The Mediating Role of Safety Climate in the Relationship between Transformational Safety Leadership and Safe Behavior—The Case of Two Companies in Turkey and Romania

Draghici Anca, Salih Dursun, Oğuz Bașol, Maria Elena Boatca and Alin Gaureanu
Additional contact information
Salih Dursun: Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon 61080, Turkey
Oğuz Bașol: Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Kırklareli University, Kırklareli 39100, Turkey
Maria Elena Boatca: Faculty of Management in Production and Transportation, Politehnica University of Timisoara, 14 Remus Str., 300191 Timisoara, Romania
Alin Gaureanu: Faculty of Management in Production and Transportation, Politehnica University of Timisoara, 14 Remus Str., 300191 Timisoara, Romania

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-18

Abstract: Safety leadership, safe behavior, and safety climate, which are important parts of occupational safety culture, are important in terms of preventing occupational accidents and making the working environment ergonomic. In this context, this study aims to examine the mediating effect of the safety climate on the relationship between transformational leadership and safe behavior. Research was carried out with 287 participants working in two manufacturing plants, one from Turkey and one from Romania. The two data sets were consolidated into a single database (both companies being providers of manufacturing products for the same client in the automotive industry) and were analyzed using the Preacher and Hayes plugin in the SPSS 21 package program because of the research interest in investigating safety behavior in the manufacturing field. The results of the analysis showed that the safety climate had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and safe behavior. In addition, the study results demonstrated that transformational safety leadership has a significant influence on employees’ perceptions of safety climate and plays an important role in occupational safety-related behaviors. Research results were helpful for practitioners (managers in both companies) and researchers in understanding the importance of safety-climate and transformational safety leadership practices in increasing occupational safety-related behaviors.

Keywords: transformational safety leadership; safe behavior; safe climate; mediating effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/14/8464/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/14/8464/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:14:p:8464-:d:859976

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().