The Time-lagged Study of Safety Leadership and Safety Behavior in a Hotel: Safety Motivation as a Mediator and Safety Attitude as a Moderator

Abstract

Safety behavior is highly likely to be influenced by not only individual level factors, but also organizational or group level factors. However, in Korea, few studies have been conducted to classify each of factors on safety behavior. This study examines the effect of team leader’s safety leadership as a group level factor on safety behavior mediated through safety motivation and team member’s safety attitude as an individual level factor. This study was conducted in China from January to June 2022 with 512 subjects from 95 teams of 5-star hotels. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) for multi-level analysis is used to analyze the mechanisms by which safety leadership and safety attitudes influence safety behavior through safety motivation. The research results indicate that safety leadership and safety attitude can predict safety behavior. Safety motivation also played a mediating role in the relationship between safety leadership and safety behavior. This study, which conducted the time-lagged study, suggests that management should build appropriate safety leadership, continuously check the effectiveness of leadership through regular monitoring, and improve safety-related performance through encouraging safety attitudes and motivation.