Leading mindful organizing for safety in air traffic control: A moderated serial mediation model

Abstract

Mindful organizing, a critical capability within high-reliability organizations like air traffic control, encompasses the ability of team members to foresee, identify, rectify errors, and adapt to unforeseen occurrences. This study primarily investigates the influence of empowering leadership on mindful organizing among air traffic controllers, exploring the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. We hypothesized that employee participation enhances the effect of empowering leadership on trust in leadership. Furthermore, we posited that trust in leadership and critical upward communication would act as sequential mediators between empowering leadership and mindful organizing. Our hypotheses were tested on a sample of 73 employees from six air traffic control towers and their headquarters in Spain. Utilizing Process Macro in SPSS 26.0 for analysis, our findings indicate a positive correlation between empowering leadership and mindful organizing. Significant associations were also observed between empowering leadership, trust, and critical upward communication. These results unveil pivotal interrelations among key variables for safety performance. This paper concludes with suggestions for future research and potential implications of these findings for organizational safety strategies.