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Skills, knowledge and senior managers’ demonstrations of safety commitment
Abstract
Senior managers’ safety commitment is emphasised in the safety literature as a crucial influence on organisational safety. Yet there is little understanding of the characteristics that underpin their ability to engage in behaviours that demonstrate safety commitment. This study investigates the contribution of problem-solving, social competence and safety knowledge to such behaviours. Senior managers (N = 60) from European and North American air traffic management organisations participated in interviews consisting of open questions designed to trigger safety knowledge and descriptions of behaviours that demonstrate safety commitment as well as scenarios designed to trigger problem-solving and social competence. Reliable scores were generated through systematic scoring procedures involving two independent coders. The results indicated that problem-solving, namely the number of issues and information sources considered when understanding problems and generating ideas to solve a problem were positively related to demonstrations of safety commitment. The ability to perceive others was also found to correlate with safety commitment, whereas safety knowledge was not associated with behaviours that demonstrate safety commitment. It is proposed that training and guidance designed for senior managers should focus on their problem-solving abilities and perception of others in order to support them in demonstrating safety commitment.
... After a few decades, it had been studied, the definition of safety knowledge has gone through several innovations, and research has come out are several definitions of safety knowledge (Dong, Wang, Li, Ding, & Luo, 2018).Safety knowledge is illustrated as the high level of employee knowledge of correct procedures, safety processes, and safety behaviors in the workplace (Braunger et al., 2013). Some researchers have defined safety knowledge consisting of education related to safety, employee education background, facts, and information, the awareness gained by experience helps to elucidate, practice, and understand safety (Fruhen et al., 2014). In one study, Dong et al. (2018) had operationalized safety knowledge as a "justified belief that increases an entity's capability to effectively control the recognized hazard to attain an acceptable level of risk." ...
... An intensive literature review tabulated in Table 1 demonstrated that safety climate is one of the most common factors of safety performance, and many studies have tested the influence of safety climate on safety knowledge. For instance, several researchers confirmed that a critical factor of safety climate, namely safety commitment is related to safety knowledge (Fruhen et al., 2014). Corroborate with the above arguments, Vinodkumar and Bhasi (2010)found that the safety climate influences safety knowledge. ...
... Numerous scholars have argued that sufficient safety commitment should always accompany knowledgeable senior managers to act correctly with safety-related issues and communicate safety matters or facts to the employee. Moreover, the researcher explained that safety knowledge helps a senior manager understand safety at the workplace and show their safety concern via demonstrations of excellence safety commitment (Fruhen et al., 2014).This evidence highlighted the role of safety commitment in safety climate and safety knowledge in the workplace from a different perspective. This information formulated that safety knowledge and safety climate are interrelated. ...
This article examines the issues and the conceptual basis in the operationalized definition of safety knowledge. The importance of safety knowledgeemphasizes the mediation role of safety knowledge in the indirect link between safety climate and safety performance assessment in small and medium enterprises and the functional nature of content validity by applying a step-by-stepcontent validity assessment. A content validation assessment process aims to increase representativeness, relevancy, clarity, comprehensiveness of the measurement's validitybesides to ensure the instrument answers the research question. In business, social science, and management science, many variables of interest and research outcomes are abstract concepts and
... Research establishes a positive link between safety climate and significantly lower incident rates and better overall performance (Morrow, Koves, & Barnes, 2014). A few elements of a strong safety climate include industries who have a strong manager's commitment toward safety, leadership, employee involvement, and well-defined safety management systems (Abdullah, Othman, Osman, & Salahudin, 2016;Boughaba, Hassane, & Roukia, 2014;Fruhen, Mearns, Flin, & Kirwan, 2014;Mearns, Hope, Ford, & Tetrick, 2010). There is additional evidence that employees who have received safety training courses are more committed and report a higher safety perception of their company (Abdullah et al., 2016;Demirkesen & Arditi, 2015;Ghahramani, 2016). ...
... Empirical research has recognized a lack of research in organizational hierarchy, where research typically does not survey all levels of the organizations, not covering groups recognized as the worker, supervisor, and manager, nor those who represent indirect and direct employees (Colley & Neal, 2012;Huang et al., 2016Huang et al., , 2017bHuang, Jeffries, Tolbert, & Dainoff, 2017a). This gap in research has identified a need to study owners, manager, and worker's current commitment to safety to identify group-level safety perceptions, the organization's safety climate (Fang & Wu, 2013;Fruhen et al., 2014;Lingard et al., 2012;Schwatka et al., 2016;Tholén et al., 2013). Researchers find many safety climate studies fail to measure the group's safety perceptions of workers, who operate in the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy (Abdullah et al., 2016;Niu, Leicht, & Rowlinson, 2016a, 2016bWu, Wang, Zou, & Fang, 2016). ...
... Safety Dimension 1). Dimension 1 is the extent to which employees view the actions of management as demonstrating safety priority, safety commitment, and safety competence (Fruhen et al., 2014;Kines et al., 2011). Management safety commitment and ability (9 items); 2) Management safety empowerment (7 items); 3) Management safety justice (6 items); 4) Employees' commitment to safety (6 items); 5) Employees' safety priority and absence of risk acceptance (7 items); 6) Learning, communication and trust (8 items); and 7) Trust in efficacy of safety systems (7 items). ...
Dissertation: Safety climate is a vital part of oil-and-gas restoration industry where oil-and-gas activities are completed with agricultural restoration to return the lands back to their original or better conditions. Both agriculture and energy sectors have a high incident and injury rate for their industries and their safety climate has not been researched. Using the reliable and validated NOSACQ-50 instrument and causal-comparative methodology, the largest oil-and-gas restoration employer within the western United States was surveyed to determine if their safety climate dimension scores (dependent variable) were statistically significant between direct and/or indirect employee groups (independent variable). ANOVA was used to determine if there were any statistically significant differences and there were none found between direct and indirect employees, nor between workers, supervisors and managers. Using ANCOVA with demographics as a covariant, there was still no statistically significant differences between safety climate perceptions between direct workers, supervisors and managers, nor between direct and indirect employees when adjusted for demographic variables. Future work includes additional studies on this population and implementing changes to the current organization based upon these safety perception findings.
Keywords: NOSACQ-50, pipeline safety climate, agricultural safety climate, safety culture, organizational cultural assessment, NOSACQ-50 questionnaire, and safety perceptions.
... There are some differences regarding how collaboration is executed based on these contracts, however, the contracts most often segregate the disciplines involved in the project, which ϐ problem-solving ȋ ǡ ʹͲͳͲǢ ϐǡ ʹͲͳͻȌ. One of the mitigating efforts is the overseeing role of project management (Fruhen et al., 2014). For example, leadership and communication practices have been found to positively ϐ self-reported workgroup safety (Oswald et al., 2022). ...
... You can go to as much school as you want, and you can have as much experience as you want, but it doesn't help if you don't have the desire or motivation." -Coordinator execution, Client ϐ studies such as Fruhen et al. (2014), Hallowell et al. (2013) and Winge et al. (2019). ...
The construction industry is known to be hazardous for its workers, being the industry with one of the highest injury rates. A number of studies show that leadership engagement in construction projects influence safety, however, the importance of how the client management role is carried out with regards to physical presence over time during construction has not been in focus. The aim of the study is to understand how safety is influenced by the presence of client personnel on construction sites related to renewable energy and the effects of their presence. Insights from both the client and contractor perspectives are provided, based on eighteen semi-structured interviews. The results show that degree of presence is determined by the project managers in early stages of the projects and this decision is based on factors such as economy risk assessment, knowledge transfer and projects size and complexity. Three main factors that stem from client’s presence are found to influence safety; i) increased monitoring which leads to higher risk awareness, ii) increased local knowledge which leads to identifying valuable solutions to issues and iii) shorter communication paths reduce uncertainty and positively impacts progress. Identified challenges regarding client’s presence are related to over-involvement and becoming blind to hazards. In conclusion, the client personnel’s onsite presence is important for creating a shared understating between client and contractor of safety issues, something that is not possible through remote collaboration, and especially important when projects increase in complexity.
... Managers represent the employer within the scope of their duties and powers; OHS management is an area of managerial work in all types of organizations (EU-OSHA 2012, Veltri et al. 2013). Managers' resources, competence, and commitment are important in establishing successful OHS management (Conchie et al. 2013, Fruhen et al. 2013, Hale et al. 2010, Hardison et al. 2014, Simola 2005). Managers at different organizational levels need knowledge and tools as well as leadership skills to promote OHS in the workplace (Simola 2005, Tappura & Hämäläinen 2012, Tappura et al. 2016. ...
... Tappura and Hämäläinen (2011) suggested that effective OHS training for managers includes joint discussions with colleagues, demonstrations, and hands-on techniques to strengthen managers' commitment to OHS procedures. Fruhen et al. (2013) proposed that senior managers' training and guidance should focus on their problem-solving abilities and perception of others in order to support them in demonstrating OHS commitment. ...
This paper identifies the emerging cybersecurity issues of the smart grid ICT component in the implementation of control and monitoring systems at the substation level. The attack surface originates from a local network across different levels of interoperability, communication (data) model standard, and digital data collection. Given the level of complexity and overall exposure, the system is vulnerable to numerous cyber threats, resulting in significant consequences for system stability and availability. Since there is no absolute security or ultimately safe methods of cyber threat protection, an appropriate approach must be applied that will focus on prevention from the very design of the system, regular operation, and maintenance. In this paper, we propose a set of security measures that can be applied to elevate the security at the substation level.
... The commitment to safety by workers during production activities (hereafter, "safety commitment") is a key factor that determines the stability of miners' safe behavior. It is a precondition for behavioral safety, and it is highlighted by the group's influence on organizational safety (Fruhen et al., 2014;McGonagle et al., 2016). Tappura et al. (2017) stated that safety commitment is a key element for successful safety management, workplace culture, and workplace climate. ...
