1. Introduction
A number of factors can affect safety performance in any type of organization. However, as of 2018, the number of occupational accidents due to safety matters was still high in Saudi Arabia [
1]. The majority of these accidents were related to construction industry sectors and involved falling from heights (28.55%), collision with moving/stationary objects (25.21%), abrasive and friction issues (17.93%) and others (e.g., stress, overload, heat and fatigue; 28.31%) [
1]. According to General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) [
1], the total cost of medical care due to these accidents was more than
$175 million. From the perspective of organizations, safety terms are almost universally left undefined, and a number of factors can lead to workplace accidents [
2]. Safety at work is an issue that involves organizational/group factors (e.g., safety culture, policies, leadership and job characteristics) and individual factors (e.g., safety attitudes, knowledge, skills) [
3,
4]. Therefore, workplace safety is considered an attribute of the work system within organizations that is related to personal accidents and property and environmental damage [
2]. A high level of improvement in construction safety has been achieved in recent decades, but accidents and serious injuries still occur among construction workers, particularly those working in electrical construction projects [
5]. These types of projects involve extremely high levels of safety risks, particularly for workers who perform maintenance and construction of electrical transmission and distribution (T and D) lines, which present extremely high likelihoods of electrocution risk [
5]. According to the Electrical Safety Foundation International [
6], contact with overhead power lines, wiring, transformers, and contact with the electrical current of machines, tools, and appliances at construction sites can lead to serious occupational accidents such as electrocutions in electrical construction and maintenance projects. The root causes of most workplace accidents, such as contact and exposure with electrical machines and power tools at electrical construction projects, involve inadequate safety regulations, poor safety supervision, ineffective training and poor safety attitudes [
7,
8]. Numerous studies have considered the effect of organizational-level safety factors (e.g., safety commitment) and individual-level safety factors (e.g., safety behaviors) in various parts of the world, but in Saudi Arabia, safety issues have yet to receive much attention [
9,
10]. In this situation, projects are necessary to identify the proximal factors that can lead to deteriorated safety performance and increased accidents [
11]. This study assessed the sequential effect of organizational factors (i.e., safety leadership; SL) and individual factors (i.e., safety attitudes; SA) on individual safety knowledge (SK) and safety motivation (SM) as precedents of safety-related behaviors (SRB).
Researchers of workplace safety have created and tested a number of workplace safety models to clarify and determine the factors that affect workplace safety [
2,
12,
13]. These models will help to develop knowledge in the safety literature. Beus et al. [
2] created a model of workplace safety that combined all of the previous theoretical reviews by safety researchers, which they called the integrative safety model (ISM). The ISM classified the aspects that influence workplace safety into two main groups of factors: organizational-/group-level factors and individual-level factors. Organizational and group factors involve contextual aspects (e.g., safety management practices, policies and safety cultures) and job characteristics (e.g., level risks and hazards, supervision and coworkers). In contrast, individual factors comprise safety attitudes, safety abilities and personal behavior. The integrated model has four segments in terms of dependency and precedence. These segments first involve distal antecedents at both the organizational/group level (e.g., safety culture/climate and job demand and hazards). Second, proximal antecedents cover organizational safety behavior, individual behavior, safety knowledge, skills and motivation. Third, leading indicators for workplace safety include safety-related work behavior (safe or unsafe). The final segment is the lagging indicator accident rate and accidents. Vinodkumar and Bhasi [
14] stated that safety knowledge and safety motivation are important personal factors that influence safety behavior, in addition to safety indicators such as the number of accidents. However, workers with risky attitudes (ignoring safety rules) completing tasks in a workplace without safety incidents does not indicate safety. According to the ISM, workplace accidents depend on multiple complicated factors, such as management and group-level factors (e.g., safety culture and policy and safety supervision) [
14,
15] and individual-level factors (safety knowledge, safety skills, personal resources and motivation) [
2]. Factors such as individual personality can affect safety performance and accidents through an individual’s levels of motivation and participation [
3]. Workplace safety provides a low probability level of harm or damage to individuals, property and environments as a result of work system attributes. The majority of previous studies have considered workplace accidents as an indicator of workplace safety [
2,
6,
11]. Indeed, workplace accidents reflect a lack of safety, but the absence of accidents does not necessarily imply workplace safety. Accidents can occur as a result of a multitude of factors (e.g., the level of safety participation, unsafe behavior and organizational aspects) [
12,
16]. For instance, differences in individuals’ abilities can affect motivation and safety knowledge, which can lead to poor safety behaviors and incidents [
17]. It depends on a number of factors such as compliance with safety rules and regulations, participation in safety meetings and training and reporting near misses in a workplace [
18]. Therefore, safety-related behavior is a proactive method that decreases future accidents in a workplace. Unsafe work behavior can be conscious or unintended; in both cases, it reflects the absence of safety conditions. In contrast, workplace accidents reflect the absence of safety after damage/injury occurs. Therefore, safety-related work behaviors are more proximal indicators than accidents since they are considered preceding factors of accidents [
3,
19]. Safety-related behaviors and accidents are two indicators of work safety in construction projects, but safety-related behaviors are more informative and can help to identify a lack of safety in the workplace before injury/damage occurs [
12,
19]. For that reason, the present research study covers safety-related behavior factors to predict workplace safety in electrical construction projects and as a preceding factor for accidents. Safety behaviors are reflected by safety compliance and safety participation [
18]. Safety compliance refers to performing tasks safely to maintain workplace safety, such as by using personal protective equipment and complying with safety rules. Safety participation includes discretionary attitudes that help to maintain workplace safety and usually is considered an indirect variable, such as attending regular safety meetings, creating safety near-miss reports and alternating coworkers for unsafe conditions.
