The Effect of Safety Leadership on Safety Participation of Employee: A Meta-Analysis

Recently, the promotion of safety participation (SP) has become a hot spot in behavioral safety research and safety management practice. To explore the relationship between safety leadership (SL) and SP, a theoretical model was established and 33 articles (35 independent samples) on work safety from 2000 to 2021 were selected for a meta-analysis. By evaluating the impact of SL, which incorporates transformational, transactional, and passive leadership styles, on work safety. The results show that SL has a positive impact on both safety climate (SC) and SP. Both safety transactional leadership (STAL) and safety transformational leadership (STFL) positively impact SP, and the impact of STFL is greater, while safety passive leadership (SPL) has no impact on SP. The study establishes that SC plays a partial mediating role between transformational SL and employee SP. Under the condition of a developed economic level or high-risk industry, SL indicated a greater influence on SP. Hence, it is recommended that when enhancing the SP of employees, the influence of the macro environment and SC should not be undermined.

Automated summary

This study conducted a meta-analysis to explore the relationship between safety leadership and safety participation among employees. The findings show that safety leadership has a positive impact on safety climate and safety participation, with transformational and transactional leadership styles having a more significant influence on safety participation than passive leadership style. Additionally, it was found that safety climate partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and employee safety participation. In developed economies or high-risk industries, safety leadership has a greater influence on safety participation.