Safety leadership: A meta-analytic review of transformational and transactional leadership styles as antecedents of safety behaviours
01 Mar 2013-Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd)-Vol. 86, Iss: 1, pp 22-49
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical model of safety leadership, which incorporated both transformational and active transactional leadership styles, was tested using meta-analytic path analysis, and the final model showed that transformational leadership had a positive association with both perceived safety climate and safety participation.
Abstract: A theoretical model of safety leadership, which incorporated both transformational and active transactional leadership styles, was tested using meta-analytic path analysis. The final model showed that transformational leadership had a positive association with both perceived safety climate and safety participation, with perceived safety climate partially mediating the effect of leadership on safety participation. Active transactional leadership had a positive association with perceived safety climate, safety participation and safety compliance. The effect of leadership on safety compliance was partially mediated by perceived safety climate and the effect on safety participation fully mediated by perceived safety climate. The findings suggest that active transactional leadership is important in ensuring compliance with rules and regulations, whereas transformational leadership is primarily associated with encouraging employee participation in safety. Therefore, in line with the augmentation hypothesis of leadership, a combination of both transformational and transactional styles appeared to be most beneficial for safety. Avenues for further research and practical implications in terms of leadership training and development are discussed.
Practitioner Points
Developed and tested a model of safety leadership, which shows that both transformational and active transactional leadership styles are important aspects of effective safety leadership.
Study has implications for practitioners who are involved with the design of leadership training and development programmes, as such programmes should be tailored to focus on a range of leader behaviours that encompass active transactional as well as transformational style.
Findings suggest that leadership styles have a differential effect on safety compliance and safety participation – thus, training and development programmes should make specific links between leader behaviours and their subsequent influence on employee behaviour.
Citations
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01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: In this paper, a trabajo de investigación de tipo aplicado toma the conceptos of the estilos de liderazgo transformacional and transaccional, and the desempeno laboral, with the objective of establecer the relation of influencia of ambos estilo de lidersgo with the decidación of desempero.
Abstract: El presente trabajo de investigacion de tipo aplicado toma los conceptos de los estilos de liderazgo transformacional y transaccional, y el desempeno laboral, con el objetivo de establecer las relaciones de influencia de ambos estilos de liderazgo con el desempeno laboral. Para alcanzarlo, se recolecto la informacion acerca de los estilos de liderazgo de 7 gerentes de Mabe, empresa multinacional dedicada a la fabricacion de electrodomesticos de linea blanca, para lo cual se utilizo el MLQ (Cuestionario de Liderazgo Multifactorial); y se obtuvo tambien por medio de una evaluacion global de desempeno, la informacion acerca del nivel de cumplimiento de los objetivos de los 40 colaboradores que hacen parte de la linea directa de los gerentes evaluados.
Esta informacion se proceso y se estudio realizando analisis estadisticos descriptivos, dentro de los cuales se examino el comportamiento de los componentes del liderazgo transformacional y del liderazgo transaccional en los gerentes evaluados, y la calificacion de desempeno de los colaboradores que le reportan directamente a estos gerentes para entender el nivel de cumplimiento de los objetivos; y posteriormente se efectuaron analisis relacionales de tipo bivariado para identificar, tanto la relacion entre los componentes de los estilos de liderazgo transformacional y transaccional mostrados en los gerentes con el desempeno laboral de los colaboradores, como la relacion entre los estilos de liderazgo transformacional y transaccional con el desempeno laboral.
Dentro de los principales resultados se obtuvo que los dos estilos de liderazgo estan presentes en los gerentes de la muestra y ambos producen el cumplimiento satisfactorio del desempeno, sin embargo, se observa lo que indica la teoria referente a la relacion de los estilos de liderazgo transformacional y transaccional con el desempeno laboral, evidenciando que el liderazgo transformacional es percibido en mayor proporcion por aquellos colaboradores que exceden en su desempeno de manera parcial o total siendo la motivacion inspiracional y la estimulacion intelectual los componentes que mas influyen; mientras que el estilo de liderazgo transaccional se presenta con mayor frecuencia influenciando a aquellos colaboradores que cumplen en su desempeno de acuerdo a lo esperado, siendo la recompensa contingente el componente que mas influye en la relacion.
314 citations
TL;DR: The results suggest that the hypothesized climate-behavior-accident path is not as clear cut as commonly assumed and supports the use of safety climate measures as useful diagnostic tools in ascertaining employee's perceptions of the way that safety is being operationalized.
190 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the impact of specific leader behaviours on employee's safety performance and found that while safety inspiring is positively and specifically related to safety participation, safety monitoring is positive and specifically linked to safety compliance.
181 citations
Cites background or result from "Safety leadership: A meta-analytic ..."
...Although it is acknowledged in the literature that inspiration from leaders may indirectly promote safety compliance (e.g. Christian et al., 2009; Clarke, 2013), previous studies tend to produce inconclusive results about the effect of safety monitoring on safety participation....
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...At an organisational level, research shows that safety climate can mediate the relationship between leadership and safety performance (e.g. Christian et al., 2009; Clarke, 2013) but does not explain the role of different facets of climate that might be related to specific leader behaviours....
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...Much less is known about how a leader may motivate employees to comply with the current safety regulations (Christian et al., 2009; Clarke, 2013)....
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...In her meta-analysis study, Clarke showed that active transactional leadership, which involves monitoring and correcting errors, predicted safety compliance over and above that of transformational leadership (Clarke, 2013)....
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..., 2002), transactional leadership (Clarke, 2013), and laissez-faire leadership (Kelloway et al....
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TL;DR: Safety climate is a collective construct derived from individuals' shared perceptions of the various ways that safety is valued in the workplace as mentioned in this paper, and it is an important predictor of safety behavior and safety outcomes.
Abstract: Safety climate is a collective construct derived from individuals' shared perceptions of the various ways that safety is valued in the workplace. Research over the past 35 years shows that safety climate is an important predictor of safety behavior and safety outcomes such as accidents and injury. We first review the conceptual foundations of safety climate and explore how the construct can be applied to different levels of analysis. We then review ways that safety climate influences individual processes of sense making, motivation, and work behavior. Next, we explore the impact of safety climate on organization-level outcomes related to both safety and productivity. We conclude with suggestions for future research and practice to support the overall safety of people and organizations.
166 citations
01 Jun 2020
TL;DR: Ten experts were invited to comment on occupational health issues unique to their areas of expertise and discuss both unanswered research questions and recommendations to help organizations reduce the impacts of COVID-19 on workers.
Abstract: Workers bear a heavy share of the burden of how countries contend with COVID-19; they face numerous serious threats to their occupational health ranging from those associated with direct exposure to the virus to those reflecting the conflicts between work and family demands. Ten experts were invited to comment on occupational health issues unique to their areas of expertise. The topics include work-family issues, occupational health issues faced by emergency medical personnel, the transition to telework, discrimination against Asian-Americans, work stressors, presenteeism, the need for supportive supervision, safety concerns, economic stressors, and reminders of death at work. Their comments describe the nature of the occupational health concerns created by COVID-19 and discuss both unanswered research questions and recommendations to help organizations reduce the impacts of COVID-19 on workers.
140 citations
Cites background from "Safety leadership: A meta-analytic ..."
...Good safety leadership (Clarke 2013) is important to communicate changes and motivate employees to comply with changes....
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76,383 citations
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