Numerous researchers have noted that the greatest determinants of safety-related behaviors for task performance are safety knowledge, skills and motivation [
20,
21,
22]. However, the majority of previous research studies have directly studied the relationships between individual differences (e.g., safety attitudes and personality traits) and safety-related behaviors without considering mediating variables such as safety knowledge and safety motivation [
2,
23]. Additionally, there is a lack of literature on the interactive effect among group-level safety factors (e.g., safety leadership) and individual-level factors (e.g., safety attitudes) in predicting individual safety-related behaviors (safety compliance and safety participation) via safety knowledge and motivation. For instance, no study has examined the impact of individual safety factors such as safety attitudes and knowledge as attenuated by safety leadership [
2]. Based on previous research and a review by Beus et al. [
2], no previous research has evaluated the mechanism of sequential effects of group-level safety factors (e.g., safety leaderships) and individual-level safety factors (e.g., safety attitudes) on safety-related behavior (safety compliance and safety participation) with regard to safety motivation and knowledge, particularly in the high-risk industrial sector (e.g., electrical construction projects).
A number of research studies have found that SL significantly influences safety behavior and accident rates [
24,
25]. The safety leadership factor is a group-level factor that can impact the individual level and safety performance [
24]. For instance, effective safety leadership behavior can positively impact safety performance through discussions of safety issues with workers and by providing valuable guidance and direction for a safe workplace [
22,
24]. The proactive and visible safety behavior of leaders leads to improved workforce safety performance in terms of compliance with rules and regulations and participation in safety trainings and meetings [
26,
27]. According to Lu and Yang [
21], there are two types of leadership behaviors: task-oriented (i.e., relying on the match between rewards and performance) and relationship-oriented (i.e., relying on future development). It has been stated that a high level of safety motivation by leaders has a significant effect on the safety-related behaviors of the workforce [
28,
29,
30]. Leader activities such as proposing incentive programs, recognizing workers’ safety behaviors, considering workers’ decisions, and proposing effective safety training programs and opinions related to safety issues effectively impact individuals’ safety attitudes, motivation and knowledge [
24,
30]. According to Turner et al. [
31], managers’ activities, such as helping workers perform their tasks safely and providing information about safety improvements in the workplace [
32], can buffer the negative impact of poor individual attitudes toward safety. According to previous studies, the relationship between group-level safety factors (e.g., safety leadership) as an antecedent to workers’ safety knowledge and motivation is unclear because the majority of studies have considered the direct relationship between this factor and safety performance [
2,
24,
33]. In this study, safety leadership is considered as a group-level factor that influences individuals’ safety knowledge and motivation significantly and affects individuals’ safety-related behaviors (compliance and participation).
