Safety leadership: A longitudinal study of the effects of transformational leadership on safety outcomes

Abstract

Transformational leadership based interventions were assessed using a pre‐test, post‐test, and control group design. Leaders (N=54) from 21 long‐term health care organizations were randomly assigned to general transformational leadership training, safety‐specific transformational leadership training, or a control group. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that leadership training resulted in significant effects on manager post‐training ratings of safety attitudes, intent to promote safety, and self‐efficacy. The effects of leadership training on employee (N=115) perceptions of leader safety‐specific transformational leadership, safety climate, safety participation, safety compliance, safety‐related events and, injuries were also assessed. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), with the pre‐test scores as the covariates, showed that leadership training resulted in significant effects on the safety‐specific transformational leadership and safety climate outcomes.