Safety-specific transformational and passive leadership influences on firefighter safety climate perceptions and safety behavior outcomes

Abstract

BackgroundThe impact of leadership on safety climate and safety outcomes has become an important area of research in organizational, leadership and safety sciences. There is evidence that safety-specific transformational leadership positively impacts safety outcomes including safety climate and safety behaviors. However, these relationships have not been thoroughly explored within the fire service. This study is one of the first known studies to examine the relationships between safety-specific transformational and passive leadership, safety climate and safety behavior outcomes in a sample of firefighters. MethodsData were collected from 398 professional firefighters in the southeastern United States. Structural equation modeling was used to complete the analyses and to examine hypothesized relationships. ResultsSafety-specific transformational leadership had a positive influence on safety climate perceptions among firefighters. Conversely, passive leadership, in the context of safety, had a negative impact on safety climate. As expected, safety climate perceptions are positively and significantly associated with safety behaviors, including safety compliance behaviors and safety participation behaviors. ConclusionsThese findings provide important evidence of the relationships between leadership styles, safety climate and safety behaviors in the fire service. Ultimately these findings provide guidance for public administrators, fire service administrators and company officers to bolster firefighter safety outcomes.