... In research on safety commitment, Mayring (2001) pointed out that safety commitment has many facets, which include decision-making, communication, active involvement, influence on organizational attributes, and safety values. Fruhen et al. (2014) found that problem-solving, social competence, and safety knowledge are the relevant variables that demonstrate senior managers' safety commitment in the air traffic industry. Fruhen et al. (2019) further addressed that how perceptions of management safety commitment (affective, normative, calculative commitments) are created by leaders. ...
Safety commitment is a key factor determining the stability of miners' safe behavior. This study explored safety commitments from the perspective of personnel traits and social networks, extending previous studies on single individual safety commitments. A case survey of social networks, personality traits, and the safety commitment level of six workgroups from coal mining enterprises in China was conducted. The findings demonstrate that: (1) Workgroups exhibited “external occlusion”, and key connecting nodes and the core nodes of each group showed an aggregation of nodes with more openness and conscientiousness. (2) With regard to the network density, a positive relationship exists between network density and safety commitment for groups in the same sub-units; likewise, there are obvious correlations among parts of network parameters and safety commitments, as well as personality traits. (3) The opinion leaders’ commitment to safety reflects that of their workgroup. Meanwhile, when opinion leaders and group chiefs are not the same people, the safety commitment of opinion leaders is higher than that of group chiefs. (4) Homogeneous clusters and heterogeneous clusters of subgroups exist in workgroups and there is a consistent relationship between the safety characteristics of cluster subgroups and the safety commitment level of the whole workgroup. This study extends the theoretical foundation of safety commitments from the perspective of micro-networks and provides a practical inspiration for overcoming inefficient safety management and effectively promoting safety performance in coal companies.
... Numerous researchers have noted that the greatest determinants of safety-related behaviors for task performance are safety knowledge, skills and motivation [20][21][22]. However, the majority of previous research studies have directly studied the relationships between individual differences (e.g., safety attitudes and personality traits) and safety-related behaviors without considering mediating variables such as safety knowledge and safety motivation [2,23]. ...
... The safety leadership factor is a group-level factor that can impact the individual level and safety performance [24]. For instance, effective safety leadership behavior can positively impact safety performance through discussions of safety issues with workers and by providing valuable guidance and direction for a safe workplace [22,24]. The proactive and visible safety behavior of leaders leads to improved workforce safety performance in terms of compliance with rules and regulations and participation in safety trainings and meetings [26,27]. ...
Poor safety conditions and performance are consequences of individual factors as well as organizational and group factors. However, little attention has been afforded to the sequential impact of these factors on safety-related behaviors (compliance and participation) in the Saudi Arabian electrical construction industry. This study examines the causal effects of leadership and attitudes on safety compliance and participation mediated by motivation and knowledge. The research collected 636 surveys in electrical construction projects for nine large contractors between November 2018 and July 2019 in Saudi Arabia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to determine the mechanism by which leadership and attitudes affected safety compliance and participation through motivation and knowledge. The results indicate that safety leadership and attitude factors as well as their interactions predicted safety motivation and knowledge. Additionally, these factors affected safety participation and compliance via workers’ motivation and knowledge. Safety motivation and safety knowledge positively affected workers’ participation and compliance. Management should encourage and regularly assess effective leadership and attitudes and developing motivation and knowledge among employees can improve organizations’ safety-related behavior performance.
... The special focus is on the managers' commitment to safety since it has been recognized as particularly important. It can be reflected in different ways, including in the adoption and implementation of safety policies, decision making, active involvement, and in the way that managers are able to interact and communicate with employees (Fruhen et al., 2014). In safety research, managers' commitment to safety is usually studied as a unidimensional concept. ...
... Second, we propose that future research should focus on the managerial side and try to understand managers' commitment to safety from their perspective. Since that a large part of the safety commitment research has been focused on the employees' perception of managers' commitment to safety, there is a shortage of research that would directly address how managers demonstrate commitment (Fruhen et al., 2014); which tasks support demonstration (Kantola et al., 2017); how managers experience their safety commitment (Fruhen et al., 2019); or what can actually shape managers commitment (Tappura et al., 2017). ...
... For example, top managers, who create the company's policies and exercise the authority to designate resources, are the key to the successful implementation of SMS (Tappura et al., 2017). It seems that such implementation cannot be successful unless the top management launches the implementation of safety management, shows a high commitment towards safety, and remains supportive by encouraging a safety culture in the company (Fruhen et al., 2014). As such, in addition to SMS, developing a safety climate is necessary to improve safety performance. ...
... The interaction effect of management commitment to safety and SMS on safety performance was not supported. This result is surprising, as many studies have found management safety commitment to be one of the main drivers of safety performance (e.g., Fruhen et al., 2014;Al-Refaie, 2013). Recall that 97.7% of companies in this study are large or medium companies and subcontractors implement a large proportion of the projects in large companies. ...
... The need for more formal training for managers is consistent with the published literature [43]. The results of this study identified that the managers who participated in the focus groups possessed only a rudimentary understanding of their health and safety obligations. ...
To minimise the occurrence of injuries, illnesses and deaths due to work-related causes, it is important to have effective workplace health safety legislation that is known and used. The introduction of more stringent workplace health and safety legislation across Australia has brought greater responsibility, and harsher penalties, for managers. The importance of the role those in management play in influencing and shaping a culture of safety is well researched, but little has been done to determine whether those in management are ready to assume that role. This study aimed to identify what has informed Western Australian construction industry managers who are working within the mining sector and ultimately shaped their approach to occupational health and safety. NVivo software was used to analyse the data by the creation of codes and subcodes to identify themes and subthemes. Analysis of two focus groups’ participants’ responses identified that many managers had insufficient work health and safety education to understand their obligations and that other challenges include insufficient preparedness of managers, particularly newly promoted supervisors and other management staff, rapid promotion, and the bureaucracy of modern workplace health and safety. The findings from this study can assist organisations to better prepare managers to fulfil their workplace health and safety obligations and reduce some of the post-harmonisation challenges.
... Safety knowledge refers to workers' understanding and awareness of how to do work safely, including knowledge of safety equipment, standard work procedures, health and safety in the workplace, and hazards and precautions to reduce these hazards (Fruhen et al., 2014). Research conducted by Beus et al. (2010) examined the relationship between safety leadership and worker attitudes towards safety-related behavior through safety motivation and safety knowledge. ...
The Mine Technical Head, known as Kepala Teknik Tambang (KTT) in Indonesian, holds the highest position in mining operations and is responsible for the safety of all workers within the operational area. This includes the safety supervision of mining contractor workers as project executors. Many studies on safety leadership focus on the relationship between leaders and subordinates within an organizational structure. However, research needs to study the influence of project owners' safety leadership on their contractor workers, especially in the Indonesian mining industry. This study aims to fill this gap by assessing the impact of the KTT's safety leadership as a mining project owner on the safety behavior of heavy equipment operators employed by contractors. This research was conducted by randomly distributing questionnaires to heavy equipment operators who work with different contractors. Analyzing data from 347 respondents using the Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) method, the results indicate a direct positive influence of the KTT's safety leadership on the safety behavior of heavy equipment operators even though the relationship is not within the same organizational structure. Safety Knowledge as a mediating variable does not change the results of the study, so it is classified as a partial mediator.
... Specifically, the central terms discovered in this topic include "leadership, management, performance, behavior, risk, role, environment, people, learning, challenge." These words bear a significant connection to the education, training, and evaluations organizations carry out for their employees (Elke and Zimolong, 2005;Fruhen et al., 2014;Malik et al., 2010;Newman et al., 2020;Zhou et al., 2020). Particularly in the context of industrial training and education, elements such as employee behavior, roles, and the environment are essential. ...
Despite the recent advancement in safety competency research, existing literature reviews have been scattered across diverse fields and mostly examined the competency only within the boundary of an organization without considering the broader ecosystem. To address these existing gaps, our study conducted a comprehensive review where we identify and integrate the broader core competency essential for managers in managing technical/ physical workplace risks, managing employees' psychological experiences related to safety, and navigating the relationships and interactions with external stakeholders. To achieve this, we conducted a systematic literature review, analyzing publications from academic and practical fields spanning up to the year 2023, to derive the main components of the taxonomy of manager safety competency. Recognizing the expansive scope of safety competency, we extracted five key factors critical for industrial and occupational safety. These factors served as key components within the theoretical framework of safety competencies, especially for managers in industrial organizations. We applied these factors in our topic modeling analysis. This analysis identified the five core components of the manager safety competency model: 1) system management, 2) practice management, 3) stakeholder management, 4) interaction management, and 5) on-site risk assessment. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future research directions, are discussed.
... The difference is attributed to higher education; the industry helps its employees attain the knowledge and skills they need to accomplish their jobs. Employees who improve their skills through MBA education are expected to be fully involved in their work since they derive satisfaction from their higher educational qualifications (Fruhen et al., 2014). The MBA degree enhanced the employees' value to the industry and their labor market value. ...
In career advancement research, understanding the nuanced perceptions of promotability is crucial for both Industry Professionals and MBA students aspiring to navigate the professional landscape. The result of this study delves into the methodological nuances of comparing promotability perceptions between these two distinct cohorts, employing the permutation methods as a robust and effective technique, which confirmed the result of the T-test and Cohens d. The permutations method, a nonparametric approach, excels in situations where traditional parametric methods fall short, especially when dealing with small sample sizes and non-normal distributions. There were 31 students and 27 organizations involved in the study. The High Potential Employees (HiPos) is the theoretical framework used to examine the gap between the rating of Industry professionals and MBA students' self-rating. The researcher is interested in identifying the indicators with the widest gap. Learning agility and leadership spirit were the top two indicators with the most extensive positive difference, while turnover intention was the only indicator with a negative difference. Notably, turnover intention and job engagement were the two indicators with a significant statistical difference in rating between MBA students and Industry Professionals. Also, job engagement depicts the highest Cohen's d size comparison. The result of this study unravels the intricacies of the perceived promotability of MBA students based on their self-rating and the industry professionals' perceptions.
