The current study used meta-analysis to examine the criterion-related validity of the relationships between safety climate, safety performance (participation and compliance), and occupational accidents and injuries. Support was found for the study's hypotheses linking organizational safety climate to employee safety compliance and participation, with the latter demonstrating the stronger relationship; however, the subsequent links to accident involvement were found to be weak, suggesting limited support for a fully mediated model. The relationship between safety climate and accident involvement was found to be moderated by the study design, such that only prospective designs, in which accidents were measured following the measurement of safety climate, demonstrated validity generalization. The implications of the findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.
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 PointsDeveloped 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 participationthus, training and development programmes should make specific links between leader behaviours and their subsequent influence on employee behaviour.
Meta‐analytic path analysis was utilised to test an integrative model linking perceived safety climate to hypothesized organisational antecedents and individual outcomes. Psychological climate, especially the perception of organisational attributes, was found to be significantly associated with safety climate (both constructs measured at the individual level). A partial mediation model was supported. Within this model, the relationship between safety climate and safety behaviour was partially mediated by work‐related attitudes (organisational commitment and job satisfaction), and the relationship between safety climate and occupational accidents was partially mediated by both safety behaviour and general health. Safety climate acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between psychological climate and safety behaviour, with direct effects from climate perceptions relating to the leader and organisational processes. Avenues for further research and practical implications are discussed.
Although a number of studies have examined individual personality traits and their influence on accident involvement, consistent evidence of a predictive relationship is lacking due to contradictory findings. The current study reports a meta‐analysis of the relationship between accident involvement and the Big Five personality dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness). Low conscientiousness and low agreeableness were found to be valid and generalizable predictors of accident involvement, with corrected mean validities of .27 and .26, respectively. The context of the accident acts as a moderator in the personality–accident relationship, with different personality dimensions associated with occupational and non‐occupational accidents. Extraversion was found to be a valid and generalizable predictor of traffic accidents, but not occupational accidents. Avenues for further research are highlighted and discussed.
This study examines the effect of leader influence tactics on employee safety participation in a U.K.-based manufacturing organization, examining the role of safety climate as a mediator. Structural equation modeling showed that leader influence tactics associated with a transformational leadership style had significant relationships with safety participation that were partially mediated by the safety climate (consultation) or fully mediated by the safety climate (inspirational appeals). In addition, leader influence tactics associated with a transactional leadership style had significant relationships with safety participation: rational persuasion (partially mediated by safety climate) and coalition tactics (direct effect). Thus, leaders may encourage safety participation using a combination of influence tactics, based on rational arguments, involvement in decision making, and generating enthusiasm for safety. The influence of building trust in managers is discussed as an underlying mechanism in this relationship. Practical implications are highlighted, including the design of leadership development programs, which may be particularly suited to high-reliability organizations.
Workplace team resilience has been proposed as a potential asset for work teams to maintain performance in the face of adverse events. Nonetheless, the research on team resilience has been conceptually and methodologically inconsistent. Taking a multilevel perspective, we present an integrative review of the workplace team resilience literature to identify the conceptual nature of team resilience and its unique value over and above personal resilience as well as other team concepts. We advance resilience research by providing a new multilevel model of team resilience that offers conceptual clarification regarding the relationship between individual-level and team-level resilience. The results of our review may form the basis for the development of a common operationalization of team resilience, which facilitates new empirical research examining ways that teams can improve their adversity management in the workplace.
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