Search Results (15)

This article investigates the understanding and manifestation of safety culture within the Swedish construction industry. Specifically, through 20 interviews with safety leaders, this study explores the connection between safety culture and structures and processes on construction worksites. The theoretical framework draws on different perspectives on organisational culture, in general, and safety culture, in particular. The results highlight the importance that is placed on management and leadership in developing safety culture, with leaders setting examples and being actively involved in safety practices. Safety regulations are seen as crucial tools for change, influencing safety culture significantly. The size of the company and characteristics of employees, including challenges posed by subcontractors and language barriers, also impact safety culture. Safety training is essential for directing behaviours towards a good safety culture, and housekeeping is identified as an indicator of safety culture. In the discussion, the matter of understanding safety culture in relation to specific structures and processes on construction worksites is analysed, problematised and connected to prevailing perspectives within safety culture research. Full article

Food safety culture (FSC) has transitioned from a narrow compliance-based concept to a comprehensive organisational value that is essential for ensuring food safety. This review explores the pivotal roles of leadership, organisational commitment, and cultural diversity in shaping an effective FSC. It highlights how leadership style, particularly transformational leadership, can enhance employee engagement and foster a proactive safety culture. Additionally, the impact of national and organisational cultures on FSC is analysed, emphasising the challenges posed by a multicultural workforce in standardising food safety practices. This article also provides a comparative analysis of FSC across various sectors, such as meat and dairy processing, identifying sector-specific challenges and best practices. In particular, high-risk sectors tend to exhibit a stronger FSC due to regulatory pressure, while other sectors struggle with issues like communication and employee ownership. The importance of integrating behavioural training with cultural considerations is underscored as a key strategy for sustaining a positive FSC. For maintaining a strong FSC, tailored approaches, which account for cultural and operational differences, are necessary for improving food safety outcomes. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights for industry professionals and policymakers, offering a foundation for future research and the development of more effective food safety management practices. Full article

Leaders have an important role to play in the creation of an organisational climate that fosters learning, engagement and voice behaviour. This study investigated the effect of inclusive leadership on the voice behaviour of the employees of small hospitality firms in South Africa. In addition, this study examined the serial mediating effects of psychological safety and affective commitment. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the primary studies to explore the sequential mechanism through which inclusive leadership impacts employee voice behaviour. This study used a quantitative research design, and data were collected from employees in a cross-sectional survey. This study adopted the convenience sampling method, and SPSS AMOS27 was used for structural equation modelling. The findings indicated the positive effect of inclusive leadership on employee voice behaviour. In addition, this study confirmed the serial mediating roles of psychological safety and affective commitment. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors that can promote employee voice in hospitality firms through the testing of a new theoretical model. The findings of this study have important implications for policy and practice in the hospitality industry. Full article

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of an identity leadership-framed reflective practice intervention on perceptions of leadership, social identity, and psychological safety in cricket. Building on previous evidence, an eight-week design included three intervention group coaches and their athletes (n = 32) and three control group coaches and their athletes (n = 34). Measurements of perceived coach identity leadership, social identity, and psychological safety were completed by cricket athletes at week 0 and week 8 for both groups. Intervention group coaches completed three identity leadership-framed reflective tasks in weeks one, three, and five, while the control group coaches continued their regular practices. Controlling for baseline scores, our analysis indicated that compared to the control group, the intervention group athletes reported significantly greater coach identity leadership behaviours, social identity, and psychological safety following the intervention. Social validation data highlighted shared identity, relationships, and learning as potential mechanisms for the positive results seen. Full article

