Leadership Style as a Predictor of Employee Safety Performance in the Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

Some managers experience challenges in addressing workplace safety concerns and employees' needs to enhance worksite safety performance. This quantitative simple linear regression research examined if/to what extent a relationship existed between managers’ safety-specific transformational leadership style and employee safety performance in the oil and gas industry in southeast Saskatchewan, Canada’s oil and gas industry. We used 89 valid anonymous responses from 32 organizations for the data analysis. The statistical test showed managers’ safety-specific transformational leadership styles could significantly predict employees’ safety performance (F(1, 89) = 49.03, p<0.001, R² = 0.36). Additionally, the curve estimation of the data revealed that about 35.4% to 38.30% of the change in employees’ safety performance was attributed to managers' safety-specific transformational leadership behaviors. This research has broad implications, a medium to large effect size, and a higher confidence level. The findings of this research encourage the oil and gas businesses to promote and grow more safety-specific transformational leaders to attain higher employee safety performance excellence in the industry.