer ölümcül işyeri kazalarının önlenmesine yönelik kamu politikalarının geliştirilmesine destek sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Metot: Ulusal kültürboyutlarının ülke düzeyinde ölümcül iş kazaları üzerindeki etkisi, 60 ülkenin 1979-2008 yılları arasındaki verilerini içerecek şekilde basit regresyon analizi ile araştırılmıştır. Sonuçlar: Araştırma sonucunda, Güç Aralığı boyutu ile ülke düzeyinde ölümcül iş kazaları (ÖİK) sayısında pozitif yönlü bir korelasyon varken (Ulusal kültürlere göre "güç aralığı mesafesi" değeri yükseldikçe, ölümcül iş kazalarının sayısında da artış gözlenmekte), Bireysellik/Kolektiflik boyutu ile ÖİK arasında ise ters yönlü bir ilişki olduğu ("Bireyselcilik" boyutu açısından daha yüksek değere sahip kültürlerde ölümcül iş kazası sayısının daha düşük olduğu) bulgusuna erişilmiştir. Pratik Uygulamalar: Araştırma sonucunda bulunan karşılıklı etkileşime ilişkin bilgiler, işyeri güvenliği konusunda gelecekte gündeme gelmesi muhtemel karar ve kamu politikalarının oluşturulması faaliyetlerine önemli katkı sağlayabilir. Bu nedenle, karar alıcıların kamu politikası oluşturma süreçleri sırasında, kültürel farklılıkların muhtemel etkilerini de dikkate almalarının faydalı olacağı değerlendirilmektedir.

Introduction and the Aim of the Study: There has been a growing interest on cross-national studies during the last three decades. However, this phenomenon does not reflect the same performance related to the incorporation of these studies into the national cultural dimensions. Similarly, there is a lack of studies which incorporate the impacts of the dimensions of national culture to fatal occupational injuries (FOI). This study intends to fill this gap by providing empirical findings and also to assist in developing appropriate policies to prevent fatal workplace accidents as recently happened in Soma and Ermenek Minefields of Turkey. The Conceptual Frame of the Study: Within the frame of the current literature review, it is evaluated that one part of the focus of this study is on fatal occupational injuries, and other part is about the analysis of the impacts of national cultural dimensions on the previous one. Occupational injury can be defined as “any personal injury, death, or disease resulting from an occupational accident”, and occupational accident can be defined as “an occurrence arising out of or in the course of work which result in: (a) fatal occupational injury or (b) nonfatal occupational injury” (Hamalainen, Takala and Saarela, 2006: 139). The term occupational safety and health (OSH) is “generally defined as the science of the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of hazards arising in or from the workplace that could impair the health and well-being of workers, taking into account the possible impact on the surrounding communities and the general environment” (Alli, 2008: vii). A huge number of employees experience a high number of workplace accidents every day. Almost one million occupational accidents, which occur on a daily basis, cause a loss equal to the 4% of the Gross National Income (GNI). Approximately 2.3 million people loose their lives because of occupational injuries and diseases, and many more are maimed and/or rendered incapable of working. All these figures exhibit the importance of a rehabilitation process for humanity, concerning the workplace safety (MLSS-T, 2012: 2-3). By taking the importance of above mentioned matters into account, Turkish Great National Assembly (TGNA) has adopted a new law on “Occupational Health and Safety (Law no.:6331)”. When the legal ground and/or general justification of the law submitted to the TGNA is carefully examined, it is found out that the justification evaluates the need for such a regulation within the framework of harmonization to European legislation and refers to the European Social Charter (1961) and of the Additional Protocol (1988), which stipulate the right for fair working, the right for health and safety at work etc. Such an approach, which is not ignoring the social fields in the adoption of occupational safety regulations, may help for the suitable application of the regulations and for improved occupational safety. But this step should be supported by the integration of the possible effects of the national dimensions of the culture to the process as well to achieve better results in the struggle against the FOIs at the workplace. Even though the possible impacts of cultural differences on FOI is a field which still needs to be empirically tested globally, this uncertainty does not prevent us from predicting that there might be a strong correlation between these two variables. This uncertain relationship constitutes the main motivation behind the framework of this study. When the current literature is examined, a research, conducted by Starren, Hornixk, and Luijters (2013: 43-49) on the relationship between national culture values and occupational safety, provide evidence that especially the UAI and PDI dimensions are relevant in the context of occupational safety. Employees from higher UAI scored national cultures are expected to be more focused on compliance with procedures. Similarly workers from high PDI scored cultures are expected to accept supervisors’ safety instructions more easily. Even though the assumptions seem very logical, the empirical evidence is less compelling according to the authors. Another research conducted by Trompenaars