Effect of leadership and communication practices on the safety climate and behaviour of construction workgroups
2019
Purpose The leadership style and communication practices of supervisors in the Australian construction
industry weremeasured. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of leadership style and communication
practices of Australian construction supervisors on workgroup health and safety (H&S) climate and behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was administered to members of 20 workgroups
engaged in rail construction work on the Level Crossing Removal Project and the Melbourne Metro Tunnel
Project in Victoria, Australia. The survey measured components of supervisors transformational and
transactional leadership, communication practices, the group H&S climate and workers self-reported H&S
compliance and participation.
Findings Supervisors transformational and transactional leadership, as well as communication practices,
were all positively and significantly correlated with group H&S climate and workers self-reported H&S
behaviours. The transformational leadership component of providing an appropriate model was the strongest
predictor of H&S participation, while H&S compliance was predicted by the transactional leadership
component of providing contingent reward, as well as supervisors communication practices. H&S climate
fully mediated the relationship between supervisory leadership and workers self-reported H&S behaviour.
Originality/value The research demonstrates that both transformational and transactional supervisory
leadership are important in the construction context. Effective communication between supervisors and workers
is also important for H&S. The findings suggest that supervisory leadership development programmes may be
an effective way to improve H&S performance in predominantly subcontracted construction workgroups.
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