The Mediating Role of Job Strain in the Transformational Leadership–Safety Behavior Link: The Buffering Effect of Self-Efficacy on Safety

Byung-Jik Kim and Se-Youn Jung
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Byung-Jik Kim: Sogang Business School, Sogang University, Seoul 04107, Korea
Se-Youn Jung: Prime College, Korea National Open University, Seoul 03087, Korea

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Although some previous studies have examined the impact of transformational leadership on safety behavior, those works have paid relatively less attention to the intermediating role of employees’ job strain in the link as well as contingent variables that moderate the relationship. Considering that not only job strain substantially affects employees’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors in an organization, but also there are some contextual factors that moderate the relationships, we investigated intermediating mechanisms (i.e., mediator and moderator) in the relationship between transformational leadership and safety behavior. Relying on the context-attitude-behavior framework, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis with a moderated mediation model. Specifically, we hypothesized that the level of an employee’s job strain would mediate the transformational leadership–safety behavior link. We also hypothesized that an employee’s self-efficacy regarding safety would moderate the association between job strain and safety behavior. Using survey data from 997 South Korean employees, we found that all of our hypotheses were supported. The findings suggest that the level of an employee’s job strain mediates and elaborately explains the transformational leadership–safety behavior link. Moreover, an employee’s self-efficacy regarding safety is a buffering factor which decreases the harmful effects of job strain on safety behavior.

Keywords: transformational leadership; safety behavior; job strain; self-efficacy regarding safety; moderated mediation model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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