... First, we contribute to safety climate intervention studies by focusing on the role of managers in organization-level safety climate promotion. Managers make a crucial contribution to safety (Clarke, 1999;Fruhen et al., 2014;Michael et al., 2005), as they possess power (Bass, 2008) to shape the safety climate at the organizational level (Flin et al., 2000). Surprisingly, research on manager-based safety climate interventions has received little attention (Bronkhorst et al., 2018). ...
... Achieving great excellence in PSM within the organisation is dependent on strong management and leadership. A strong commitment behaviour will shape, focus and direct the organisation towards the desired process safety excellence [1,15,16]. ...
An effective safety leader is more than a job or position in an organisation. Safety leaders must understand and mitigate workplace risks and difficulties for themselves, their team and their organisation. One of the essential aspects of Process Safety Management (PSM) is that leaders and managers understand the qualities and safety behaviour of all chemicals utilised in the process. This paper emphasises that leaders and managers promote a positive safety culture by showing safety commitment; they have more influence to pave all activities while ensuring it is conducted safely within the organisation. Due to human characteristics, it may be challenging to obtain all ‘perfect’ leadership and management traits. But leadership is a skill that anyone can develop. Competency, empowerment, compliance, governance and dedication to safety are more important than leadership styles in a small organisation. The most exemplary leaders are articulate and can adapt their style to the situation.
... The most important feature of safety climate and the biggest predictor of safety outcomes has been identified as management safety priority, commitment, and competence [73], [74]. ...
The construction industry is vital to the EU economy. The sector employs 18 million people directly and accounts for around 9% of the EU's GDP. It also generates new jobs, stimulates economic growth, and gives solutions to social, environmental, and energy concerns. The European Commission's goal is to help the sector become more competitive, resource-efficient, and sustainable. The construction sector has been hit particularly hard by the financial and economic crisis. This work offers an overview of the profession of construction management and explores the academic and professional qualifications of a construction manager, as well as their duties. Specifically, the work focuses on the roles and responsibilities of a construction manager in the planning, design, calculation, estimation, and supervision of construction projects, taking into account aspects of project management and safety, technology, and legal and contractual requirements. The research utilizes a component of qualitative methods, including sent-out questionnaires with practising construction managers to explore the key issues facing the profession. The findings of this research have the potential to provide a more holistic understanding of the complexities of construction management work and to inform the strategies used to develop better-qualified and more effective construction managers. “Knowledge is the result of information integration through learning”. Knowledge is defined as “the set of facts, principles, beliefs, and practises relating to a particular field of labour or study.” Both abilities and competencies are based on factual and theoretical information; the distinction is in how this knowledge is implemented and put to use. As an example: Working as a "construction manager" necessitates the ability to combine engineering concepts with project management and people management skills. This application of knowledge and abilities occurs in a somewhat unpredictable environment where technical and organisational difficulties occur on a regular basis and solutions must be developed and deployed instantly - either by the construction site manager alone or through teamwork.
... Specifically, good leaders help nurses attain prior safety knowledge and be motivated to perform their work safely (Vatankhah, 2021;Vinodkumar & Bhasi, 2010). Effective safety leadership may positively influence nurses' safety knowledge when discussions pertaining to safety issues are reinforced with guidance, solutions, and valuable insights to create a safe working environment (Fruhen, Mearns, Flin, & Kirwan, 2014;Lu & Yang, 2010). Indeed, the linkage between safety leadership and safety knowledge has been well established in earlier studies (see Clarke, 2013;Dartey-Baah & Addo, 2018;Jiang & Probst, 2016). ...
Introduction:
This paper investigates the relationships among safety leadership, safety motivation, safety knowledge, and safety behavior in the setting of a tertiary hospital in Klang Valley, Malaysia.
Method:
Underpinned by the self-efficacy theory, we argue that high-quality safety leadership enhances nurses' safety knowledge and motivation and subsequently, improves their safety behavior (safety compliance and safety participation). A total of 332 questionnaire responses were gathered and analyzed using SmartPLS Version 3.2.9, revealing the direct effect of safety leadership on both safety knowledge and safety motivation.
Results:
Safety knowledge and safety motivation were found to directly and significantly predict nurses' safety behavior. Notably, safety knowledge and safety motivation were established as important mediators in the relationship between safety leadership and nurses' safety compliance and participation.
Practical applications:
The findings of this study offer key guidance for safety researchers and hospital practitioners in identifying mechanisms to enhance safety behavior among nurses.
... For example, senior managers, who create the company's policies and use their authority to determine resources, play a pivotal role in the successful implementation of a SMS (Tappura et al., 2017). Unless senior management initiates safe management practices, prioritizes safety, shows a high commitment and promotes and supports a safety culture in the company, it seems that such implementation will not yield fruitful results (Fruhen et al., 2014). So as to prevent accidents and enhance workplace safety, many researchers came up with various factors such as the DOC (document of compliance) received by ship businesses successfully implementing their SMS, and SMC (safety management certificate) received by ships, risk assessment, emergency response, communication and reporting (Basso et al., 2004;Kim et al., 2019). ...
The sustainability of maritime trade and the marine environment is related to the safe management and operation of ships. Thus, ISM Code was enforced to ensure the safety management and operation of ships and prevent sea pollution. This study seeks to reveal the importance levels of the factors determining the effectiveness of the ISM Code and to identify their causal relationships. Through the fuzzy DEMATEL method to examine the data obtained from safety and quality experts, and seafarers, it aims to analyze whether the effectiveness of the ISM Code differs by ship types and land-based personnel and seafarers. All participants consider “management’s efforts to strengthen the ISM system” (C2) as the most important factor. Moreover, this study reveals that the factors of “management’s safety priority and commitment” (C1) and (C2) that determine the effectiveness of the ISM system are in the group of affecting factors. Identifying the factors increasing the effectiveness of the ISM Code, and revealing their causal relationships, this study adds to the literature. This study is important as it explores the need of managements to prioritize safety, to strengthen commitment and systems for an effective ISM Code, ensuring safe management of ships, and prevention of sea pollution.
... 26). According to Fruhen et al. [9] evaluation, the behaviours of senior level management did demonstrate safety commitment towards the workforce. The senior-level managers' strong safety commitment is reflected in their competent engagement in workplace problem-solving activities, as well as showing a personal understanding of employee intentions. ...
In line with the 2020 Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Master Plan, a continuous proactive commitment from the university's management is called for to ensure that its campus community can enjoy working in an environment that is mutually trusting, happy, productive, and safe. This study investigates the managementcommitment of several local universities through the eyes of its students and staff totalling 221 respondents. Assessment of the three regression models found Management Commitment significantly mediating the Behavioral and Personal Compliance relationship. This increased Management Commitment level subsequently pushes the average agreement level that the students and staff have for Personal Compliance. That management commitment has a mediating role to play in the interaction of these variables in the university environment confirms the Social Exchange Theory, where the students and staff would give back to the university what they have taken as a token of appreciation for top management's effort at looking after their well-being. This study implicates management commitment as a critical component for achieving safety, health, and well-being of every employee under its charge. Upholding OSH reflects an acceptance of all the priorities set out in the master plan that will nurture a working environment that cares about safety and health.
... Within workplaces, influence behavior can be differentiated according to the direction of influence (i.e., downward, lateral, and upward (Lee et al., 2017). While safety professionals (the agent) may influence in all directions, this current study focuses on upward influence, since safety research has established that the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of managers (the target) are of particular importance for safety performance (Tappura et al., 2017;Fruhen et al., 2014;Hale et al., 2010). It follows then, that the ability of safety professionals to influence upwards and gain management commitment is essential https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2022.02.012 0022-4375/Ó 2022 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. ...
Introduction:
The ability to influence upwards and gain management commitment has been identified as an essential capability for safety professionals, yet little is known about managers' perceptions of their subordinates use and effectiveness of influence tactics. This study utilizes intra-organizational influence theory to explore how safety professionals influence managers who are making important safety decisions.
Method:
Survey data were collected from managers (n = 145) on influence tactics used by safety professionals, perceived outcomes, and factors that promote and impede influence. Survey data from a previous study of safety professionals (n = 385) were used to compare the differences in perceptions between the two groups.
Results:
Managers perceive that the use of influence tactics provides explanation for safety professionals' effectiveness, with rational persuasion being positively associated with influencing effectiveness, and personal appeals and legitimating being negatively associated with effectiveness. Certain factors (i.e., knowledge, understanding organizational context, interpersonal skills, and experience) were more frequently perceived by managers to enable influence, while others were more frequently reported as barriers (i.e., organizational culture, safety beliefs, and leadership styles of managers). Managers and safety professionals agreed on many of these findings, although safety professionals reported a broader range of tactics as being effective than did managers.
Conclusions:
This study provides important contributions to understanding the upward influence behavior of safety professionals, and to our knowledge is the first study to report this behavior from the perspective of managers.
Practical applications:
These findings may prompt safety professionals to reflect on current tactic usage and associated efficacy from managers' perspectives. Safety professionals should also consider the culture of the organization, safety beliefs, and the leadership style of managers prior to influencing, as these factors may negatively impact influencing outcomes. Developing knowledge and skills in both technical and non-technical domains may enhance the strategic influence of safety professionals.
... Research has also found that leadership is significantly related to safety motivation and significantly affects safety compliance and safety participation [13]. There is a relationship between leadership and safety-related behaviours (compliance and participation) [29,30]. The principle of equity in social exchange theory means that individuals must conduct internal cost-benefit analyses before participating in a social exchange [31]. ...
