Synergetic effect of safety culture and safety climate on safety performance in SMEs: does transformation leadership have a moderating role?

The impact of digital leadership on safety performance - a moderated mediation model

Objectives. In light of the profound influence of digital advancements on business management, digital leadership has emerged as an indispensable element for organizations to effectively navigate this transformative wave. While the influence of traditional leadership on safety performance has been extensively scrutinized, the impact of digital leadership on safety performance has regrettably been overlooked. Drawing from the job demand-resource model, this study analyzes the influence of digital leadership on safety performance, encompassing safety compliance and safety participation. Additionally, the study explores the mediating role of challenge appraisal and the moderating effect of role overload. Methods and Results. Using data from 341 employees at two time points, this study finds that: digital leadership promotes employees' safety performance; digital leadership enhances employees' safety performance by fostering challenge appraisal; and the positive effect of digital leadership on employees' safety performance through challenge appraisal diminishes as role overload increases. Conclusions. The findings of this study contribute to the existing body of literature concerning the antecedents of safety performance. Additionally, this study offers practical recommendations for enhancing employees' safety performance in the digital era.

Work from home: Facilitators for an effective ergonomic work system

Previous studies on Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) have primarily examined the impact of Work-From-Home (WFH) on worker health and well-being, yet little research has examined the optimal implementation process of WFH programs. Work systems perspective suggests that organizational policies, leadership, and psychological factors collectively influence the success of organizational change efforts. Our study explored the roles of managerial/supervisory, psychological, and organizational policy factors in facilitating the relationship between employees' HFE awareness and their acceptance and satisfaction with the WFH arrangement. Using data from 3195 knowledge workers in the US who use computers as their primary work tool and have worked from home at least one day in the past 30 days, we employed structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses. Transformational HFE leadership and employees' general self-efficacy are pivotal in implementing ergonomic WFH arrangements. The combination of employees' HFE awareness, transformational HFE leadership, and adequate levels of self-efficacy may foster positive process outcomes (e.g., readiness for WFH arrangement, workspace design satisfaction) in WFH arrangements. Efforts that are coordinated across organizational levels determine the effectiveness of organizational change.

Scaling up a Positive Safety Culture among Construction Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Ghana

The Ghanaian construction industry faces challenges in managing safety, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that need more resources. This research addressed the critical need for a positive safety culture framework specifically designed for SMEs in Ghana. The study adopts the Delphi research approach, which involves a series of questionnaire 'rounds' to gather and refine information and develop a collaborative safety culture framework with SME stakeholders. The study employed a mixed-methods strategy, harnessing quantitative and qualitative data to meet the research goals. The critical components of the developed framework included safety commitment, adaptability, information, awareness, culture, and performance. The research offered evidence-based recommendations for effective positive safety practices across Ghana's SMEs by analysing the relationship between these interventions and safety outcomes. Applying the framework should reduce workplace accidents and foster a positive safety culture that aligns with international best practices.

Rethinking frontline health workers' safety performance in times of pandemic: the role of spiritual leadership

This study examined the impact of spiritual leadership style on frontline health workers' safety performance through the mediating role of safety climate. Also, leader-member exchange (LMX) was examined as a moderator of the safety climate and safety performance relationship. Survey data from 582 frontline health workers in Ghana's Greater Accra and Ashanti regions were analyzed using AMOS version 23. Findings showed that spiritual leadership dimensions significantly influenced health workers' safety performance. Altruistic love and vision also significantly influenced safety climate. However, hope did not influenced safety climate. Moreover, safety climate had an impact onsafety performance dimensions. Furthermore, safety climate mediated the relationship between altruistic love, vision, and safety performance. However, safety climate did not mediate the relationship between hope and safety performance. Lastly, LMX moderated the positive effect of safety climate on safety compliance but not on safety participation. This study offers valuable insights for improving frontline health workers' safety performance during pandemics.

Role of safety-specific transformational leadership in fostering extra-role behaviors through psychological contract fulfillment among frontline workers during COVID-19

Objectives. The emergence of COVID-19 has drastically changed the safety outlook of how the work world is viewed by leaders and followers. In this backdrop, the current study aimed at extending the safety leadership literature in the context of organizations operating in crisis situations by investigating the impact of safety-specific transformational leadership on the followers' extra-role behaviors through the mediation of psychological contract fulfillment. Methods. Using a time-lagged and multisource design, data were collected from 384 frontline rescue and healthcare workers dealing with COVID-19-related situations. Results. Results revealed that safety-specific transformational leadership behavior positively affects extra-role behaviors of frontline employees by enhancing their innovative work behavior, knowledge sharing behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. Also, psychological contract fulfillment plays a bridging role in translating the impact of safety-specific transformational leadership behavior on extra-role behaviors. Conclusion. The followers working in an unsafe context view the safety concern of their leader as a fulfillment of their unwritten expectations from their employers. Implications of these findings along with limitations and future research directions are also delineated.

Work-family conflict, work engagement and unsafe behavior among miners in China

The present study aims to explore the relationship between work-family conflict and unsafe behavior among underground coal miners, testing the mediating role of work engagement in this relationship. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Shanxi Province, China from June to August 2020. A total of 580 front-line miners were recruited for this study. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the mechanisms of work-family conflict on unsafe behavior. Findings revealed that time-based conflict, strain-based conflict and behavior-based conflict were positively related to unsafe behavior, and work engagement mediated the relationships between work-family conflict and unsafe behavior. Managers should alleviate miners' work-family conflict, providing effective organizational support to improve the miner's work engagement, and thus reduce their unsafe behavior.

