Leadership Behaviours for Maximising Safety

While is has long been recognised that the behaviours of managers (from supervisors to senior managers) have an influence on worker behaviours and hence on workplace safety, it is only recently that industrial psychologists have begun to study this relationship scientifically. This paper will draw on a series of studies of leadership behaviours conducted within the UKCS oil and gas industry, focusing on offshore platform supervisors (Mearns, Flin, Fleming & Gordon, 1997), offshore installation managers (O'Dea & Flin, 2001), and senior oil company mangers (Bryden, Flin & West, in prep). Additional material will be drawn from an ongoing study of management and safety in an international company from the energy sector (electricity generation) (Yule, Flin & Murdy, 2001). A recent review of the leadership literature by O'Dea, Yule, Flin & Mearns (in prep) identified a number of factors that influence safety behaviours. These will be presented, indicating the direct and indirect paths of influence from managers to system operators. Recent findings suggest that transformational leadership behaviours (e.g. vision, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration) as measured by Bass' Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) may be particularly influential, however particular safety behaviours may be differentially affected by specific leadership approaches. Moreover transformational leadership behaviours are likely to be rather different in focus at more junior compared to senior levels of management and specific examples will be provided for illustration. The results emerging from these studies will be presented with reference to the emerging literature on safety leadership from other industries as well as practical applications for the selection, training and development of managers.