Examining the impact of ethical leadership on safety and task performance: a safety-critical context
Leadership & Organization Development Journal
ISSN: 0143-7739
Article publication date: 27 July 2020
Issue publication date: 26 August 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Aiming at understanding the effectiveness of leadership styles on workers' outcomes in safety-critical context, this study explores the impact of ethical leadership on safety and task performance under contingent effects of two safety-critical factors (i.e. perceived accident likelihood and perceived hazard exposure).
Design/methodology/approach
The study is cross-sectional in nature and survey questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were collected from 397 workers from ten organizations producing chemical products. Multiple hierarchical regression was performed to test the hypothesized relationships.
Findings
Results show that ethical leadership has positive association with workers' safety performance, safety attitude and task performance. Further, perceived accident likelihood moderated the influence of ethical leadership on workers' safety performance and attitude in such a way the association is strong when accident likelihood is high. Perceived hazard exposure moderated the link between ethical leadership and task performance such that higher hazard exposure decreases the effectiveness of ethical leadership.
Practical implications
Findings imply that managers can optimize employee safety for jobs associated with high safety-critical context through demonstration of ethical leadership behaviors. The study suggests that ethical leadership can prove to be important tool to improve workers' occupational safety well-being, which in turn helps them to improve their health and general well-being.
Originality/value
Contextualization of ethical leadership in safety-critical context is novelty of the study.
Keywords
Citation
Shafique, I., Kalyar, M.N. and Rani, T. (2020), "Examining the impact of ethical leadership on safety and task performance: a safety-critical context", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 41 No. 7, pp. 909-926. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-07-2019-0335
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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