The development and validation of the Chinese safety climate scale using the item-response theory approach

Introduction

To develop a valid and practical tool to measure the safety climate in China, and further raise awareness of it in Chinese industries, we developed the Chinese safety climate scale (including two subscales at the levels of organization and group separately) based on the work of Huang et al. in 2017.

Methods

A descriptive survey with the convenience sampling method was conducted in Shanghai Disney Resort, China. A sample of 1,570 employees was involved in the final data analyses. The item response theory (IRT) analyses with graded response models were conducted using.

Results

The unidimensionality and local independence assumption were held. The Cronbach's α of organization- and group- level safety climate subscale was 0.912 and 0.937, respectively. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed good model fit for a one-factor model of the organization-level safety climate subscale, χ² (df = 20) = 129.158, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.994, TLI = 0.992, NFI = 0.993, IFI = 0.994, RMSEA = 0.059, 90% CI = (0.050, 0.069), and SRMR = 0.048. A one-factor model also fits well for the group-level safety climate subscale, χ² (df = 44) = 219.727, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.996, TLI = 0.9925, NFI = 0.995, IFI = 0.996, RMSEA = 0.050, 90% CI = (0.044, 0.057), and SRMR = 0.046. Discrimination and difficulty parameters showed that all items effectively spanned the range of the latent trait and could successfully separate participants at different safety climate levels. Items in the organization-level and group-level Chinese safety climate subscales had significantly different discrimination parameters, fitted well with the models, and had a substantive relationship with the latent traits.

Discussion

The Chinese safety climate scale was reliable and valid overall. They can facilitate the research and survey regarding the safety climate in China.

Understanding the Impact of Environmentally Specific Servant Leadership on Employees' Pro-Environmental Behaviors in the Workplace: Based on the Proactive Motivation Model

The increasingly severe environmental situation has brought challenges to the world, and organizations are aware of the importance of environmental management and are committed to changing individuals' environmental behavior patterns. Based on the proactive motivation model, this study constructs a moderated multiple mediation model to explore the impact mechanism and boundary conditions between environmentally specific servant leadership (ESSL) and employees' workplace pro-environmental behaviors (WPB). This study examines 440 Chinese industrial sector employees, and the linear regression method test results show that: (1) ESSL significantly promotes employees' WPB. (2) Green self-efficacy (GSE), green organizational identity (GOI), and environmental passion (EP) act as multiple mediators between ESSL and employees' WPB. (3) Green shared vision (GSV) positively moderates the relationship between ESSL and employees' WPB. This study provides a new theoretical perspective on how ESSL affects employees' WPB, which is analyzed from three aspects: "can do", "reason to", and "energized to". This new mechanism reveals that leaders should transform their leadership style to that of environmental service, and focus on enhancing the employees' GSE, GOI, and EP. Moreover, ESSL should make copious use of green strategy tools, such as GSV, to realize the above mechanism.

Leadership styles and safety culture – a meta-analytic study

Purpose

This study aims to quantitatively review previous empirical studies on leadership style and safety culture using meta-analysis and identify the most influential leadership style across organizations. Further, the moderating effect of riskiness in the organizational process on the relationship between leadership style and safety culture was also done.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a systematic literature review and applied meta-analysis based on 24 empirical studies to calculate the effect size for the relationships between leadership style and safety culture.

Findings

A substantial effect size between leadership style and safety culture (r = 0.50). It was interesting to note the significant relationship between leadership and safety culture, irrespective of high- and low-risk organizations. Moreover, empowering leadership style (r = 0.60) emerged as the most influential leadership style across all organizations and in high-risk organizations.

Originality/value

The meta-analysis established leadership as an essential antecedent of safety culture and suggests implications for future research and practice related to safety and leadership.

Managerial coaching behavior and subordinates’ learning effects in cross-cultural context: a moderated mediation study

Purpose

This study aims to explore the effect of expatriate supervisors’ managerial coaching behavior on local subordinates’ learning effects through the mediating role of subordinates’ thriving at work under the boundary condition of expatriate supervisors’ cultural intelligence.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected the data form 230 Zambian subordinates and their immediate expatriate supervisors working in the Chinese company in Zambia. Regression analyses and bootstrapping analyses were used to test the authors’ hypothesis.

Findings

The results indicated that expatriate supervisors’ managerial coaching behavior was positively related to local subordinates’ learning effects. In addition, the study also found that local subordinates’ thriving at work mediated the linkage between managerial coaching behavior and learning effects. And expatriate supervisors’ cultural intelligence moderated the indirect relationship between managerial coaching behavior and learning effects via thriving at work, such that the indirect effect was stronger for expatriate supervisors with high rather than low cultural intelligence.

Originality/value

This study contributes to a better understanding of how expatriate supervisors’ managerial coaching behavior influences local subordinates’ learning effects by investigating the mediating effect of thriving at work on the managerial coaching behavior–learning effects link. In addition, the study deepens the understanding of the boundary condition of the associations between managerial coaching behavior and subordinates’ learning effects in a cross-cultural context by investigating the moderating effect of expatriate supervisors’ cultural intelligence.

How Does Leadership in Safety Management Affect Employees' Safety Performance? A Case Study from Mining Enterprises in China

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.