Positive organizational behavior and safety in the offshore oil industry: Exploring the determinants of positive safety climate.
Much research has now documented the substantial influence of safety climate on a range of important outcomes in safety critical organizations, but there has been scant attention to the question of what factors might be responsible for positive or negative safety climate. The present paper draws from positive organizational behavior theory to test workplace and individual factors that may affect safety climate. Specifically, we explore the potential influence of authentic leadership style and psychological capital on safety climate and risk outcomes. Across two samples of offshore oil-workers and seafarers working on oil platform supply ships, structural equation modeling yielded results that support a model in which authentic leadership exerts a direct effect on safety climate, as well as an indirect effect via psychological capital. This study shows the importance of leadership qualities as well as psychological factors in shaping a positive work safety climate and lowering the risk of accidents.
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christies gate 12, PO Box 7807, 5020 Bergen, Norway.
Sigurd W
SW
Hystad
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christies gate 12, PO Box 7807, 5020 Bergen, Norway ; Center for Technology & National Security Policy, National Defense University, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC 2013-5066, USA.
Paul T
PT
Bartone
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christies gate 12, PO Box 7807, 5020 Bergen, Norway.
Jarle
J
Eid
authentic leadership; positive organizational behavior; psychological capital; safety climate; safety critical organizations