Role modeling of safety-leadership behaviors in the construction industry: A two-wave longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND

The construction industry is heavily affected by occupational accidents, and it is important to investigate how leadership behaviors promoting safety on construction sites are fostered among construction-site managers.

OBJECTIVE

The overall aim of this study was to investigate how safety-leadership behaviors can be developed in the construction industry, specifically focusing on managerial role modeling.

METHODS

A two-wave longitudinal cohort study with approximately four months between measurement occasions was conducted among construction-site supervisors in Sweden (n = 51). Supervisors' ratings of their site managers' and their own generic and safety-specific contingent reward (CR) leadership behaviors were obtained by means of questionnaires. Cross-lagged panel models were tested within a path model framework to test the hypothesis that site managers' leadership behaviors prospectively influence supervisors' leadership behaviors.

RESULTS

Site managers' CR behaviors prospectively influenced supervisors' CR behaviors, both generic CR behaviors (β= 0.29, p = 0.01) and safety-specific CR behaviors (β= 0.22, p = 0.04). For safety-specific CR behaviors, a reversed effect (β= 0.26, p = 0.03) was also found, implying that supervisors' behaviors prospectively influenced site managers' behaviors.

CONCLUSION

Site managers act as role models for supervisors when it comes to developing safety-leadership behaviors on construction sites. The results also indicate that site managers are influenced by their subordinate supervisors' safety-leadership behaviors. Hence, there seems to be reciprocal interaction between site managers and supervisors in which they influence each other and together shape safety-leadership practices at their construction sites.