title: Leading and lagging indicators of occupational health and safety: The moderating role of safety leadership.
abstract: In response to the call for empirical evidence of a connection between leading and lagging indicators of occupational health and safety (OHS), the first aim of the current research is to consider the association between leading and lagging indicators of OHS. Our second aim is to investigate the moderating effect of safety leadership on the association between leading and lagging indicators. Data were collected from 3578 employees nested within 66 workplaces. Multi-level modelling was used to test the two hypotheses. The results confirm an association between leading and lagging indicators of OHS as well as the moderating impact of middle management safety leadership on the direct association. The association between leading and lagging indicators provides OHS practitioners with useful information to substantiate efforts within organisations to move away from a traditional focus on lagging indicators towards a preventative focus on leading indicators. The research also highlights the important role played by middle managers and the value of OHS leadership development and investment at the middle management level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Monash University, P.O. Box 197, Caulfield East, VIC 3145 Australia. Electronic address: cathy.sheehan@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sheehan
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Monash University, P.O. Box 197, Caulfield East, VIC 3145 Australia. Electronic address: ross.donohue@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Donohue
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Monash University, P.O. Box 197, Caulfield East, VIC 3145 Australia. Electronic address: tracey.shea@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Tracey
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shea
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Monash University, P.O. Box 197, Caulfield East, VIC 3145 Australia. Electronic address: brian.cooper@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Monash University, P.O. Box 197, Caulfield East, VIC 3145 Australia. Electronic address: helen.decieri@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Helen De
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Cieri
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D016272:Occupational Health; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017132:Workplace
keywords: Lagging indicators; Leading indicators; Occupational health and safety; Safety leadership