Leadership behavior has an impact on the behavior of employees. Previous studies have mainly studied the impact of positive leadership behaviors on employees’ behaviors, but there is an absence of research on the impact of negative leadership behaviours (abusive supervision) on safety behaviours (including safety participation and safety compliance). In this study, 599 front-line employees in the petrochemical industry were selected as subjects. Abusive supervision, safety behaviour, safety motivation and a conscientiousness questionnaire were used as measurements to explore the relationship between abusive supervision and employee safety behaviors, and to further explore the roles of safety motivation, conscientiousness and the relationship between them. This study found that abusive supervision is negatively related to employee safety behaviours (safety compliance and safety participation); that safety motivation plays a mediating role in the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ safety behavior; and that conscientiousness moderates the role of safety motivation between the relationship of abusive supervision and employees’ safety behaviour. With a higher level of conscientiousness, the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and employee safety behaviours is weaker. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical significance of these findings for abusive supervision and the management of safety behaviours.
... Along with management commitment, leadership has one of the most significant impacts on OHS performance (24). OHSMSs are more likely to be effective when managed by leaders who demonstrate various qualities (eg trust, honesty, fairness, empowerment, integrity) in a consistent and disciplined manner (25). ...
Considering the recent publication of the AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018 standard on occupational health & safety (OHS) management systems, this study investigated whether the content of the new standard suggests an evolution in safety thinking and practice from the previous regional standard AS/NZS 4801:2001. Following a comparative analysis between the 2 standards, the results showed that context, management commitment and leadership, workplace participation and engagement, staff development, integrated risk-based management, continual improvement and culture comprise areas newly introduced, enriched or especially highlighted in the new standard. Although the importance of all the themes above is supported by literature, which views them as critical aspects of OHS management, field research is necessary on the realisation of the combined benefits those themes promise through the implementation of AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018.
... Safety knowledge includes safety facts, information, an understanding of theory and practice, and knowledge of safety experience, background, and education (Fruhen et al. 2014). Yu (2013) identifies three types of safety knowledge: operational skills, knowledge to identify potential hazards, and knowledge to make timely decisions when employees identify these hazards. ...
The construction industry is notorious for its high accident and workplace injury rates. High rates of construction workplace injuries, including fatalities, occur worldwide in both developed and developing nations. Our study examines the effects of safety behavior and physiological perceived control (PPC) on the relationship between safety knowledge and outcomes. We examined this relationship by focusing on the mediating role of safety behavior and the moderating role of PPC. We employed a time-lagged design to collect data. Field survey results from 385 site workers from construction sites in the Yangtze region of China show that safety behavior mediated the positive relationship between safety knowledge and outcomes. Furthermore, PPC strengthens the relationship between safety knowledge and safety behavior. The results indicate that workers’ safety knowledge may not transform into expected safety behavior and performance if they experience low levels of PPC. These findings provide new insights into levels of PPC as a boundary condition for understanding the relationships among safety knowledge, safety behavior, and safety outcomes. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
... Managers' attitude towards safety may have a positive impact on the safety culture of the whole organisation. Safety-related attitudes relate to the beliefs and views in the context of safety (Fruhen, et al., 2014a(Fruhen, et al., , 2014bNeal & Griffin, 2006;Rundmo & Hale, 2003;Zhang, Chen, Fu, Yan, & Kim, 2016). They have been studies as predictors of different types of behaviours (using either self-report scales or response-time measures), particularly in relation to compliance with safety procedures (Bohner & Dickel, 2010;Neal & Griffin, 2004). ...
Even if enhancing safety remains a key challenge in civil aviation, safety research has mainly focussed on front line operators, senior managers and safety managers. This paper aims to shed light on the middle managers, more specifically on the overall context that influences their contribution to safety in their daily operations, and the challenges they face. Over a two-year period, extensive field research was undertaken involving six sector organisations, and overall forty-three middle managers. Interviews were conducted to capture the participants’ views and experiences in embedding safety-related aspects in their daily activities and actions. A data-driven approach was used to support the emergence of recurring codes/themes that could describe the conditions the middle managers face in their organisations, and explain how the specific factors interplay and impact on their action. NVivo, with its tools, supported the entire research process (data storage, codification, both qualitatively and quantitatively descriptive analysis at code level, and explanatory analysis at codes-relationship level). Our results suggest a number of conditions/dimensions (internal and external to the organisation) that interplay to either support or hinder the middle managers’ contribution to safety. This contribution is translated in practices (i.e. strategies and actions that the middle managers apply to support safety-related outcomes) modulated by a certain ‘mindset’ that each middle manager possesses as a result of past experiences, background education and view on the role of a manager. These aspects are interrelated not only with the middle managers’ safety-related practices directly, but also with one another. To understand management contribution to safety, and what may promote or hinder it, one should adopt a systemic view combining individual, organisational, external aspects and their interrelations.
... There is also evidence of its importance in acquiring knowledge and skills to perform work more safely (Aluko et al., 2016). In turn, the level of OSH knowledge has been related to the level of risk perception (Fruhen et al., 2014;Rundmo & Hale, 2003) and to safety compliance (Griffin & Neal, 2000). However, according to Hora et al. (2003) and Kwon & Kim (2013), OSH knowledge alone is not enough to lead to behavioural change. ...
Safety and health training is an essential tool to reduce occupational accidents and diseases. However, the method applied is critical for the effect of a training programme in Occupational Safety & Health (OSH) related outcomes. Additionally, studies about the appropriateness of OSH training methods involving small-sized enterprises are scarce. This study aims to compare the effect of two training methods when applied in metalworking small-sized enterprises: an active method, with group discussion, and an expository method, with formal exposure. The effect of these two methods was assessed at the level of risk perception (perceptions of susceptibility, severity, barriers and benefits), safety behaviour (safety compliance and safety participation) and OSH knowledge. A sample of 212 workers was divided in three groups: one experimental group and two control groups (passive and active). In order to evaluate the effect of safety and health training in the different dependent variables, a questionnaire was applied before and one month after the training sessions. The results showed that safety and health training had a positive, but limited, effect on the variables under study. Significant differences were found between both moments for perception of susceptibility and OSH knowledge. However, no significant differences between both training methods after the intervention were observed in this study.
... One of these key organizational factors is management commitment to safety and health, which can be defined as the extent to which senior management demonstrates a positive and supportive safety attitude toward their employees' safety (Amponsah-Tawiah & Mensah, 2016). Similar to what existing meta-analyses have shown, management commitment is one of the most influential organizational factors related to safety performances and injuries (Beus, Payne, Bergman, & Arthur, 2010;Christian et al., 2009;Fruhen, Mearns, Flin, & Kirwan, 2014). This is because the management's explicit commitment to safety sets the tone and direction for middle management, as well as for employees in indicating the seriousness of prioritizing safety. ...
One major gap in existing health communication research is that few studies have synthesized findings from the literature to map out what are the key factors related to workplace (a) safety awareness, (b) safety risks, (c) health awareness, and (d) health risks. This study bridges the gap by systematically reviewing what these organizational, cultural, and individual-level factors are, and examine the impact of workplace safety and health publications using traditional and alternative metrics in academic and nonacademic settings. Through an iterative process of coding, the results revealed six categories of organizational (management commitment, management support, organizational safety communication, safety management systems, physical work environment, and organizational environment), two cultural (interpersonal support and organizational culture), and four individual-level (perception, motivation, attitude, and behavior) factors. In terms of impact, articles that were most impactful in academia (e.g.,
high citation count) may not necessarily receive the same amount of online attention from the public. Theoretical and practical implications for health communication were discussed.
... Safety knowledge is the knowledge and skill for safe operation that operators must possess, including the ability to identify potential safety hazards and make timely decisions in the usual sense (Yu, 2013). Safety knowledge includes safe facts and information, theory and understanding in practice, as well as safety experience, background and awareness gained from education (Fruhen et al., 2014). Safety knowledge is considered to be an important variable affecting employee safety behavior (Campbell, 1996;Yagil, 2000;Choudhry and Fang, 2008;Christian et al., 2009), which has been studied by many scholars, but few scholars have focused on the impact of safety knowledge on UBP. ...
This study aims to explore the causes of unsafe behavior propagation (UBP) and then control the spread and prevalence of unsafe behavior in miners’ social networks. Based on social learning theory, this study built a hypothetical model of correlation between safety atmosphere, safety knowledge, influence degree of key figures, and UBP. We administered an empirical study of an effective questionnaire from 433 miners in coal mines via structural equation modeling. The results showed that safety knowledge played a mediating role in the process of UBP influenced by safety atmosphere, and the influence degree of key figures also mediated the relationship between safety knowledge and UBP. Furthermore, the relation between safety atmosphere and UBP was sequentially mediated by safety knowledge and influence degree of key figures. Our research results provided new theoretical and methodological support for intervening in miners’ unsafe behavior.
... The literature in field has often highlighted the role played by top managers/CEO in running their businesses profitably, and -at the same time -keeping them safe from threats (Makins et al., 2016). This includes the resources and commitment that both top managers and the overall organisation put in place to support safety management and improvements (Fruhen et al., 2014a(Fruhen et al., , 2014bTappura et al., 2017;Zuofa and Ocheing, 2017;Zwetsloot et al., 2017). ...
Mindful organising is a key integrating concept in resolving the organisational accident. Mindful organising is both the unique source of critical information about the normal operation, as well as the key recipient of intelligence about the operation, ensuring that operational actions are always informed by the most current, relevant information about potential risks no matter how remote. However, the mindful organising construct has never been operationalised as a practical and effective approach for complex ultra-safe systems. Within the Future Sky Safety programme the construct has been reworked to reinforce the idea that mindful organising is more than just a state of mind. It is about the gathering and flow of information to ensure awareness and appropriate action, both at the operational level and amongst middle management in ensuring improvements are effectively implemented. A novel model has been advanced which provides an organisational context for its implementation, based on the behavioural-economic principle that being well informed about an issue, having an effective and practical solution and being accountable, creates a compelling obligation to act in an appropriate manner. It is suggested how the operationalisation of this model could be supported through a set of generic prototype software applications. The potential applicability of this approach covers not only all sectors of aviation, but also all industries that carry a significant operational risk, including other transport modes, health and social care, emergency services and financial services.
