Occupational Health and Safety Culture Transformation in Nigerian State-Owned Enterprises: A Grounded Theory Study

Occupational health and safety culture transformation in Nigerian state-owned enterprises (SOEs) represents a critical governance and public health challenge, yet the processes, barriers, and enablers of culture change in this unique organizational context lack theoretical grounding from empirical study. This doctoral study employed a constructivist grounded theory methodology to develop a substantive theory of OHS culture transformation in Nigerian SOEs. Theoretical sampling guided the purposive recruitment of 85 participants across four SOEs in petrochemical, telecommunications, power generation, and transport sectors, representing South South, North Central, South West, and South East geopolitical zones. Data collection employed 65 in-depth interviews, 20 organizational ethnographic observation sessions, and document analysis of 140 organizational records. Constant comparison analysis generated the substantive theory of Contested Safety Culture Transformation, describing transformation as a politically mediated, institutionally constrained process shaped by interactions between regulatory pressure, leadership succession dynamics, union power structures, and worker collective memory of past safety failures. Four transformation trajectory types were identified, ranging from genuine normative shift to performative compliance without genuine belief change. The theory uniquely highlights the role of post-reform safety incident memory in undermining transformation sustainability. This study provides an original grounded theory contribution to OHS organizational behavior science in an African institutional context and generates actionable insights for safety culture intervention designers and SOE governance reformers in Nigeria. Keywords: safety culture transformation, state-owned enterprises, grounded theory, organizational behavior, Nigeria.