1. Training Course on Integrated Management System for Regulatory Body
Module 3 (Prerequisites for Effective IMS)
(3.4) Leadership for safety

2. Objective
The aim of this presentation is to further discuss the role of leadership in organisations and the impact on safety
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

3. Content The role of leadership in safety work Communication for safety
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

4. Background
The basis for this presentation is a doctoral Thesis in Psychology at Stockholm University, Sweden 2015
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

5. The role of leadership in safety work
Research focusing on leadership style
Transformational leadership (Inness, Turner, Barling, & Stride, 2010)
Transactional Leadership (Zohar, 2002)
Safety-specific leadership (Barling, Loughlin, & Kelloway, 2002)
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

6. The role of leadership in safety work
Examine the importance of transformational, transactional and safety leadership specifically for various safety aspects:
Compliance with safety rules and regulations
Safety initiatives
Less accidents or incidents
Serious accidents or incidents
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

7. The role of leadership in safety work
Transformational leadership
Inspire and motivate employees to put the interests of the organisation before one’s own
Being a role model, inspire and motivate, stimulate new ideas, personal well-being
Strive to achieve internal motivation
Orient towards a common vision
Often good leaders of change management
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

8. The role of leadership in safety work
Transactional Leadership
A relationship between leader and employee based on exchange
No or little internal motivation related to performing a task – external motivation
No or little employee participation when setting goals
Monitoring, corrective, rewarding, punishing
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

9. The role of leadership in safety work
Safety-specific leadership
Leadership behaviors that specifically encourages and improves the safety of the organization
Focus and prioritize safety issues
Responds to employee's safe and unsafe behaviors (immediate feedback)
Take incentives to safety improvement actions
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

10. The role of leadership in safety work
Transformational leadership
Weakly linked to increased safety initiative
Transactional Leadership
Negative impact on safety, lower degree of safety initiatives, higher degree of minor accidents and incidents
Safety-specific leadership
Contributed by far the most positive safety behaviors among employees , increased regulatory compliance, increased safety initiative's ,
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

11. Communication for safety
What makes us behave safely?
Leadership is important – to communicate important safety values is important But HOW should leaders communicate???
Conflicting results of previous research on the relationship between leader's communication and safety
Can there be a more complex relationship? Other variables that affect relationships?
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

12. Communication for safety
The results supported the relationships in the proposed model, as leader safety priority communication was found to be positively associated with subordinate safety compliance (H1) and feedback from leaders to subordinates was associated with higher levels of organizational citizenship behaviors (H2). Further, safety compliance was found to be positively related to the reporting of incidents (H3a), and safety compliance did mediate the relationship between safety priority communication and incident reporting (H3b). The results also reveal that organizational citizenship behaviors was positively related to the reporting of incidents (H4a), and that organizational citizenship behavior mediated the relationship between feedback and incident reporting (H4b).
Both types of leader communication approaches (i.e., safety priority communication and feedback), appeared to be significantly related to reporting behavior. However, these relationships both became insignificant as soon as the mediating factors of compliance and OCB were introduced in the model, further indicating that the examined employee behaviors act as mediators in the model.
Finally, the results also showed that incident reporting was positively related to patient safety (H5a) and that reporting behaviors mediated the relationship between safety compliance and patient safety as well as the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and patient safety (H5b).
Leader communication approaches and patient safety: An integrated model. Journal of Safety Research, Volume 53, 2015, 53–62
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

13. Communication for safety
Important: discuss, prioritize and advocate for safety, provide feedback and respond to safety events and to be a role model in behaving safely
A safety promoting leader should avoid being to monitoring, controlling and punishing
Use several different modes for communication (one-way to group and personal) to convey safety rules and values
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

14. Communication for safety
Both compliance to rules and initiatives are important to safety – it’s not enough to focus on just one of them
Greater frequency of reporting may be linked to a higher degree of safety – important impetus for safety work. A reporting culture.
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

15. Summary
There is a link between leadership and minor accidents and incidents but not to serious accidents and incidents
Reporting culture important
The value of also recognize and register the seemingly trivial events to find correlations and thereby prevent future accidents
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4

16. Discussion What kind of leadership do you have in our organisation?
Is that the kind of leadership that you want?
IAEA Training Course on IMS Module 3.4