... 26). According to Fruhen et al. [9] evaluation, the behaviours of senior level management did demonstrate safety commitment towards the workforce. The senior-level managers' strong safety commitment is reflected in their competent engagement in workplace problem-solving activities, as well as showing a personal understanding of employee intentions. ...
In line with the 2020 Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Master Plan, a continuous proactive commitment from the university's management is called for to ensure that its campus community can enjoy working in an environment that is mutually trusting, happy, productive, and safe. This study investigates the management commitment of several local universities through the eyes of its students and staff totalling 221 respondents. Assessment of the three regression models found Management Commitment significantly mediating the Behavioral and Personal Compliance relationship. This increased Management Commitment level subsequently pushes the average agreement level that the students and staff have for Personal Compliance. That management commitment has a mediating role to play in the interaction of these variables in the university environment confirms the Social Exchange Theory, where the students and staff would give back to the university what they have taken as a token of appreciation for top management's effort at looking after their well-being. This study implicates management commitment as a critical component for achieving safety, health, and well-being of every employee under its charge. Upholding OSH reflects an acceptance of all the priorities set out in the master plan that will nurture a working environment that cares about safety and health.
Ground handling companies (GHCs) have the highest potential for occupational accidents in the air transportation sector. Understanding the success factors of occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMSs) implemented by GHCs ensures effective and efficient use of resources. Knowing the relative importance of success factors will enable companies to focus their energies on the most important factors. The analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the relative importance of success factors. The data of the study were obtained through a questionnaire survey of participants working as occupational safety and health (OSH) managers in GHCs operating in Turkey. According to the results of the study, the most critical success factor is 'top management support', followed by 'positive safety culture'. The differentiating result of the research from the literature is that 'OSH professionals' ranks third as an important success factor. Other success factors include 'OHSMS practices', 'stakeholder attitudes and characteristics' and 'regulations'.
Having a higher educational level has been proposed to reduce workers’ unsafe behavior. It remains unclear whether the improvement in safety performance can be enhanced by workers with higher education levels, an individual’s learning ability, and a resilient safety culture. This study aims to examine the moderating effects of individual learning ability and resilient safety culture on the relationship between workers’ educational level and safety performance. A questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the education level, resilience safety culture, safety learning ability, and safety performance of workers. The results indicated that the educational level of construction workers has a significant positive impact on safety performance. They confirmed that an individual’s learning ability and a resilient safety culture have a positive moderating effect. This study supports the crucial relationship between worker education levels and safety performance. Thus, organizations and government entities can leverage this understanding to promote worker engagement in training programs and extend educational support. The study underscores the pivotal role of a resilient safety culture in bolstering the impact of worker educational level on safety performance. Finally, the study acknowledges the influence of an individual’s learning ability on safety performance. Integrating educational levels with individual learning abilities can facilitate the development of targeted strategies to improve safety performance.
There is need to develop occupational health and safety drivers that would improve occupational health and safety performance management, for small-scale contractors. This need is also significant for project stakeholders such as government agencies, clients, professionals and financiers. According to studies, these stakeholders in Zambia devote less attention to have drivers and indicators for occupational health and safety performance. After a thorough review of literature on the drivers to improved occupational health and safety performance management, the Delphi study was adopted as a methodology to establish consensus of the drivers among professionals. A structured 10-point Likert scale of influence questionnaire was developed as a measuring instrument. The questionnaire was administered to professionals with adequate experience and knowledge on occupational health and safety performance management in the electricity industry. Findings indicated that management strategy, finance, employee involvement, hazard identification and management, training and promotion, actions for improvement, employee wellbeing and government provision of occupational health and safety services are crucial to achieving goals and objectives for efficient occupational health and safety performance management. The developed drivers were found to be workable, adaptable, and capable of improving health and safety performance management for small-scale contractors and stakeholders in Zambia.
KeywordsDriversOccupational health and safetyPerformance managementSmall-scale contractorsZambia
Purpose: In recent years, safety has become an important issue in developing countries and has attracted much attention from many organizations. In this regard, the present study aims to investigate the effect of organizational culture on safety performance in the regional electricity distribution organization in Gilan province.
Methods: The present research is an applied descriptive study. The statistical population of the research included 1311 employees of regional electricity distribution organization of Gilan province, 286 of whom were chosen as the sample through random sampling method and the required data were collected using the questionnaire. After examining the validity (content) and reliability of the questionnaire, the research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling method and based on Smart PLS2 software.
Result: The findings show that (1) management commitment culture to safety on creating a safe work environment, (2) creating a safe work environment on concurrent engineering, (3) creating a safe work environment to design-for-safety and (4) design-for-safety on safety performance, have a significant effect. However, the effect of concurrent engineering on safety performance was not confirmed. The results also indicate that the model variables explain 73.9% of safety performance variations.
Conclusions: The results can be used as a suitable procedure to explain the safety performance of employees of regional electricity organization in Gilan province. In addition, they provide a situation for managers to develop policies to improve safety performance by promoting predictive variables.
Occupational safety and health measures must be applied by every industry that has at least 100 workers and industries that have a high risk of danger in their work environment. This research aims to examine the influence of a typical leadership style in Indonesia, namely paternalistic leadership, on the safety behavior of employees in the workplace via trust in the supervisor as the mediator refers to social identity theory. Trust in supervisors is conceptualized as separate dimensions of affective trust and cognitive trust. The data were taken using convenience sampling using online survey research conducted in various Indonesian industrial sectors with a high risk of work accidents (N = 300). Data were analyzed using Hayes’ PROCESS macro ver 3.5.3 on SPSS ver. 26. Results showed that affective trust did not mediate the relationship between paternalistic leadership and safety behavior, but cognitive trust mediated the relationship. Results also showed that affective trust and cognitive trust consecutively mediated the relationship between paternalistic leadership and safety behavior
The article explores the question of the influence of the use of mobile banking on the activities and skills required by the account managers. A qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 35 account managers in 3 Tunisian banks and 3 Romanian banks is adopted. The results show that the customers' use of online banking has not a substantial impact on account manager's job in Romanian banks. Contrariwise, some Tunisian account managers claim that the emergence of online banking requires the development of the « stress management skill ».
The construction sector is always considered critical as it accounts to majority of deaths, although all safety aids are planted in a multi-dimensional pattern. In 2015, construction was ranked as the highest death toll, accounting for about 20% of deaths at work. The key strategy that can be effective in minimizing this large number of deaths is the need to regularly provide adequate training programs and to spread awareness on safety at work and workers’ health. Safe working practices are primarily taken over by large companies or a whole construction industry. The size of the company reflects the mind-set of its employees in understanding behavioral safety and safe work practices, with very few construction companies trying to capture health and safety of employee as important to the organization’s productivity. In this paper, an effort has been made for overcoming the obstacles hindering the poor construction safety and an emphasis is laid on suggesting its mitigation measures. The language barrier and poor competency of the worker are indicators of inadequate training provided by management. Such incompetent workers if involved in construction may endanger the safe working culture, and also, they pave the way for hazards involved in construction sites, which has a huge impact on success and safety. In this paper, an attempt has been made to enlist the mitigation measures for the above-described problems.
Dijital devrim, çok sayıda olumlu gelişmeye ve fırsata yol açan ve birçok sektörde işin niteliğini değiştirmeye devam eden “Gig ekonomisi” nin büyümesini kolaylaştırmıştır. Gig Ekonomisi, “kalıcı işlerin aksine, kısa süreli sözleşmelerin veya freelance işlerin yaygınlığı ile karakterize edilen dijital bir işgücü piyasasıdır”. Gig ekonomisi platformları, çalışanlara ultra geçici esneklik sağlayarak, çalışma gününün her bir saatini ve dakikasını nasıl geçirecekleri konusunda tam bir özgürlük sunmaktadır. Bu platformlar, firmaların, ihtiyaç duydukları çalışanları küresel bir işgücü havuzundan bulmasını kolaylaştırmakta ve freelance çalışanların becerilerini ortaya koyması için fırsat yaratmaktadır.
Feelance çalışma, kendi hesabına çalışma biçimi olarak görülmekle birlikte yeni dünyanın şekillendirdiği üretim ilişkileri temelinde kendine has özelliklere de sahiptir. Bu nedenle salt kendi hesabına çalışmadır denilemeyeceği gibi kendi hesabına çalışmadan da ayrı bir yere konulması doğru değildir.
Bu bağlamda yeni tip işgücünü ve yeni çalışma ortamlarını kapsayan "gig" ekonomisinin yükselişi, bazıları tarafından yeni girişimci jenerasyonun isteklerine karşılık verdiği için övgüyle ele alınırken, bu yükselişe endişe ile yaklaşanlar tarafından, güvencesizliğin artması, ücretlerin düşürülmesi ve sosyal hakların kaybı olarak görülmektedir. Bu açıdan freelance çalışma, iki yüzlü Roma tanrısı olan Janus ile tasvir edilmektedir. Janus, bir yüzü sağa, bir yüzü sola bakan iki yüzü olan bir tandırıdır. Freelance çalışmanın bir yüzü dijital teknolojileri en etkili biçimde kullanan yeni işgücünün sahip olmak istediği özgürlük, özerklik, girişimcilik kavramlarını tasvir ederken, diğer yüzü güvencesizliği ifade etmektedir.
