Transformational leadership and occupational safety

1
Transformational leadershipandoccupational
safety

• Julian Barling
• Queens University
• March, 2004

2
Scope of the problem

• In 1995 in the US, more than 6,000 fatal work
  injuries
• At the same time, 3.6 million disabling injuries
• Between 1993 and 1996, 1.1 million injured per
  year at work in the UK
• 1996 estimate in Ontario each workplace
  fatality costs the system 496,000
• Major consequences in terms of work attitudes for
  people injured in workplace incidents

3
The productivity costs of safety

• Comparison of days lost from injuries vs strikes
  (in Canada, in millions Stats Canada data)

4
The societal costs of safety in Canada
5
The societal costs of safety in Canada
6
Comparing murder and occupational fatality rates
in Canada
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Why the focus on management?

• Management practices affect well-being, employee
  attitudes and performance
• Could they also affect workplace safety behaviors?

8
Assumption

• Most frequent approach to safety in organizations
  is the control of accidents, usually through
• Implementation of management controls, and
  sanctions for deviations
• Conformity with government regulations
• Conformity with the terms of collective
  agreements

9
Problem and Opportunity

• People simply do not like being controlled.
• They prefer to be trusted, encouraged and treated
  with dignityand they will respond accordingly
• The data now support the differences between a
  control orientation and a commitment orientation
  by management

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The challenge

• Can we move to use this information to enhance
  safety in the workplace (and perhaps elsewhere,
  too)?
• Transformational leadership is the most widely
  researched leadership theory, and has shown
  positive effects in many different areas, such
  as
• Industry
• Military
• Education
• Unions
• Sports teams
• The challenge We need to motivate people to
  ensure they want to do the best work they can,
  and this includes working safely

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The 4 Is of transformational leadership

• Idealized influence
• Doing it because it is the right thing to do
• Inspirational motivation
• Raising the individuals and groups expectations
• Telling stories to communicate values
• Intellectual stimulation
• Getting people to develop their own solutions
• Individualized consideration
• Listening, showing concern, empathy

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• We have completed three studies on the effects of
  transformational leadership on safety performance
• Transformational leadership and injuries
• Training teenage supervisors for safety-specific
  transformational leadership
• Transformational leadership as a part of a high
  performance work system

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Safety specific transformational leadership and
occupational safety

• Julian Barling
• Catherine Loughlin
• Kevin Kelloway
• Journal of Applied Psychology, 2002
• jbarling_at_business.queensu.ca

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• Studied 174 participants (64 males)
• Average age 27 years (range 15-64)
• All in the restaurant industry

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Transformational leadership
16
Transformational leadership
Safety consciousness
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Perceived safety climate
Transformational leadership
Safety consciousness
18
Perceived safety climate
Transformational leadership
Safety- Related events
Safety consciousness
19
Perceived safety climate
Transformational leadership
Safety- Related events
Occupational injuries
Safety consciousness
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• Conducted a replication study
• Young workers, for whom safety is a major issue
• Expanded the focus on the predictors of injuries
• 164 participants (49 female)
• Mean age 19 years (range 14-24)

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Transformational leadership
Perceived safety climate
Safety- related events
Occupational injuries
Safety consciousness
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Transformational leadership
Perceived safety climate
Safety- related events
Occupational injuries
Role overload
Safety consciousness
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Transformational leadership
Perceived safety climate R2 .42
Safety- related events R2 .10
Occupational injuries R2 .34
Role overload
Safety consciousness R2 .33
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Training young supervisors in safety-specific
transformational leadership

• Niro Sivanathan
• Julian Barling
• Nick Turner
• A work in progress

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Next challenge

• Can we actually training leaders to behave more
  transformationally so that they influence
  subsequent safety?
• Strong evidence from our previous research
• Deliberately chose to focus on a vulnerable group
  (teenage employees) completing a highly
  responsible task (swimming pools instructors) in
  a hazardous setting (municipal swimming pools)
  who usually do not receive much safety management
  training
• Entire study took place during a 12 week swimming
  session

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Design of the study

• Weeks 2-3 Surveys completed by 18 swim
  supervisors and 81 swim instructors. Ratings in
  terms of safety-specific transformational
  leadership and safety attitudes and behaviors
• Week 5 Six hour training session for 9
  supervisors in the experimental group (all at
  the same pool)
• Taught the concepts of transformational
  leadership
• Focused on leaders they identified and examined
  their behaviors
• Focused on stories about famous transformational
  leadership
• Focused on the importance of safety in their jobs
  and the role of transformational leadership

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• Week 9 Booster session for the experimental
  group
• 2 hour session for 9 swim supervisors in
  experimental group
• Summarized the major concepts of transformational
  leadership
• Group discussions of their own successes and
  lessons learned in transformational leadership
• Weeks 11 12 All swim supervisors and 81 swim
  instructors complete all the transformational
  leadership ratings, and surveys on safety
  attitudes and behaviors

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Transformational leadership training works with
teenage swim supervisors
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Transformational leadership training
Changes in transformational behaviors
Personal safety orientation
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Safety-specific transformational leadership is
one component of a high performance work system

• Anthea Zacharatos
• Julian Barling
• Rick Iverson
• Journal of Applied Psychology, in press

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• Transformational leadership does not exist in
  isolation
• Generated a high performance system, comprising
• Transformational leadership
• Employment security
• Selective hiring
• Extensive training
• Teams and decentralized decision making
• Information sharing
• Reduced status distinctions
• Contingent compensation
• Job quality
• Measurement of management practices

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Organizational level analysis

• Surveys sent to health and safety managers and HR
  Directors of 1471 industrial organizations
• 147 HR directors responded (10.2) reported on
  HR practices and occupational injuries
• 247 health and safety managers responded (17.1
  response rate) reported on occupational injuries
• High performance work systems then significantly
  predicted companys annual injury record

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But

• This study does not explain how HPWS affect
  safety
• Therefore we conducted a study at the employee
  level
• 196 employees from two different organization
  (petroleum and telecommunication industries),
  both safety-sensitive situations
• Hypothesized that HPWS affect safety indirectly,
  through the effects of safety climate and trust
  in management

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High performance work system
35
Trust in management
High performance work system
Positive safety climate
36
1st aid
Near miss
Trust in management
Safety incidents
High performance work system
Positive safety climate
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1st aid
Near miss
Trust in management
Safety incidents
High performance work system
Positive safety climate
Personal safety orientation
Comply
Initiative
Knowld
Motivate
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Transformational leadership affects safetySome
concluding thoughts

• Expands our understanding of the extensive
  effects of transformational leadership
• Opens up new avenues for enhancing safety (vs.
  minimizing injuries)
• Need to focus more on evaluation studies of the
  effects of transformational leadership training
• Provides an optimistic perspective of what can be
  achieved with part-time, teenage supervisors

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• Thank you!