The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Safety Climate and Individual Safety Behavior on Construction Sites

Abstract

Unsafe acts contribute dominantly to construction accidents, and increasing safety behavior is essential to reduce accidents. Previous research conceptualized safety behavior as an interaction between proximal individual differences (safety knowledge and safety motivation) and distal contextual factors (leadership and safety climate). However, relatively little empirical research has examined this conceptualization in the construction sector. Given the cultural background of the sample, this study makes a slight modification to the conceptualization and views transformational leadership as an antecedent of safety climate. Accordingly, this study establishes a multiple mediator model showing the mechanisms through which transformational leadership translates into safety behavior. The multiple mediator model is estimated by the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, using individual questionnaire responses from a random sample of construction personnel based in Hong Kong. As hypothesized, transformational leadership has a significant impact on safety climate which is mediated by safety-specific leader–member exchange (LMX), and safety climate in turn impacts safety behavior through safety knowledge. The results suggest that future safety climate interventions should be more effective if supervisors exhibit transformational leadership, encourage construction personnel to voice safety concerns without fear of retaliation, and repeatedly remind them about safety on the job.

How Organizational Support Can Cultivate a Multilevel Safety Climate in the Construction Industry

“…In project-based work environments such as in the 538 construction industry, employees normally have limited direct contact with senior management, while 539 they interact with their supervisors on a daily basis. Therefore, employees are more likely to be 540 Consistent with previous studies (Shen et al 2017;Zohar, 2000), the statistical results in this 550 study provide support that group safety climate and supervisory leadership are two conceptually 551 distinct constructs. Safety climate is workers' perceptions of relative emphasis that a supervisor places 552 on competing goals (e.g.…”

“…a 556 specific leadership style) (Zohar, 2000). In addition, supervisory leadership is more relationship-based safety climate is more commitment-based and indicates the consistency in supervisors' safety 559 responses (Zohar and Luria, 2005;Shen et al 2017). Safety climate and supervisory leadership are two 560 independent but related aspects of supervisory behavior (Zohar, 2000).…”

Linking Transformational Leadership, Absorptive Capacity, and Corporate Entrepreneurship

“…According to Mumford et al (2002), the consequential sharp stage of stimulation is likely to increase innovation of firms. Numerous examples of experimental research support this positive effect of leaders on innovation (Keller 1992;Shen et al 2017;Waldman and Atwater 1994). These studies investigate the association between transformational leadership and innovation generally in research and development (R&D) divisions.…”

Influence of Social Safety Capital on Safety Citizenship Behavior: The Mediation of Autonomous Safety Motivation

“…(1) The multi-model CFA method was used to evaluate the discriminant validity of the scale [53,54]: (1) By using the chi-square difference test between each model, which comprised various factors and the benchmark model, the significant discriminant validity was obtained. (2) Determining the fitting index, including degrees of freedom (χ2/df), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), comparative fit index (CFI), standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), showed that the fitting index of other models was not remarkable, except for the discriminant validity by Hair et al [51].…”