and Hampden­Turner (1997:2) also provides evidence supporting the validity of a similar issue, which is related to the different results of the same managerial applications in various cultures. As a result of the findings of the current literature, the prediction of this research is that the same path can be extended to the implementations related to workplace safety also, which is a matter to be empirically investigated and confirmed. Method: In this study, due to the lack of data on fatal occupational injuries containing all countries, intersection of valid data including 60 countries is gathered from two different databases. The list of those 60 countries is presented at Table 2. The ILO (International Labor Organization), as being the first specialized agency of the UN constituted in 1946 in order to promote the rights of the employees at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues. Thus, the data of Fatal Occupational Injuries (FOI) related to 60 countries covering the period between the years 1979-2008 are gathered from ILO official website. On the other hand related to the data about the dimensions of National Culture, Hofstede’s studies were used as a reference. Geert Hofstede employed one of the most comprehensive studies about the dimensions of national culture. He analyzed a huge data base of employee value scores, gathered by IBM between the years 1967 – 1973, consisting of more than 70 countries. So that, the data of the national culture dimensions (PDI, IDV, MAS, and UAI) is collected from The Hofstede Centre’s former website and the descriptive statistics is expressed in Table 2. By conducting a simple regression analysis, the impacts of the dimensions of national culture on the number of FOI at country level were investigated including 60 states covering the period between the years 1979-2008. Findings and Discussion: After the analysis, the results reached support the presumption that PDI and IDV have impact over FOI separately. One unit change in PDI induces 0,329 unit changes in FOI in the same direction. Conversely, one unit change in IDV induces 0,282 unit changes in FOI in the reverse direction. Within this frame, the first dimension to be discussed is the Power Distance (PDI) dimension. Within the cultures having low PDI, the authority is based on secular-rational arguments, while it is based on the traditions at the high PDI cultures. So it can be expected that a rational attitude in the formation of authority may positively affect the occupational safety environment so that the number of fatal injuries may decrease. Especially the following differences such as: decentralized decision structures, less concentration of authority; managers rely on personal experience and on subordinates; consultative leadership leads to satisfaction, performance, and productivity; openness with information, also to nonsuperiors belonging to low-PDI cultures are expected to create curative impacts on the occupational safety, while the situation would be opposite related to the high-PDI countries. This assumption supports the positive correlation between the PDI scores of the cultures and the number of fatal occupational injuries. On the other hand, when the aspects of the Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV or individualism) dimension are analyzed, it can be assessed that there would be a reverse function in comparison with the PDI dimension. The examples of the key differences between collectivist and individualist societies exhibited by Hofstede (2001: 209), such as hiring and promotion decisions take employees’ in-group into account; employees perform best in-groups; training most effective when focused at group level; less control over job and working conditions…which are belonging to low-IDV scored societies, clearly indicate that collectivist cultures may prevent individualistic training, objective performance appraisal, fair promotion, just and efficient inspection at the workplace, while the opposite character of individualist cultures provide support for these activities. Thus these assumptions support the existence of a reverse correlation between the scores of the cultures related to IDV dimension and the number of fatal occupational injuries.data of Fatal Occupational Injuries (FOI) related to 60 countries covering the period between the years 1979-2008 are gathered from ILO official website. On the other hand related to the data about the dimensions of National Culture, Hofstede’s studies were used as a reference. Geert Hofstede employed one of the most comprehensive studies about the dimensions of national culture. He analyzed a huge data base of employee value scores, gathered by IBM between the years 1967 – 1973, consisting of more than 70 countries. So that, the data of the national culture dimensions (PDI, IDV, MAS, and UAI) is collected from The Hofstede Centre’s former website and the descriptive statistics is expressed in Table 2. By conducting a simple regression analysis, the impacts of the dimensions of national culture on the number of FOI at country level were investigated including 60 states covering the period between the years 1979-2008. Findings and Discussion: After the analysis, the results reached support the presumption that PDI and IDV have impact over FOI separately. One unit change in PDI induces 0,329 unit changes in FOI in the same direction. Conversely, one unit change in IDV induces 0,282 unit changes