Individuals’ willingness to comply with workplace safety rules and regulations and to approve of safety behavior is referred to as safety motivation. The effects of personal characteristics, attitudes and self-efficacy on safety motivation has been demonstrated, although no study has assessed the impact of poor safety attitudes on motivation, as attenuated by a positive group-level safety factor (i.e., safety leaderships) [
13,
34,
35]. Lue and Yang [
32] found that leadership was significantly related to safety motivation and significantly influenced safety participation and compliance. Relationships exist between leadership and safety-related behaviors (compliance and participation), although no relationship has been found between safety policy and safety leadership [
24,
36]. Safety attitudes, such as individuals’ satisfaction with environmental safety work conditions, are related positively to safety motivation, individual safety performance and accident rates [
37] and safety knowledge [
38]. Safety attitudes can be used as a predictor of safety performance (safety-related behaviors) and accident rates [
37,
39]. Individuals in the workplace may not intend to become involved in incidents; however, the behavior that leads to these incidents is intentional [
40]. Generally, individual safety satisfaction in the workplace is a result of high safety attitudes. Individuals’ satisfaction with some aspects of safety such as safety rules and procedures, management and leaders’ commitment to safety issues, training and precautions leads to increased safety attitudes, which significantly affects performance and accident rates [
37].
Based on the previous literature, the present study aims to examine the relationships between group-level factors, individual-level factors and safety-related behavior performance. In order to understand the sequential effects of a group-level safety factor (i.e., safety leadership) and individual-level safety factors (i.e., safety attitudes) and behaviors (safety compliance and safety participation) mediated by safety motivation and knowledge using structural equation modeling, the structural model was built in the present study as illustrated in
Figure 1. In addition, the present paper explores the sequential interaction effect of safety leadership and individual safety attitudes on safety compliance and participation via motivation and knowledge. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:
Hypothesis 1 (H1). Safety motivation will be predicted by safety leadership and safety attitudes.
Hypothesis 2 (H2). Safety knowledge will be predicted by safety leadership and safety attitudes.
Hypothesis 3 (H3). Safety leadership/safety attitudes with respect to safety motivation will be positively related to safety participation.
Hypothesis 4 (H4). Safety leadership/safety attitude with respect to safety motivation will be positively related to safety compliance.
Hypothesis 5 (H5). Safety leadership/safety attitude with respect to safety knowledge will be positively related to safety participation.
Hypothesis 6 (H6). Safety leadership/safety attitude with respect to safety knowledge will be positively related to safety compliance.
Hypothesis 7 (H7). The interaction effect of safety leadership and safety attitudes will significantly positively influence safety participation and compliance with respect to safety motivation and knowledge.
Figure 1.
The proposed structural model (main model): the solid line represents the proposed correlations of H1 to H6, and dotted lines are modeled to examine the exploratory proposed correlations of the two-factor interactions (H7).
Figure 1.
The proposed structural model (main model): the solid line represents the proposed correlations of H1 to H6, and dotted lines are modeled to examine the exploratory proposed correlations of the two-factor interactions (H7).
4. Discussion
This research study was aimed at examining the mechanism of the sequential effect of safety leadership (i.e., a group-level factor) and safety attitudes (i.e., an individual-level factor) on workers’ safety-related behaviors (safety participation and safety compliance) via safety motivation and safety knowledge in electrical construction project settings. Safety leadership was significantly and positively correlated with individual safety motivation and safety knowledge, which was validated H1 and H2. Furthermore, safety attitudes were impacted positively by individual safety motivation and safety knowledge (H1 and H2). The results indicated that high levels of safety participation and safety compliance were associated with high levels of safety leadership and safety attitudes. Previous studies have recognized the impacts of safety leadership and individual safety attitudes on safety compliance and safety participation [
24,
33]. In addition, the findings indicated that high levels of performance in individuals’ safety participation and safety compliance were directly related to high levels of individual safety motivation and safety knowledge. The results of the current study showed that motivation fully mediated the effects of leadership and attitudes on safety compliance and participation; thus, hypotheses H3 and H4 were supported. Safety leadership was significantly correlated with safety motivation and significantly affected safety participation and safety compliance [
24]. Safety leadership and safety attitudes had a significant effect on safety related-behavior performance through enhancing safety knowledge; therefore, H5 and H6 were supported. These results were consistent with previous studies demonstrating the positive impact of management leadership on safety-related behaviors via safety motivation [
24,
27] and safety knowledge [
2,
14]. Additionally, improvements in safety attitudes had significant effects on safety compliance and safety participation through enhancing safety motivation [
37] and safety knowledge [
38]. Furthermore, the interaction of safety leadership and attitudes predicted safety motivation and knowledge, which validated H7. Because effective leadership contributes to a good level of supervision with proper types of training and clear safety rules and guidelines and encourages individuals to participate in safety issues, it is expected to improve safety motivation and knowledge [
24,
25,
43]. The direct effects of leadership and attitudes on compliance and participation were not significant. This may have been because effective supervision at the group level, such as by involving workers in safety matters and encouraging workers to work safely, as well as rewards programs for safe working all positively influenced the levels of individual motivation and knowledge, which led to improved individual safety performance [
14]. A reasonable explanation is that high levels of individual safety satisfaction and attitudes toward safety matters, such as the level of housekeeping in the workplace, the types of safety training and the management’s commitment to safety issues, lead to improved safety motivation and knowledge, which decreases accidents by improving safety motivation, skills and knowledge [
37,
39]. As expected, both safety motivation and safety knowledge are strongly and positively related to safety compliance and safety participation. Therefore, these results completely support Campbell’s [
58] performance theory.
