Organizational climates have been investigated separately at organization and subunit levels. This article tests a multilevel model of safety climate, covering both levels of analysis. Results indicate that organization-level and group-level climates are globally aligned, and the effect of organization climate on safety behavior is fully mediated by group climate level. However, the data also revealed meaningful group-level variation in a single organization, attributable to supervisory discretion in implementing formal procedures associated with competing demands like safety versus productivity. Variables that limit supervisory discretion (i.e., organization climate strength and procedural formalization) reduce both between-groups climate variation and within-group variability (i.e., increased group climate strength), although effect sizes were smaller than those associated with cross-level climate relationships. Implications for climate theory are discussed.
Organizational climate research has focused on prediction of organizational outcomes rather than on climate as a social-cognitive mediator between environmental attributes and relevant outcomes. This article presents a model specifying that supervisory safety practices predict (safety) climate level and strength as moderated by leadership quality. Using supervisory scripts as proxy of practices, it is shown that script orientation indicative of safely priority predicted climate level, whereas script simplicity and cross-situational variability predicted climate strength. Transformational leadership mitigated these effects because of closer leader-member relationships. Safety climate partially mediated the relationship between supervisory scripts and injury rate during the 6-month period following climate and script measurement. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.
This paper tests the moderating effect of transformational supervisory leadership on the relationship between organisational and group climates, using safety climate in risky operations as an exemplar. Results indicated that under low or poor organisational climate, indicative of limited organisational commitment to employee safety, transformational leaders promoted a higher group climate as compared to the organisational climate. Similarly, under a weak organisational climate, indicative of limited consensus among company employees regarding the priority of safety, transformational leaders promoted a stronger group climate, reflecting greater consensus among group members. This pattern suggests that supervisory leaders can act as gatekeepers, with transformational leaders offering better protection against potentially harmful organisation‐level priorities. Furthermore, transformational supervisors better informed their members of the organisational priorities as they perceived them, resulting in a stronger relationship between individual supervisors' perceptions and members' organisational climate perceptions. Implications for climate and leadership research are discussed.
On s'intéresse dans cet article à l'impact régulateur du leadership hiérarchique de transformation sur la relation entre les climats organisationnels et de groupe en utilisant comme exemple la sécurité dans les opérations à risque. Les résultats montrent qu'en cas de climat organisationnel médiocre signifiant une implication organisationnelle minimale à propos de la sécurité du personnel, les leaders de transformation favorisent l'émergence d'un climat de groupe plus satisfaisant que le climat organisationnel. De même, si le climat organisationnel est fragile, traduisant un accord approximatif des salariés sur la prioritéà accorder à la sécurité, les leaders de transformation sont à l'origine d'un climat de groupe renforcé, expression d'un meilleur consensus parmi les membres du groupe. Ce schéma laisse penser que les leaders hiérarchiques peuvent intervenir comme gardiens, les leaders de transformation offrant une meilleure protection contre les priorités organisationnelles potentiellement nocives. De plus, les managers de transformation informent mieux leur équipe des priorités organisationnelles telles qu'ils les perçoivent, ce qui provoque une relation plus étroite entre les perceptions personnelles du manager et celles que son groupe a du climat organisationnel. On réfléchit aux retombées de ce travail sur les recherches portant sur le climat et le leadership.
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