Supervisor Leadership and Construction Worker Safety Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Supervisors play a crucial role in influencing construction worker safety performance, and there is a growing research interest in understanding the relationship between supervisor leadership and construction worker safety behavior. However, the capacity of supervisor leadership to predict construction worker safety behavior has not been thoroughly analyzed. This study evaluates the current literature and assesses the impact of supervisor leadership styles on construction worker safety behavior. To this end, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol guidelines, a systematic literature review was conducted using the Scopus database to identify relevant articles. Only quantitative studies focusing on the role of supervisors and reporting on construction worker safety behavior were included. Of 1186 English papers published in peer-reviewed journals from 2012 to 2023, 11 studies met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. The findings of this review indicate that positive leadership is more widely employed than negative leadership, with transformational leadership and leader-member exchange emerging as major influencing styles. However, the studies included in the review failed to draw consistent conclusions on the relationship between these leadership styles and construction worker safety behavior, highlighting the necessity of providing a more thorough understanding of the underlying mechanisms associated with safety behavior in construction workers. This study underscores the importance of investigating specific leadership behaviors and addressing the influence of negative leadership on construction worker safety behavior and suggests avenues for further research to enhance understanding and improve construction worker safety behavior in the construction industry.