Safety Leadership in the Oil and Gas Industry: The Mediating Role of Complexity Science Principles

Abstract

Safety is a major concern in the oil and gas industry due to accidents with the potential for catastrophic consequences. One of these was the Piper Alpha drilling platform disaster in 1988, which resulted in the loss of the Piper Alpha platform and the subsequently 167 lives; the worst disaster in the oil and gas industry. To foster a proactive approach in the prevention of workplace injuries, organisations have turned towards key predictors of safety, such as leadership. However, simply practising leadership behaviours is not enough to improve safety, especially in safety-critical organisations. An inability to move beyond the formal control inherent in traditional bureaucratic mindsets limits the applicability of mainstream leadership theories for safety-critical organisations. To address this challenge, this research study adopts a different paradigm for leadership, one which frames leadership as a complex interactive dynamic from which adaptive outcomes emerge as complexity science. Hence, the aim of this research study was to investigate the direct relationship between leadership behaviours and safety outcomes, and the mediating effect of complexity science principles. To accomplish this, a conceptual model was developed using theoretical foundation built from the literature review. The model comprises three main components: 1) leadership behaviours, 2) five complexity science principles (connectivity, interdependence, feedback, exploration-of-the-space-of-possibilities and co-evolution) and 3) three safety outcomes (safety participation, safety compliance and safety climate). These components were linked by the proposed hypotheses that were established based on assumed theoretical relationships. To assess and validate the conceptual model and test the hypotheses, a series of quantitative approaches were employed. A multivariate statistical approach was utilised for data collection through a questionnaire survey; 173 project managers participated in the survey. These individuals are responsible for emergency commands, as well as the day-to-day management of safety. Principal component analysis/Exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify the factor structures representing each underlying construct. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the results obtained from the exploratory factor analysis, followed by multiple regression analysis. Next, structural equation modelling was applied to test the structural models for hypotheses testing. The regression analyses demonstrated that all three identified leadership behaviours — 1) empowering & engaging, 2) modelling & reinforcing, and 3) promoting & enabling — directly influenced the level of safety participation and safety compliance. Additionally, all five principles of complexity science mediated the relationship between empowering & engaging leadership behaviour, and safety participation and safety compliance. As for the hypothesised relationship between modelling & reinforcing leadership behaviour and safety outcomes, apart from the co-evolution principle, all other complexity science principles arbitrated the relationship with safety participation and safety compliance. Furthermore, the relationships between promoting & enabling leadership behaviour, and safety participation and safety compliance were mediated by all five principles of complexity science. Finally, structural equation modelling was used to refine and confirm the findings of the regression analysis, verifying both empowering & engaging, and promoting & enabling leadership behaviours have direct and indirect influences on safety participation and safety compliance levels as a result of all five complexity science principles. And established that modelling & reinforcing leadership behaviour has direct and indirect effects on safety participation and safety compliance levels under the influence of only four complexity science principles — namely, connectivity, interdependence, feedback and exploration-of-the-space-of-possibilities. On the basis of the research results, this study provides insight into the understanding of safety leadership by the empirical evidence that displayed the relationships between the three leadership behaviour constructs and their contribution to the effect of complexity science principles and safety outcomes within the oil and gas industry. From these results, the study provides a list of recommendations for research on the effect of leadership behaviours on complexity science principles and safety outcomes.