Influence of Leadership Practices on Organizational Safety Performance

Abstract

This study analyzes the reasons why leadership does not influence the counteraction to incidents (through the implementation of safety systems and technology), which cause serious injuries or deaths in US oil and gas companies. The modified Delphi method summarizes eight oil and gas industry experts’ consensus on how leadership can reduce workplace incidents and improve organizational safety performance. The study selects eight safety specialists and leadership experts in executive positions in the US oil and gas industry, who participated in three rounds of discussions regarding the impact of leadership practices on the effectiveness of the safe conditions and were interviewed through a series of questionnaires. The study identifies five key aspects that can help improve the safety process efficiency in the company and provide the basis for future research: empowering employees to stop dangerous operations; formation of effective health, safety and environmental management system; employees’ involvement in the formation of organizational safety initiatives, the creation of corporate culture in the company, the use of consistent behavior patterns in promoting safety improvements across the organization. The study concludes that preventing incidents and improving safety performance in an organization requires effective coordination of the five components, which, according to the experts’ evaluations are the most important in terms of organization development. Therefore, leaders and practitioners in this field, who often face safety performance challenges, should apply a safety ecosystem approach to prevent incidents from occurring and improve safety performance within their businesses. The study results contribute towards a deeper understanding of how organizational management can apply existing knowledge on compliance with safe working conditions to prevent incidents in the company using different strategies to counteract them. The study identifies the main limitations related to the use of the modified Delphi method. They include the difficulties in determining the optimal sample size and attracting a sufficient number of study participants. The second limitation is that due to fewer participants, the conclusion from the study represents the views of the participants which may vary if a sufficiently large number of participants took part in the study. Keywords: Incident Prevention, Leadership, Management System, Organizational Culture, Safety Culture.