Leading for Safety: A Question of Leadership Focus

Background: There is considerable evidence that leadership influences workplace safety, but less is known about the relative importance of different leadership styles for safety. In addition, a leadership style characterized by an emphasis and a focus on promoting safety has rarely been investigated...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Malin Mattson Molnar (Author), Ulrica Von Thiele Schwarz (Author), Johnny Hellgren (Author), Henna Hasson (Author), Susanne Tafvelin (Author)
Format: Book
Published: Elsevier, 2019-06-01T00:00:00Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to this object online.
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

MARC

LEADER 00000 am a22000003u 4500
001 doaj_0ccb12d0a0a843669c385b1fd1592a0d
042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Malin Mattson Molnar  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Ulrica Von Thiele Schwarz  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Johnny Hellgren  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Henna Hasson  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Susanne Tafvelin  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Leading for Safety: A Question of Leadership Focus 
260 |b Elsevier,   |c 2019-06-01T00:00:00Z. 
500 |a 2093-7911 
500 |a 10.1016/j.shaw.2018.12.001 
520 |a Background: There is considerable evidence that leadership influences workplace safety, but less is known about the relative importance of different leadership styles for safety. In addition, a leadership style characterized by an emphasis and a focus on promoting safety has rarely been investigated alongside other more general leadership styles. Methods: Data were collected through a survey to which 269 employees in a paper mill company responded. A regression analysis was conducted to examine the relative roles of transformational, transactional (management-by-exception active; MBEA), and safety-specific leadership for different safety behavioral outcomes (compliance behavior and safety initiative behaviors) and for minor and major injuries. Results: A safety-specific leadership contributed the most to the enhanced safety of the three different kinds of leadership. Transformational leadership did not contribute to any safety outcome over and above that of a safety-specific leadership, whereas a transactional leadership (MBEA) was associated with negative safety outcomes (fewer safety initiatives and increased minor injuries). Conclusion: The most important thing for leaders aiming at improving workplace safety is to continuously emphasize safety, both in their communication and by acting as role models. This highlights the importance for leadership training programs aiming to improve safety to actually focus on safety-promoting communication and behaviors rather than general leadership. Furthermore, an overly monitoring and controlling leadership style can be detrimental to attempts at achieving improved workplace safety. Keywords: Injury, Leadership, Safety compliance, Safety initiative, Workplace safety 
546 |a EN 
690 |a Public aspects of medicine 
690 |a RA1-1270 
655 7 |a article  |2 local 
786 0 |n Safety and Health at Work, Vol 10, Iss 2, Pp 180-187 (2019) 
787 0 |n http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2093791116302918 
787 0 |n https://doaj.org/toc/2093-7911 
856 4 1 |u https://doaj.org/article/0ccb12d0a0a843669c385b1fd1592a0d  |z Connect to this object online.