Çalışmanın amacı, litearürde yer alan Gig ekonomisi ve freelance çalışma kavramlarını açıklayarak dünyanın en büyük kitle kaynak kullanım platformlarından biri olan freelancer.com platformu üzerinden değerlendirme yapmaktır
Effects of the use of mobile technologies by customers on the business of account managers in banks
The use of end devices encourages companies to make changes, which influences the business lines and, consequently, the knowledge and skills required of staff. This article explores the impact of the use of mobile technologies by customers on the activities and skills required of account managers in banks. A qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 9 account managers and 2 heads of agencies of a leading bank in the Tunisian market is adopted. The results show that the use of mobile technologies by customers has no substantial effect on account managers.
Relatively few studies have investigated the safety awareness and behavior that were substantially influenced by the characteristics of safety communication. It is very important to comprehend what kind of attributes play a role in adequate safety information flow in a communication network. For these reasons, the current study aimed to explore the effectiveness of safety communication on safety awareness and behavior. The data were collected by performing interviews with employees of teams at the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, located in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. A social network analysis (SNA) was applied to visualize the pattern of the safety communication network and calculate the typical SNA metrics such as density, tie strength, betweenness and degree centrality. In addition, the number of communication channels was also considered as a crucial differentiator between teams. Then, a correlation analysis was applied to investigate the impact of calculated SNA metrics on safety awareness and behavior. As a result, density, tie strength, degree centrality and the channel variety showed a direct influence on safety awareness and behavior. Conversely, betweenness centrality was not an active metric. This study demonstrated that raising the level of SNA metrics such as density, tie strength and degree centrality, and using various channels to communicate safety information within teams could support better safety awareness and behavior.
Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others in starting new ventures? Previous efforts to answer this question have generally focused either on the personality traits or susceptibility to various cognitive errors of individual entrepreneurs, or on such external factors as the number of competing businesses. We suggest that entrepreneurs" social skills-specific competencies that help them interact effectively with others-may also play a role in their success. A high level of social capital, built on a favorable reputation, relevant previous experience, and direct persona/contacts, often assists entrepreneurs in gaining access to venture capitalists, potential customers, and others. Once such access is gained, the nature of the entrepreneurs" face-to-face interactions can strongly influence their success. Specific social skills, such as the ability to read others accurately, make favorable first impressions, adapt to a wide range of social situations, and be persuasive, can influence the quality of these interactions. Moreover, by helping entrepreneurs expand their personal networks, social skills may also contribute to their social capital. Because social skills can readily be enhanced through appropriate training, entrepreneurs who take advantage of such opportunities may reap important benefits.
The present study proposed a theoretical division of cognitive-social intelligence into declarative and procedural social knowledge (crystallized social knowledge) and flexible knowledge application aspects (social-cognitive flexibility) distinct from academic problem solving. Pictorial, verbal, self-, and teacher report measures of social-cognitive flexibility, crystallized social knowledge, and academic problem solving were collected for 169 high school seniors (102 girls and 67 boys) in a multitrait-multimethod study. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the discriminability of social-cognitive flexibility from academic problem solving and crystallized social knowledge. Crystallized social knowledge was not discriminable from academic problem solving. Significant correlations between these factors and teacher reports of social behavior confirmed that flexible application of social knowledge is an important aspect of social competence.
The original work of Alex Osborn making the creative process more explicit, and the following 50 years of research and development on creative problem solving, have made an important and wide-spread contribution to those interested in the deliberate development of creative talent. This article provided a summary of the many versions of creative problem solving and the key scholarly issues underpinning their development for one main group of collaborators. Future research and development needs were also identified.
In content analysis and similar methods, data are typically generated by trained human observers who record or transcribe textual, pictorial, or audible matter in terms suitable for analysis. Conclusions from such data can be trusted only after demonstrating their reliability. Unfortunately, the content analysis literature is full of proposals for so-called reliability coefficients, leaving investigators easily confused, not knowing which to choose. After describing the criteria for a good measure of reliability, we propose Krippendorff's alpha as the standard reliability measure. It is general in that it can be used regardless of the number of observers, levels of measurement, sample sizes, and presence or absence of missing data. To facilitate the adoption of this recommendation, we describe a freely available macro written for SPSS and SAS to calculate Krippendorff's alpha and illustrate its use with a simple example.
Successful interaction across cultures requires cultural intelligence. Several aspects of cultural intelligence in organizations are described: suspending judgment until enough information about the other person becomes available; paying attention to the situation; cross-cultural training that increases isomorphic attributions, appropriate affect, and appropriate behaviors; matching personal and organizationally attributes; increasing the probability of appropriate organizational practices.
This study involved analysis of incidents describing influence attempts from the perspective of an agent or a target. Influence behavior in the incidents was coded into nine influence tactics. A conceptual framework was presented to explain the selection and sequencing of tactics, and the model was used to derive specific hypotheses for individual tactics. Analysis of tactic combinations revealed that some tactics were used together much more often than others. Consistent with the model, some tactics were used more in initial influence attempts, and other tactics were used more in follow-up influence attempts. Differences in the use of tactics with subordinates, peers, and superiors were also consistent with the model, and the results verified directional differences found in earlier research with questionnaires.
It is argued that the question over whether top-level leadership significantly affects organizationalperformance can be clarified by properly interpreting the results of executive succession studies that have used economic aspects of organizational performance as criteria. When several methodological concerns are addressed, it is evident that executive leadership can explain as much as 45% of an organization's performance. In order to more fully understand how upperlevel leaders affect organizational performance, we propose that a theory of executive leadership be developed. Guidelines are providedfor developing such a theory. Specifically, problems to avoid, methodologies to consider, and places to look for relevant theory are discussed.
Investigates whether emotional intelligence measured by the Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test predicted transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles measured by the multifactor leadership questionnaire in 110 senior level managers. Effective leaders were identified as those who reported transformational rather than transactional behaviours. Emotional intelligence correlated highly with all components of transformational leadership, with the components of understanding of emotions (external) and emotional management the best predictors of this type of leadership style. The utility of emotional intelligence testing in leadership selection and development is discussed.
AIthough intraclass correlation coefficients (lCCs) are commonIy used in behavioral measurement, pychometrics, and behavioral genetics, procodures available for forming inferences about ICC are not widely known. Following a review of the distinction between various forms of the ICC, this article presents procedures available for calculating confidence intervals and conducting tests on ICCs developed using data from one-way and two-way random and mixed-efFect analysis of variance models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
From critical-incident analysis and judgments by subject-matter experts, a low-fidelity simulation was developed for selecting entry-level managers in the telecommunications industry. The simulation presents applicants with descriptions of work situations and five alternative responses for each situation. It asks them to select one response they would most likely make and one they would least likely make in each situation. In a sample of approximately 120 management incumbents, simulation scores correlated from .28 (
p
Commentary on an article by P. J. Silvia et al. (see record
2008-05954-001) which discusses the topic of divergent thinking. Although their findings appear reasonable, we have two key concerns with regard to these conclusions, 1) the strength of the available construct validity evidence, and 2) the substantive logic underlying the study. The next generation of measures should be applying a domain, strategy, process approach rather than the domain-free, output-based approach recommended by Silvia et al. (2008). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Whether you're a manager, company psychologist, quality control specialist, or involved with motivating people to work harder in any capacity—Locke and Latham's guide will hand you the keen insight and practical advice you need to reach even your toughest cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Researchers and practitioners have an abiding interest in improving tools and methods to support idea generation. In studies that go beyond merely enumerating ideas, researchers typically select one or more of the following three constructs, which are often operationalized as the dependent variable( s): 1) idea quality, 2) idea novelty, which is sometimes referred to as rarity or unusualness, and 3) idea creativity. It has been chronically problematic to compare findings across studies because these evaluation constructs have been variously defined and the constructs have been sampled in different ways. For example, some researchers term an idea 'creative' if it is novel, while others consider an idea to be creative only if it is also applicable, effective, and implementable. This paper examines 90 studies on creativity and idea generation. Within the creativity studies considered here, the novelty of ideas was always measured, but in some cases the ideas had to also meet additional requirements to be considered creative. Some studies that examined idea quality also assessed novelty, while others measured different quality attributes, such as effectiveness and implementability, instead. This paper describes a method for evaluating ideas with regard to four dimensions - novelty, workability, relevance, and specificity - and has identified two measurable sub-dimensions for each of the four main dimensions. An action-research approach was used to develop ordinal scales anchored by clearly differentiable descriptions for each sub-dimension. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed high loadings among the sub-dimensions that comprise each dimension as well as high discriminant validity between dimensions. Application of this method resulted in high inter-rater reliability even when the method was applied by different raters to different problems and to ideas produced by both manual methods and group support systems (GSS).
The article describes an approach of systematic, rule guided qualitative text analysis, which tries to preserve some methodological strengths of quantitative content analysis and widen them to a concept of qualitative procedure. First the development of content analysis is delineated and the basic principles are explained (units of analysis, step models, working with categories, validity and reliability). Then the central procedures of qualitative content analysis, inductive development of categories and deductive application of categories, are worked out. The possibilities of computer programs in supporting those qualitative steps of analysis are shown and the possibilities and limits of the approach are discussed. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0002204
The purpose of this review was to (a) overview prior knowledge research and its role in student performance, and (b) examine the effects of prior knowledge in relation to the method of assessment. We selected 183 articles, books, papers, and research reports related to prior knowledge. While prior knowledge generally had positive effects on students' performance, the effects varied by assessment method. More specifically, prior knowledge was more likely to have negative or no effects on performance when flawed assessment measures were used. However, in some studies, flawed methods yielded informative results. Thus, in educational research the implications of assessment measures must be considered when examining the effects of prior knowledge.
