Transformational leadership and employee safety performance: a within-person, between-jobs design.
We investigated the extent to which the safety performance (i.e., self-reported safety compliance and safety participation) of employees with 2 jobs was predicted by their respective supervisors' transformational leadership behaviors. We compared 2 within-person models: a context-specific model (i.e., transformational leadership experienced by employees in 1 context related to those same employees' safety performance only in that context) and a context-spillover model (i.e., transformational leadership experienced by employees in 1 context related to those same employees' safety performance in the same and other contexts). Our sample comprised 159 "moonlighters" (73 men, 86 women): employees who simultaneously hold 2 different jobs, each with a different supervisor, providing within-person data on the influence of different supervisors on employee safety performance across 2 job contexts. Having controlled for individual differences (negative affectivity and conscientiousness) and work characteristics (e.g., hours worked and length of relationship with supervisor), the context-specific model provided the best fit to the data among alternative nested models. Implications for the role of transformational leadership in promoting workplace safety are discussed.
Inness
Michelle
M
School of Business, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2R6, Canada. michelle.inness@ualberta.ca
Turner
Nick
N
Barling
Julian
J
Stride
Chris B
CB
D000328:Adult; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States