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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).

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.

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.

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.

Contextualization of ethical leadership in safety-critical context is novelty of the study.

The purpose of this study is to compare driver knowledge, attitudes and perceptions (in terms of hazard, risk, accident, offence detection and driving skill perceptions) and self-reported driving style in a sample of 461 drivers before and after attending a UK driver improvement scheme for culpable collision-involved drivers, to inform future directions in the design of driver retraining programmes.

Participants were a sample of 461 drivers attending a UK 1.5 day driver improvement scheme course for culpable collision-involved drivers. The course contained classroom-based training and a practical driving component. Participants completed a driver improvement scheme questionnaire before and immediately after attending the 1.5-day course and again 3 months later.

Results indicated significant pre- and post-course effects in terms of increased driving safety with respect to driving knowledge, perceptions of control, perceived likelihood of accident-involvement, hazard perception and reported risk-taking. Key positive effects of reduced risk-taking and near-misses persisted three months after course completion.

One limitation of this study is that at the 3-month follow-up there was a reduction in the response rate (44.69%) which included significantly fewer young drivers.

Results indicate positive behavioural, perceptual and behavioural changes, along with specific age, gender and driving experience effects which have implications for the design of future driving courses.

This study has implications for community safety through enhanced road safety training measures.

The analysis of age, gender and driving experience effects of the impact of this driver improvement scheme will allow targeted training methods for specific groups of drivers.

Several studies have demonstrated an inverse relationship between experience in an activity and perceived risk for the individual in the activity. That is, as experience increases, perceived risk decreases. This phenomenon has been labeled risk acculturation. The present study aims to examine prior rental car experience for its effect on estimated odds of an accident and likelihood to purchase rental car insurance.

A convenience sample of 19‐24 year old students read a car rental scenario within a questionnaire and responded to questions regarding past risk behavior, car rental experience, perceived risk, likelihood of insurance purchase, and related topics.

Compared to people who had not rented a car before, people with prior rental experience estimated the odds of an accident involving their vehicle to be significantly less likely (a risk acculturation effect). Also, subjects with prior rental car experience were significantly less likely to purchase a collision damage waiver and supplemental liability insurance. Of the variables in this study, only experience significantly predicted both types of insurance purchase. The two variables of estimated odds of an accident and knowledge of existing insurance coverage were not significant predictors for either type of insurance purchase.

Risk acculturation is best documented through a longitudinal study rather than the present cross‐sectional investigation. Although a sample of young adults with limited driving experience was helpful in identifying respondents who had not rented a car before, the results of the present study may not generalize to the broader population of car drivers.

The present study may be the first to identify a risk acculturation effect within an insurance context. However, the effect of experience on insurance purchase is independent of that of risk acculturation, and further research is needed to clarify the mechanism of the effect.