This analysis considers the impact of the top managers in an organization on the organization's outcomes, specifically strategic choices and performance levels. The focus is not on the chief executive alone, but rather on the entire top management team. Using a macro view, these organizational outcomes are perceived to be related to the values and cognitive bases of those high-power individuals in the organization. In developing the model, emphasis is on the background characteristics of the top managers as opposed to the psychological dimensions. A series of propositions that should be tested to support the upper echelons theory are presented. The topics of these propositions include age, functional track, other career experiences, education, socioeconomic roots, financial position, and group characteristics. The creation of this model is just the beginning of the work that is necessary to evaluate and understand the upper echelons theory. Further input is needed from areas such as the executive recruiting industry. Additionally, clinical and statistical studies are both necessary to fully develop this theory. (SRD)
A review of relevant research on successful occupational safety programs reveals a number of factors of particular consequence. Evidence of a strong management commitment to safety and of frequent, close contacts between workers, supervisors, and management on safety matters loom as the two most influential and dominant factors. Other relevant factors include workforce stability and personnel practices that promote such stability (i.e., well developed selection, job placement, and advancement procedures), stringent housekeeping and effective environmental controls, training emphases on early indoctrination and followup instruction, and special adaptation of conventional safety practices to enhance their suitability to the workplaces in question. Overall, it was suggested that maximally effective safety programs in industry will be dependent on those practices that can successfully deal with 'people' variables.
The central premise of upper echelons theory is that executives' experiences, values, and personalities greatly influence their interpretations of the situations they face and, in turn, affect their choices. At the invitation of the editor, I recap the AMR article in which the theory was originally presented (Hambrick & Mason, 1984), discuss subsequent refinements of the theory, and lay out several promising avenues for future upper echelons research.
Accumulated theories and research findings about the various attributes of groups and organizations that do creative problem solving (CPS) well, systems models of CPS activity that occurs in social settings, and efforts to measure and enhance joint CPS efforts are reviewed. Conclusions that can be drawn from this review about the nature of CPS and about the persons, groups, and organizations that do CPS well are discussed. A 'tri-level matching theory' is proposed as a way of integrating and explaining these findings. Creatively solvable problems vary widely in their complexity, knowledge needs, and the amounts of divergent and convergent thought that are needed, and so the theory predicts that persons, groups, and organizations with different preferences and abilities, knowledge and work arrangements will best match the character of particular problems. CPS research usually found individuals superior to groups, but this pattern of findings may have resulted from the tasks, concepts, and research methods used. Limitations in conceptualization, research methods, and resulting knowledge about collective CPS efforts are identified and discussed, and extensions of existing research as well as new directions for future study are proposed.
Problem: With limited resources to help reduce occupational injuries, companies struggle with how to best focus these resources to achieve the greatest reduction in injuries for the optimal cost. Safety culture has been identified as a critical factor that sets the tone for importance of safety within an organization. Method: An employee safety perception survey was conducted, and injury data were collected over a 45-month period from a large ready-mix concrete producer located in the southwest region of the United States. Results: The results of this preliminary study suggest that the reductions in injuries experienced at the company locations was strongly impacted by the positive employee perceptions on several key factors. Management's commitment to safety was the factor with the greatest positive perception by employees taking the survey. Discussion: This study was set up as a pilot project and did not unitize an experimental design. That weakness reduces the strength of these findings but adds to the importance of expanding the pilot project with an appropriate experimental design. Summary: Management leadership has been identified, along with several other factors, to influence employee perceptions of the safety management system. Those perceptions, in turn, appear to influence employee decisions that relate to at-risk behaviors and decisions on the job. Impact on Industry: The results suggest that employee perceptions of the safety system are related to management's commitment to safety, which, in turn, appear to be related to injury rates. Management should focus on how to best leverage these key factors to more positively impact injury rates within their companies.
Many companies understand that good management requires senior managers to spend time with front line workers. Some companies build into performance agreements for senior managers a requirement that they conduct a certain number of such site visits each year. The challenge is to make productive use of these visits. Safety is often a focus for visiting VIPs, but too often safety is understood to be a matter of “slips, trips and falls”, rather than the major hazards that can blow the plant or the rig apart. This paper will examine a VIP visit made to the Deepwater Horizon rig by senior managers from BP and from the rig owner, Transocean, just hours before the explosion. It will argue that, despite their best of intentions, these managers fell into the trap identified above. The paper looks at things that senior managers can do to focus attention on the most significant hazards.
The purpose of this review was to (a) overview prior knowledge research and its role in student performance, and (b) examine the effects of prior knowledge in relation to the method of assessment. We selected 183 articles, books, papers, and research reports related to prior knowledge. While prior knowledge generally had positive effects on students' performance, the effects varied by assessment method. More specifically, prior knowledge was more likely to have negative or no effects on performance when flawed assessment measures were used. However, in some studies, flawed methods yielded informative results. Thus, in educational research the implications of assessment measures must be considered when examining the effects of prior knowledge.
This paper reviews the literature on safety culture and safety climate. The main emphasis is on applied research customary in the social psychological or organisational psychological traditions. Although safety culture and climate are generally acknowledged to be important concepts, not much consensus has been reached on the cause, the content and the consequences of safety culture and climate in the past 20 years. Moreover, there is an overall lack of models specifying either the relationship of both concepts with safety and risk management or with safety performance. In this paper, safety culture and climate will be differentiated according to a general framework based on work by Schein (1992 Schein) on organisational culture. This framework distinguishes three levels at which organisational culture can be studied — basis assumptions, espoused values and artefacts. At the level of espoused values we find attitudes, which are equated with safety climate. The basic assumptions, however, form the core of the culture. It is argued that these basic assumptions do not have to be specifically about safety, although it is considered a good sign if they are. It is concluded that safety climate might be considered an alternative safety performance indicator and that research should focus on its scientific validity. More important, however, is the assessment of an organisation's basic assumptions, since these are assumed to be explanatory to its attitudes.
The concept of safety culture arose in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. It is argued that safety culture represents a new way of conceptualizing processes of risk handling and management in organizational and other contexts. Safety culture provides a global characterization of some of the common behavioral preconditions to disasters and accidents in high-risk sociotechnical systems, and might also prove to be a heuristic tool to aid risk management strategies to complement current risk assessment practice. Culture is conceptualized in the current article as primarily an ideational system of meanings, and safety culture as one concerned with the norms, beliefs, roles, and practices for handling hazards and risk. Possible elements of a "good" safety culture are elaborated under three headings: norms and rules for dealing with risk, safety attitudes, and reflexivity on safety practice.
In UK industry, particularly in the energy sector, there has been a movement away from ‘lagging’ measures of safety based on retrospective data, such as lost time accidents and incidents, towards ‘leading’ or predictive assessments of the safety climate of the organisation or worksite. A number of different instruments have been developed by industrial psychologists for this purpose, resulting in a proliferation of scales with distinct developmental histories. Reviewing the methods and results from a sample of industrial surveys, the thematic basis of 18 scales used to assess safety climate is examined. This suggests that the most typically assessed dimensions relate to management (72% of studies), the safety system (67%), and risk (67%), in addition themes relating to work pressure and competence appear in a third of the studies.
This analysis considers the impact of the top managers in an organization on the organization's outcomes, specifically strategic choices and performance levels. The focus is not on the chief executive alone, but rather on the entire top management team. Using a macro view, these organizational outcomes are perceived to be related to the values and cognitive bases of those high-power individuals in the organization. In developing the model, emphasis is on the background characteristics of the top managers as opposed to the psychological dimensions. A series of propositions that should be tested to support the upper echelons theory are presented. The topics of these propositions include age, functional track, other career experiences, education, socioeconomic roots, financial position, and group characteristics. The creation of this model is just the beginning of the work that is necessary to evaluate and understand the upper echelons theory. Further input is needed from areas such as the executive recruiting industry. Additionally, clinical and statistical studies are both necessary to fully develop this theory. (SRD)
Reports 3 errors in the original article by K. O. McGraw and S. P. Wong (Psychological Methods, 1996, 1[1], 30–46). On page 39, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and r values given in Table 6 should be changed to r = .714 for each data set, ICC(C,1) = .714 for each data set, and ICC(A,1) = .720, .620, and .485 for the data in Columns 1, 2, and 3 of the table, respectively. In Table 7 (p. 41), which is used to determine confidence intervals on population values of the ICC, the procedures for obtaining the confidence intervals on ICC(A,k) need to be amended slightly. Corrected formulas are given. On pages 44–46, references to Equations A3, A,4, and so forth in the Appendix should be to Sections A3, A4, and so forth. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1996-03170-003.). Although intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) are commonly used in behavioral measurement, psychometrics, and behavioral genetics, procedures available for forming inferences about ICC are not widely known. Following a review of the distinction between various forms of the ICC, this article presents procedures available for calculating confidence intervals and conducting tests on ICCs developed using data from one-way and two-way random and mixed-effect analysis of variance models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Andriessen, J.H.T.H., 1978. Safe behaviour and safety motivation. Journal of Occupational Accidents, 1: 363–376,This article is a report of an empirical study of the nature and determinants of safety motivation, particularly of employees in the construction industry. The study was based on the expectancy-theory of motivation. The extent of safety in work behaviour was measured by means of a checklist responded to by the employees themselves. Through questionnaires, motivation aspects, leadership style, group characteristics and safety standards were measured.Results indicated the following: (i) It is necessary to distinguish between two more or less independent aspects of safe behaviour, i.e., carefulness and safety initiative, (ii) People are more careful when they recognize that it does not hinder working speed, and that safer behaviour really does contribute to accident reduction, (iii) People show more safety initiative when the supervisor and colleagues react positively to it. (iv) Personality traits do not seem to influence strongly behaviour and motivation elements, (v) Safety motivation is strongly determined by leadership and safety standards of the leader, (vi) Safety behaviour and safety motivation are also determined by group standards and group cohesion.