Limited research exists on safety leadership and safety climate in developing countries, despite their established importance in the construction industry. This study addresses this gap by investigating how immediate superiors’ safety leadership behaviours influence safety climate perceptions among construction professionals in southern India. Using a quantitative approach, the study collected valid questionnaire surveys among 279 construction professionals by convenience sampling across various construction sites. The survey revealed that safety leadership significantly and positively predicts five key safety climate factors: management’s commitment to safety, safety equipment and procedures, safety training, communication and openness, and group dynamics and safety culture. These findings highlight the critical role immediate superiors play in shaping safety climate perceptions through their commitment, communication, and employee involvement. This research underscores the importance of investing in safety leadership development to improve safety outcomes, reduce accidents and injuries, and enhance regulatory compliance within the Indian construction industry. Full article

This study identifies safety leadership factors affecting construction site safety and organizational safety climate, offering suggestions for adopting optimistic leadership styles and a zero-accident vision. The literature review is done exclusively for identifying factors and improving core knowledge. This study developed a questionnaire to examine the relationships between the organizational safety climate and the safety leadership styles. The questionnaire was distributed to construction companies from all over India. The statistical analysis encompassed 396 verified responses from the survey, yielding an impressive 79.20 percent response rate. The valid responses collected were analysed to find the relative importance index and the association between the categorical variables. The results showed that “personal safety knowledge” ranked the highest while performing the relative importance index analysis. Furthermore, the chi-square analysis found two pessimistic leadership styles, namely “laissez-faire leadership” and “management-by-exception”, significantly associated with the safety climate. The study implies that the target audience must avoid adopting the two pessimistic leadership styles to improve the organizational safety climate. This study examines the various safety leadership styles practised among construction professionals for the first time in India. Specifically, it identifies critical factors that affect the organizational safety climate and pessimistic leadership styles that diminish the safety outcomes of the construction site. The results act as an eye-opener for the targeted audience (like senior and middle-level management professionals, academicians, and upcoming researchers) to enhance the safety of construction sites by adopting optimistic leadership styles with an idea of a ‘zero accident’ construction premises. Full article

Leadership plays an increasingly important role in construction projects, and numerous research studies have been conducted. This study aims to identify the structure evolution development trends of this knowledge domain using visualisation analysis with CiteSpace. A total of 1789 peer-reviewed articles are collected from Scopus and the WoS core collection database to conduct a scientometric analysis. The results indicate that the US dominates this field and that institutions from Australia have made greater contributions. However, international cooperation in this area is not active. A total of eight co-citation clusters were identified, and the research of leadership in construction primarily focused on the topics of transactional leadership, safety leadership, team performance, leadership interaction processes and actual leader behaviour. The keywords co-occurrence evolution analysis was also conducted to provide a holistic knowledge map. Based on the development of this field and its current status, we propose trends and innovative research areas for future research. The findings in this research would help scholars to understand the structure and future trends of this field. Meanwhile, the research results would provide a reference for construction enterprises to formulate project manager competency criteria. Full article

Leadership is a necessary element for ensuring workplace safety. Rather little is known about the role of leadership safety behaviours (LSBs) in the mining industry. Using regression analysis and structural equation modelling analysis, this study examined the cause-and-effect relationships between leadership safety behaviours and safety performance. Data were collected by questionnaires from 305 miners in China. Data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, which identified five main dimensions of LSBs: safety management commitment, safety communication with feedback, safety policy, safety incentives, and safety training; the analysis also identified three main dimensions of safety performance: employee’s safety compliance, safety participation, and safety accidents. The results showed the overall effects of each LSB variable on safety compliance in descending order as: safety training (0.504), safety incentives (0.480), safety communication with feedback (0.377), safety management commitment (0.281), and safety policy (0.110). The overall effects of each LSB variable on safety participation in descending order were: safety training (0.706), safety incentives (0.496), safety management commitment (0.365), and safety policy (0.247). Furthermore, we found that safety management commitment and safety incentives increased employees’ safety behaviours, but this influence was mediated by safety training, safety policy, and safety communication with feedback. Full article