in FOI in the reverse direction. Within this frame, the first dimension to be discussed is the Power Distance (PDI) dimension. Within the cultures having low PDI, the authority is based on secular-rational arguments, while it is based on the traditions at the high PDI cultures. So it can be expected that a rational attitude in the formation of authority may positively affect the occupational safety environment so that the number of fatal injuries may decrease. Especially the following differences such as: decentralized decision structures, less concentration of authority; managers rely on personal experience and on subordinates; consultative leadership leads to satisfaction, performance, and productivity; openness with information, also to nonsuperiors belonging to low-PDI cultures are expected to create curative impacts on the occupational safety, while the situation would be opposite related to the high-PDI countries. This assumption supports the positive correlation between the PDI scores of the cultures and the number of fatal occupational injuries. On the other hand, when the aspects of the Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV or individualism) dimension are analyzed, it can be assessed that there would be a reverse function in comparison with the PDI dimension. The examples of the key differences between collectivist and individualist societies exhibited by Hofstede (2001: 209), such as hiring and promotion decisions take employees’ in-group into account; employees perform best in-groups; training most effective when focused at group level; less control over job and working conditions…which are belonging to low-IDV scored societies, clearly indicate that collectivist cultures may prevent individualistic training, objective performance appraisal, fair promotion, just and efficient inspection at the workplace, while the opposite character of individualist cultures provide support for these activities. Thus these assumptions support the existence of a reverse correlation between the scores of the cultures related to IDV dimension and the number of fatal occupational injuries.data of Fatal Occupational Injuries (FOI) related to 60 countries covering the period between the years 1979-2008 are gathered from ILO official website. On the other hand related to the data about the dimensions of National Culture, Hofstede’s studies were used as a reference. Geert Hofstede employed one of the most comprehensive studies about the dimensions of national culture. He analyzed a huge data base of employee value scores, gathered by IBM between the years 1967 – 1973, consisting of more than 70 countries. So that, the data of the national culture dimensions (PDI, IDV, MAS, and UAI) is collected from The Hofstede Centre’s former website and the descriptive statistics is expressed in Table 2. By conducting a simple regression analysis, the impacts of the dimensions of national culture on the number of FOI at country level were investigated including 60 states covering the period between the years 1979-2008. Findings and Discussion: After the analysis, the results reached support the presumption that PDI and IDV have impact over FOI separately. One unit change in PDI induces 0,329 unit changes in FOI in the same direction. Conversely, one unit change in IDV induces 0,282 unit changes in FOI in the reverse direction. Within this frame, the first dimension to be discussed is the Power Distance (PDI) dimension. Within the cultures having low PDI, the authority is based on secular-rational arguments, while it is based on the traditions at the high PDI cultures. So it can be expected that a rational attitude in the formation of authority may positively affect the occupational safety environment so that the number of fatal injuries may decrease. Especially the following differences such as: decentralized decision structures, less concentration of authority; managers rely on personal experience and on subordinates; consultative leadership leads to satisfaction, performance, and productivity; openness with information, also to nonsuperiors belonging to low-PDI cultures are expected to create curative impacts on the occupational safety, while the situation would be opposite related to the high-PDI countries. This assumption supports the positive correlation between the PDI scores of the cultures and the number of fatal occupational injuries. On the other hand, when the aspects of the Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV or individualism) dimension are analyzed, it can be assessed that there would be a reverse function in comparison with the PDI dimension. The examples of the key differences between collectivist and individualist societies exhibited by Hofstede (2001: 209), such as hiring and promotion decisions take employees’ in-group into account; employees perform best in-groups; training most effective when focused at group level; less control over job and working conditions…which are belonging to low-IDV scored societies, clearly indicate that collectivist cultures may prevent individualistic training, objective performance appraisal, fair promotion, just and efficient inspection at the workplace, while the opposite character of individualist cultures provide support for these activities. Thus these assumptions support the existence of a reverse correlation between the scores of the cultures related to IDV dimension and the number of fatal occupational injuries.