Regulatory bodies in the U.K. have emphasized the importance of ‘a positive health and safety culture’ to the safety performance of companies. A key feature of a company's safety culture is shared perceptions amongst managers and staff concerning the importance of safety. This study recorded the perceptions of 312 British Rail train drivers, supervisors and senior managers concerning the relative importance of 25 railway factors. Each level also gave their estimates of the ratings of the other levels. The study found that whilst there was a shared perception of the importance of safety, intergroup perceptions were not realistic. It is argued that accurate intergroup perceptions are essential to the development of mutual trust and understanding between levels, which forms the basis for a positive safety culture. Suggestions for establishing the foundations for a positive safety culture are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Safety climate is a leading performance indicator that can provide insight into safety performance before accidents have occurred. Managerial variables have emerged as a primary determinant of safety climate in empirical research. In order to investigate the mechanisms of that influence a theoretical model was developed to test the relationship between management commitment and worker risk-taking. Workforce perceptions of safety climate (n=1026) were collected using the Health and Safety Executive climate survey tool and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The tested model revealed that the relationship between management commitment and supervisor involvement with risk-taking behaviours was mediated by knowledge and training. Additionally, a positive attitude towards risk taking (i.e. not engaging in risk taking behaviours) was related to enhanced feelings of workers' responsibility for safety and more positive appraisals of senior management commitment. Managers may find the model useful when attempting to improve safety climate. impact that non-technical skills (i.e. situation awareness, decision making, teamwork, communication, leadership) can have on the safety performance of organisations that are exposed to major hazards. He also has a particular interest in safety climate, senior managers' leadership and patient safety. His current work is developing a behavioural marker system with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the NHS, which will be used to train and rate surgeons' non-technical skills in the operating theatre.
Research into the factors determining the safety of industrial organizations shows clearly the influence of managerial factors on the standard of the safety climate. While investigations exploring the mechanism of this process have been rather limited, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that supervisors, site managers, and senior managers all have distinctive effects. Following a short review of ongoing research into managerial behavior and leadership styles in relation to safety, it is suggested that senior management commitment to safety should be regularly measured using safety climate surveys and upward appraisal techniques. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 13: 261–268, 2003.
The aims of the present paper are to determine attitudes towards safety and accident prevention among presidents, vice-presidents and managers in the industrial company Norsk Hydro and to analyse the associations between attitudes, behavioural intentions and behaviour. The sample consisted of 210 respondents and the data was collected in 1997 and 1998 among participants at the Hydro Management Safety Training Workshops, which is a safety course for the managers employed by the company. Managers’ attitudes are interesting because they may affect behavioural intentions and the managers’ behaviour related to the achievement of safe working practices. Eight attitudinal dimensions explained up to nearly 40% of the variance in behaviour. The study shows that safety attitudes may be an important causal factor for managers’ behavioural intentions as well as behaviour. High management commitment, low fatalism, high safety priority, and high risk awareness seemed to be particularly important attitudes for managers.
Questionnaires have not been particularly successful in exposing the core of an organisational safety culture. This is clear both from the factors found and the relations between these and safety indicators. The factors primarily seem to denote an overall evaluation of management, which does not say much about cultural basic assumptions. In addition, methodology requires that levels of theory and measurement are properly recognised and distinguished. That is, measurements made at one level cannot be employed at other levels just like that unless certain conditions are met.Safety management has been described through nine separate processes that together encompass the safety management system (SMS) of an organisation. Policies developed at the organisational level shape the organisational context and working conditions of the group and individual levels and therefore also attitudes within the organisation. The questionnaires seem to expose only those attitudes that are shared throughout the whole of the organisation. The workforce could very well recognise the safety policies of higher management as concern for their well-being and the overall value attached to safety. Pictured this way, safety climate (attitudes) and safety culture are not separate entities but rather different approaches towards the same goal of determining the importance of safety within an organisation.
This paper summarizes data from ten studies examining the relationship between organizational and workplace factors and injury rates. The studies were identified from a systematic literature search, as well as from other sources, and were included if they reported comparisons among at least 20 workplaces. Factors that were examined in at least two studies were identified. Their relationship with injury rates was determined. It was not possible to make quantitative comparisons between studies. We looked for ‘consistency’ or ‘contradiction’ in the relationships. Among the variables ‘consistency’ associated with lower injury rates were: empowerment of the workforce (in general matters); delegation of safety activities; and an active role (in health and safety) of top management. Among the ‘contradictory’ variables were the level and use of discipline for safety violations; and several others that were contradictory only in subgroups of the same study. We discuss the limitations of synthesizing results from the diverse studies.
Behavior-based safety has been found universally efficacious when evaluated under controlled conditions. The Curtin Trial aimed to test the general acceptability of behavior-based safety in Australian industry. A 50% failure rate was observed. This paper presents the results of a qualitative analysis of observed managerial behavior in relation to program effectiveness. Field notes taken in the course of 325 hours of participant observation during implementation of behavior-based safety in 9 work areas were analyzed qualitatively and categorized. These data were compared with statistical results of the safety program's effectiveness on improving safe practices and good housekeeping. Nine dimensions to managerial behavior were identified which were associated with program effectiveness. A relatively small number of studies investigating organizational characteristics and safety have found generally similar social environmental features to those observed in this study. Behavior-based safety appears to be effective only in organizations with recognizable managerial styles.
This paper examines social intelligence as a quality of effective organizational leaders. Specifically, it is proposed that successful leaders have as individual characteristics two components of social intelligence, social perceptiveness and behavioral flexibility. In essence, leaders are able to ascertain the demands, requirements, and affordances in organizational problem scenarios and tailor their responses accordingly. The qualities of social perceptiveness and behavioral flexibility are based upon well-organized and sophisticated knowledge structures or cognitive representations of the social elements (e.g., organizational members, work behavioral settings, problem scenarios, organizational goals, expected interaction rituals) residing in organizational domains. Five propositions are offered regarding differences between leaders and nonleaders in the nature of these social knowledge structures. Several implications of these arguments are discussed, including (a) viewing leaders as experts in the operations of complex social systems, (b) considering social intelligence as part of a network of leader attributes, and (c) examining differences between leaders and nonleaders in their cognitive qualities and representations.
The conceptual and empirical links between authentic leadership and follower attitudes, behaviors, and performance outcomes have not been fully developed. Although we have a number of articles developing the theory of authentic leadership and testing propositions that will appear in a forthcoming special issue of The Leadership Quarterly (Vol. 16, Issue 3, 2005), the focus of this article is to provide some of the initial foundation work for the broader theoretical framework of how authentic leaders influence follower attitudes, behaviors, and performance. Here, we draw from positive organizational behavior, trust, hope, emotion, identification, and identity theories to describe the processes by which authentic leaders exert their influence on followers' attitudes and behaviors. Research propositions based on the proposed theoretical model and implications for future theory building and research are presented.
We describe the development of and initial psychometric evidence for a set of five constructed response measures designed to assess complex problem-solving skills and knowledge expected to influence leadership. Structured (cued) and unstructured (uncued) problem solving scenarios intended to assess process skills associated with creative problem solving are presented first. Solution construction tasks developed to assess attention to constraints and characteristics in the broader problem context are presented next. Finally, social judgment tasks intended to assess understanding of people and social systems and a task sort to assess knowledge of leadership roles are presented. Preliminary evidence for the reliability and construct validity of these constructed response measures supports their efficacy in assessing skills that underlie effective organizational leadership.
This study tests Brown and Holmes' (1986) three-factor safety climate model on construction workers. In this model, climate was viewed as molar perceptions people have of their work settings. Data were collected by a selfadministered questionnaire in a cross-sectional survey conducted among 384 workers employed in nine nonresidential construction sites in Baltimore, MD. The response rate was 71%. Results using two linear structural relations (LISREL) procedures (maximum likelihood used by Brown and Holmes and weighted least squares) indicated a good model fit. The weighted least squares procedure, which is more appropriate for our data, revealed that a two-factor model provided an overall better fit. The two factors were (a) management's commitment to safety and (b) workers' involvement in safety. This model emphasizes management and workers' involvement in safety matters. Results also suggest the necessity of addressing concerns of these two groups in safety policies.
Leadership theory has not lived up to its promise of helping practitioners resolve the challenges and problematics that occur in organizational leadership. Many current theories and models are not contextualized, nor do the dynamic and critical issues facing leaders drive their construction. Alternatively, practitioners too often approach leadership problems using trial and error tactics derived more from anecdotes and popular fads than validated scientific data and models. Yet, while this gap between theory and research has bedeviled the leadership community for much of its history, there have been few if any systematic examinations of its causes. In this review, we have sought to highlight the particular barriers on the leadership practice and theory-building/testing constituencies, respectively, that constrain efforts to integrate them. We also offer a number of propositions and guidelines that we hope can break through these barriers and help stakeholders create a more effective leadership theory and practice symbiosis (LTPS). Finally, we have offered two cases of effective LTPS as examples and models for such integrative research efforts.
Leadership has traditionally been seen as a distinctly interpersonal phenomenon demonstrated in the interactions between leaders and subordinates. The theory of leadership presented in this article proposes that effective leadership behavior fundamentally depends upon the leader's ability to solve the kinds of complex social problems that arise in organizations. The skills that make this type of complex social problem solving possible are discussed. The differential characteristics and career experiences likely to influence the development of these skills also are considered along with the implications of these observations for leadership theory and for the career development of organizational leaders.
Accumulated theories and research findings about the nature of the creative problem-solving (CPS) process, the cognitive and personality traits of persons who do CPS well, the measurement and evaluation of CPS, and the enhancement of CPS skills by training are reviewed with the aim of increasing understanding of and ability to measure and enhance individual CPS efforts. Given this review and analysis a complete CPS process is understood to entail considerable convergent and divergent thought in continuing alternation. Other conclusions about the nature of CPS and the persons who do it well are set forth and discussed and these conclusions are incorporated into a "matching theory" about CPS-which observes that creatively solvable problems vary in complexity, knowledge needs, and amount of divergent and convergent thought needed-and it predicts that problem solvers with different preferences and abilities, knowledge, and work plans will best match the needs of particular problems. Limitations in current concepts, methods, and resulting knowledge about individual CPS efforts are identified and discussed, and extensions of existing research as well as new directions for future research are proposed.