The roles of all levels of management in influencing safety, particularly in a complex work environment, are crucial. Therefore, safety managers need to develop leadership competencies (i.e., effectiveness in terms of person-oriented behaviours) to reinforce their influencing capabilities through their safety responsibilities. However, practising leadership behaviours without considering how and when these behaviours should be executed is not enough. Therefore, this paper develops a personal leadership competency model by adopting the Systems Thinking approach. The model was developed by conducting exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of three behavioural leadership competencies (emotional, social and cognitive) selected to fulfil the holistic view of Systems Thinking. Data were collected via self-administered questionnaire surveys. A total of 180 valid responses were received from construction managers responsible for overseeing site safety. The statistical results revealed three factors belonging to emotional competency—achievement orientation and adaptability, positive outlook, and emotional self-control. Regarding social competency, four factors represented it—teamwork, organisational awareness, coach and mentor, and conflict management. Finally, cognitive competency was found to be formed by two factors—interaction recognition and pattern recognition. All nine identified factors should, in combination, help safety managers to achieve a better understanding of themselves, of others and of their worksite environments. Full article

Leadership behavior has an impact on the behavior of employees. Previous studies have mainly studied the impact of positive leadership behaviors on employees’ behaviors, but there is an absence of research on the impact of negative leadership behaviours (abusive supervision) on safety behaviours (including safety participation and safety compliance). In this study, 599 front-line employees in the petrochemical industry were selected as subjects. Abusive supervision, safety behaviour, safety motivation and a conscientiousness questionnaire were used as measurements to explore the relationship between abusive supervision and employee safety behaviors, and to further explore the roles of safety motivation, conscientiousness and the relationship between them. This study found that abusive supervision is negatively related to employee safety behaviours (safety compliance and safety participation); that safety motivation plays a mediating role in the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ safety behavior; and that conscientiousness moderates the role of safety motivation between the relationship of abusive supervision and employees’ safety behaviour. With a higher level of conscientiousness, the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and employee safety behaviours is weaker. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical significance of these findings for abusive supervision and the management of safety behaviours. Full article

The behavioural integrity of leaders is not only an individual trait that can earn them respect in their personal capacity, but it also may positively affect their followers and ultimately improve the organization’s effectiveness in a variety of ways. The relationship between behavioural integrity and employees using their voice has been studied by researchers through multiple aspects. This study brings a new perspective in this discussion by investigating the effect of leaders’ behavioural integrity on employees’ voice both directly and through the mediating roles of psychological safety and trust in the leader. The cross-sectional data of 384 employees collected from the banking sector in Pakistan is used to shed light on this new perspective in the relationship between the behavioural integrity of a leader and employees’ comportment in using their voice. The results of the empirical analyses support the direct effect of the behavioural integrity of leaders on employees’ voice. A significant mediating role of psychological safety and trust is also supported in the empirical analyses. The findings of the study bear important implications for leaders and business managers working in companies by providing insight on the importance of behavioural integrity of leaders in encouraging employees to have a voice in organizations. Full article

The widespread impact of COVID-19 on healthcare has demanded new ways of working across many organisation types and many forms of healthcare delivery while at the same time endeavouring to place minimal, or no, additional burden on already strained healthcare teams. This is a cross-sectional mixed-method study which captured the experiences of teamwork during the COVID-19 pandemic contributing to successful collaboration. We hypothesised that work engagement and psychological safety separately contribute to collective leadership and organisational citizenship behaviours. Participants were healthcare staff on active duty during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland (n = 152) who responded to our social media (Twitter) invitation to participate in this study. Survey and free-text responses were collected through an online platform. Structural equation modelling examined the relationships between work engagement and psychological safety, and collective leadership and OCBs. Open text responses relating to experiences of teamworking during the pandemic were analysed for latent themes. From the survey data, the structural model demonstrated excellent statistical fit indicating that psychological safety, but not work engagement, was predictive of collective leadership and OCBs. From the qualitative data, two key themes were generated: (1) Contrasting experiences of working in a team during the pandemic; and (2) The pandemic response: a tipping point for burnout. This study offers a valuable starting point to explore the factors driving change and the shift to more collective ways of working observed in response to COVID-19. Future studies should use longitudinal data to capture the temporal relationship of these variables which could be moderated by prolonged pressure to healthcare staff during the pandemic. Full article

