Abstract
Although some previous studies have examined the impact of transformational leadership on safety behavior, those works have paid relatively less attention to the intermediating role of employees’ job strain in the link as well as contingent variables that moderate the relationship. Considering that not only job strain substantially affects employees’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors in an organization, but also there are some contextual factors that moderate the relationships, we investigated intermediating mechanisms (i.e., mediator and moderator) in the relationship between transformational leadership and safety behavior. Relying on the context-attitude-behavior framework, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis with a moderated mediation model. Specifically, we hypothesized that the level of an employee’s job strain would mediate the transformational leadership–safety behavior link. We also hypothesized that an employee’s self-efficacy regarding safety would moderate the association between job strain and safety behavior. Using survey data from 997 South Korean employees, we found that all of our hypotheses were supported. The findings suggest that the level of an employee’s job strain mediates and elaborately explains the transformational leadership–safety behavior link. Moreover, an employee’s self-efficacy regarding safety is a buffering factor which decreases the harmful effects of job strain on safety behavior.
Highlights
Accidents at work have been considered as an important topic due to their profound impact on human life at the physical, mental, and economic levels
We expect that this research may contribute to Second, we found a contingent factor which moderated the relationship between transformational elaborating transformational leadership and safety behavior literature
This study has various limitations, we believe that it contributes to deepening the transformational leadership and safety behavior literature by investigating a mediating factor between transformational leadership and safety behavior, as well as a contingent factor through which job strain influences safety behavior
Summary
Accidents at work have been considered as an important topic due to their profound impact on human life at the physical, mental, and economic levels. Accidents at work function as a fatal blow to the victims, and to their firms and the national economy. The mental and physical damages caused by accidents at work usually make the daily life of the victims devastating for a lifetime. Efforts to reduce accidents at work are highly required to protect employees’ well-being as well as firms’ sustainability. Employees’ unsafe behavior (e.g., impulsive or careless behavior) has been regarded as one of the most direct antecedents of an accident. To enhance the quality of employees’ safety behavior, previous studies have suggested various factors influencing safety behavior. Public Health 2019, 16, 1425; doi:10.3390/ijerph16081425 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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