유통산업의 ESG경영을 위한 임파워링리더십, 안전문화, 안전행동, 조직신뢰관계 연구

Abstract

ESG management, which considers non-financial elements of companies, is the current emphasis of corporate management. To sustain development in the shifting business landscape, the distribution industry is exploring digital transformation(DX) initiatives like AI and robotics. However, to ensure environmental, social, and governance(ESG) safety, industry-specific precautions must be taken. This study focused on the ESG safety management in the distribution industry. It aimed to identify the mechanisms of empowering leadership, safety culture, safety behavior, and organizational trust. The study also empirically confirmed that safety culture acts as a mediator between empowering leadership and safety behavior. Additionally, it found that organizational trust plays a moderating role between safety culture and safety behavior. In order to achieve this objective, a survey was performed online with a sample size of 400 workers in the distribution industry. Out of the 400 replies, 384 were considered reliable for analysis after eliminating 16 dishonest responses. The data was then analyzed using SPSS 25.0 Process Macro and AMOS 22.0 to check the link between the main variables and test the hypotheses. The study revealed that empowering leadership had a large and beneficial impact on safety behavior and safety culture. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that the implementation of empowered leadership has a positive impact on safety culture, hence strengthening and initiating safety-related actions among individuals. Furthermore, it was discovered that organizational trust acts as a moderating mediator between empowering leadership and safety behavior, specifically through safety culture. The study confirmed that as the level of organizational trust increases, the positive impact of empowering leadership on safety behavior is enhanced through the mediating role of safety culture. The given findings provide theoretical and practical recommendations for implementing ESG safety compliance response systems and safety processes in the distribution industry.