When looking at socio-technical systems from a systems thinking and systemic perspective, it becomes clear that mental models govern the behaviours and determine the achievements of socio-technical systems. This is also the case for individuals, being systems themselves and, as such, being elements of those socio-technical systems. Individual behaviours result from individual perceptions (mental models). These individual behaviours ideally generate the desired outcomes of a system (team/organisation/society) and create value. However, at the same time, mental models and the associated individual behaviour also bring about unwanted consequences, destroying or diminishing value. Therefore, to achieve safety and to attain sustainable safe performance, understanding and managing mental models in organisations is of paramount importance. Consequently, in organisations and society, one needs to generate the required mental models that create successes and, at the same time, to avoid or eliminate damaging perceptions and ideas in order to protect the created value. Generating and managing mental models involves leadership; leadership skills; and the ability to develop a shared vision, mission and ambition, as this helps determine what is valuable and allows for aligning individual mental models with those that preferably govern the system. In doing so, it is possible to create well-aligned corporate cultures that create and protect value and that generate sustainable safe performance. To achieve this aim, a systemic organisational culture alignment model is proposed. The model is based on the model of logical levels of awareness according to Dilts (1990), Argyris’s ladder of inference (1982) and the organisational alignment model proposed by Tosti (1996). Furthermore, ISO 31000 (2009, 2018) and its guidance are proposed as a practical tool to accomplish this alignment and sustainable safe performance in organisations. Altogether, these elements define Total Respect Management as a concept, mental model and methodology. Full article

Some organisations, and some individual humans, violate moral and ethical rules, whether or not they are written down in laws or codes of conduct. Corporate transgressions, as this behaviour is called, occur because of the actions of those in charge, usually bright and dedicated people. Immoral and unethical conduct can adversely affect the safety of workers, the general public and the environment. A scoping review method for a literature search is used to explore morality and ethics in relation to health and safety management. Our findings show that controlling the risks associated with misconduct and corporate transgression is not usually seen as a responsibility allocated to safety systems but is left to general management and corporate governance. The moral and ethical principles, however, can be applied in safety management systems to prevent misconduct and transgression-related safety risks. Our results show that ethical leadership, ethical behaviour, sustaining an ethical climate and implementation of an ethical decision-making process emerge as key preventive measures. The discussion presents a proposed way to include these measures in safety management systems. Conclusion and recommendations underline that unwanted behaviour and transgression risks can be brought under control, starting from a set of best practices. Not only the managers themselves but also board members, independent external supervisors and government regulators need to embrace these practices. Full article

Traditional hierarchical leadership has been implicated in patient safety failings internationally. Given that healthcare is almost wholly delivered by multidisciplinary teams, there have been calls for a more collective and team-based approach to the sharing of leadership and responsibility for patient safety. Although encouraging a collective approach to accountability can improve the provision of high quality and safe care, there is a lack of knowledge of how to train teams to adopt collective leadership. The Collective Leadership for Safety Cultures (Co-Lead) programme is a co-designed intervention for multidisciplinary healthcare teams. It is an open-source resource that offers teams a systematic approach to the development of collective leadership behaviours to promote effective teamworking and enhance patient safety cultures. This paper provides an overview of the co-design, pilot testing, and refining of this novel intervention prior to its implementation and discusses key early findings from the evaluation. The Co-Lead intervention is grounded in the real-world experiences and identified needs and priorities of frontline healthcare staff and management and was co-designed based on the evidence for collective leadership and teamwork in healthcare. It has proven feasible to implement and effective in supporting teams to lead collectively to enhance safety culture. This intervention overview will be of value to healthcare teams and practitioners seeking to promote safety culture and effective teamworking by supporting teams to lead collectively. Full article