Electrical construction projects are one of the riskiest projects of the industrial sector in Saudi Arabia. The managers of these types of projects make great efforts to ensure safe working conditions; however, in general, they are not able to prevent accidents. The present study tested a number of hypotheses that explained the roles of the effects and sequential relationships of leadership and attitudes at the individual level, with compliance and participation mediated by individual safety motivation and knowledge in the electrical construction project context. According to the literature review, this is the first study to provide empirical evidence of the mechanism by which leadership and attitudes as well as their interaction affect safety compliance and participation while considering safety motivation and knowledge factors in the electrical construction sector.
4.1. Implication of the Study Findings
Several implications can be highlighted for organizations from the present study results. First, the results indicate the importance of effective leadership as a group-level. The findings indicate that leadership actions such as a clear safety policy and rules, a supportive work environment, rewards for safe working, encouraging workers to be involved in safety issues, regular monitoring of compliance with safety rules and instructions have a significantly positive effect on individual safety motivation and knowledge and therefore enhance safety compliance and participation among electrical construction project workers. Second, most previous research studies have demonstrated the important effect of organizational factors, such as the safety climate, on safety performance [
31,
59]; however, less attention has been paid to group-level factors (e.g., safety leadership) and individual-level factors (e.g., safety attitudes) as determinants of safety compliance and behavior via safety motivation and knowledge [
2], which was examined in the present study. By understanding the impact of leadership as well as the importance of individual safety attitudes on workers’ safety motivation, knowledge and performance, electrical construction managers can create an effective action plan with which to enhance the levels of motivation and safety knowledge among their workers. Additionally, understanding the importance of how safety leadership and safety attitudes affect safety performance can encourage safety management to propose different parameters with which to assess these factors, regularly record the required related information (unsafe behavior, worker errors, housekeeping conditions, safety feedback and satisfaction with job safety) and perform analyses as proactive plans. In addition, the results illustrate that safety supervisors can consider the idealized (i.e., positive) influence behavior personality, developing workers’ goal achievement through inspirational appeals, having workers participate intellectually in problem solving and recognizing safety feedback and safe practices, all of which will improve safety motivation and knowledge. Third, the study findings indicate that safety motivation and knowledge were positively associated with safety-related behaviors [
24,
29], compliance and participation. These results suggest that better leadership leads to reduced accidents and improved safety performance and that workers having good safety attitudes improves safety performance and reduces human errors [
37].
4.2. Limitations of the Study and Future Research
The present study was conducted in a specific period; therefore, the findings of the study reflect only a particular moment in time. As a result, future research should consider longitudinal studies to examine the effect of leadership and individual safety attitudes on safety-related behavior performance among electrical construction project workers. Second, the data collection depended on the self-reports and perceptions of the participants toward safety leadership and attitudes. Therefore, the willingness level of the workers may have affected their responses. Additionally, there was a lack of objective measures at the contractor level for specific occupational tasks, such as worker compliance percentage and participation in safety training, that could reflect workers’ actual safety performance. Future studies should consider measures that can better reflect safety behavior performance, such as the percentage of worker compliance with safety rules and procedures. Third, the present study examined leadership and individual attitudes. Future studies should consider other organizational-level factors, such as the safety culture or climate, and individual factors, such as skills and mental or physical capabilities, to predict safety behavior. Several previous research studies have proposed that a safety culture or climate can predict safety behavior performance [
2,
15,
60] and that safety skills can affect safety behavior performance [
14]. Finally, factors such as a contractor’s experience in the same type of electrical construction projects, the types of contractual agreements and the level of job satisfaction among workers can lead to significant differences in the assessments of safety leadership and safety attitudes. Therefore, future research should consider explanations of how factors such as these can influence safety performance while considering measures of safety leadership and safety attitudes.