On different pages? More dangerous than a papercut: Implications of incongruence between leader and member safety climate perceptions

Abstract

The present study examined the presence of a gap between leaders’ and members’ safety climate perceptions in South Korean chemical companies. Also, it examined how this gap relates to workplace safety and organizational attitudes at the work-unit level by endorsing the notion that the psychological contract theory is an appropriate approach to understanding incongruence in safety climate perceptions. Paired t-test and response surface analysis were conducted using the sample of 4,978 organizational members nested within 122 work-units. Leaders reported significantly higher safety climate perceptions than members. When safety climate perceptions between leaders and members were significantly different, safety compliance behavior was low and injury rates, cynicism, and turnover intentions were greater. Incongruence in safety climate might compromise organizational safety and foster negative organizational attitude. Also, when safety climate perceptions of leaders and members were both high, then safety compliance behavior was high and cynicism was lower suggesting that convergent thinking regarding safety climate amongst leaders and members can be beneficial. The present study demonstrated the importance of monitoring and addressing the gap between leaders’ and members’ safety climate perceptions in hazardous industries.