Safety Intelligence: Senior Leadership and Safety
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Transcript of Safety Intelligence: Senior Leadership and Safety
Safety Intelligence: Senior Leadership and Safety
Laura Fruhen University of Aberdeen
Outline• What is leadership?• Leadership and safety
– Full range Leadership– Leader-Member-Exchange
• Top Level Leadership and Safety– Leadership activities– Safety Intelligence
What is leadership?
Fleishman et al (1991)
What is leadership?• Leadership =
“[…] constituting a process of social influence that is enacted by designated individuals who hold formal leadership roles in organizations”
(Kelloway & Barling, 2010; p. 261)
• Leadership =“…the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives”
(Yukl, 2002 ; p. 7)
Trait Definition of Leadership
Leadership is determined by• Height
• Intelligence• Extraversion• Masculinity• Dominance
• Etc
(e.g. Lord et al. 1986)
Process Definition of Leadership
Leader
Followers
Interaction
Theoretical approaches to leadership
• The Trait Approach (1920-1930)– Leaders’ characteristics are different from non-leaders
• The Behavioural Approach (1950s)– Behaviour leaders engage in
• The Contingency Approach (1970s) – Takes the situation into account
• New Leadership Approaches
Leadership and Safety: What do we know?• Leadership style has an
impact on safety (e.g. Kelloway, Mullen & Francis, 2006; Clarke & Ward, 2006)
• Two examples – The full range leadership
model (Bass, 1985)
– Leader-member exchange (Dansereau, Cashman, & Graen, 1973)
Leadership and Safety: The full range of Leadership Model
(Bass, 1985)
Transformational Leadership
Transactional leadership
Laissez Faire Leadership
Leadership and Safety: The full range of Leadership Model
(Bass, 1985)
Transformational Leadership
Transactional leadership
Laissez Faire Leadership • Lowest level of leadership• Absence of leadership
Leadership and Safety: The full range of Leadership Model
(Bass, 1985)
Transformational Leadership
Transactional leadership
Laissez Faire Leadership
• Contingent reward• Management by exception
Leadership and Safety: The full range of Leadership Model
(Bass, 1985)
Transformational Leadership
Transactional leadership
Laissez Faire Leadership
• Idealised influence• Inspirational motivation• Intellectual stimulation• Individualised consideration
The full range of Leadership Model and Safety
• Transformational Leadership Safety – (e.g. Zohar, 2002)
• Laissez faire leadership Safety– (e.g. Zohar, 2002)
• The effects of transformational leadership style on performance are stronger in maximum contexts (Lim & Ployhart, 2004).
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Leadership and Safety: Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
(Danserau, Graen & Haga, 1975)
• LMX focuses on the relation of the leader to each of their followers– Followers are divided into in-group and
out-group members• Task of the leader:
– drive the relationship from a tentative first stage to a deeper more meaningful one
Leader Member Exchange
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F1
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F4
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F5
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F6
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F3
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In Group Out Group
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Safety
• LMX safety citizenship behaviour
• LMX safety citizenship role definitions– These relations are moderated by safety
climate(Hofmann, Morgeson & Gerras, 2003)
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So far, • Leadership has been established as
related to safety at lower organisational levels
What about Senior level leadership?
Are Senior managers positions different?
Senior Managers and Safety
• Senior Managers:– change and improve existing corporate culture
(German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Investigation, 2004)
– One of the most frequent employed safety climate factors (Guldenmund, 2000)
– Commitment is one of the main drivers of employees safety performance (Michael, Evans, Jansen & Haight, 2005)
• Only 5% of leadership literature focuses on senior management (Horn & Zaccaro, 2003)
Can interpersonal theories also be applied to senior leadership?
Executive leaders operate at a system wide and indirect level and in some cases never meet all their followers
Interpersonal theories of leadership do not readily apply to executive forms of influence
Horn & Zaccaro (2003)
Zaccaro (2001)
Strategic Leadership research should focus on the “substance in relation to leadership“ Day &Lord (1988)
Senior leadership and safety programsHarper et al. (1996)
Can you guess what patterns
were described in the
questionnaire?
• The quality of face-to-face contact between managers and employees
• Perceived friendly communication
• being interested in the employee as an individual
• inquiring the employee’s health and general welfare or that of their family
• The attitude that the cost of safety detracts from productivity
• being explicit that they are in the business of safe production
• showing that production without safety is unacceptable
Personable communication Priority given to safe production
Another way of looking at senior managers and safety: Safety Intelligence
• Skills and traits of senior executive managers in relation to safety
• Abilities and Understanding regarding– Information – Safety risks to the
organization– Decision making
(Kirwan, 2008)
What we don’t know so far!
• What are the characteristics of the people at the top of an organisation who achieve high quality safety performance?
The Skill Based Leadership Modeladapted from Mumford et al. (2000)
Investigation of Safety IntelligenceQuestionnaire study
Aim: What constructs identified from the literature review are really relevant?
Sample: • Subject matter experts (n=38)
– senior managers – other managers that frequently interact with CEOs
Measures• Questionnaire with two open questions
How would you answer these two questions?
– ‘What kind of person would you like an ideal CEO to be regarding his or her effect on safety?’
– ‘What behaviour would you like an ideal CEO to demonstrate regarding his or her effect on safety?’.
How did we analyse the data?
• Qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2000)– Carried out by two independent coders – Interrater Agreements:
• Behaviours: Kripp α = .664• Characteristics: Kripp α = .776
Derived from Literature
Emerged from Dataset
Social Competence X
Safety Knowledge X
Problem Solving X
Personality XMotivation/ Safety Prioritisation
X X
Leadership X
Results of Questionnaire Analysis
Results of Content Analysis (Percentage)
Social
Com
peten
ce
Safety
Knowled
ge
Problem
Solv
ing
Person
ality
Motiva
tion
Lead
ership
05
101520253035
BehaviourCharacteristics
For further Exploration: Interview Study
Sample: • CEOs and Board members (N =9)Measures• Exploratory Semi Structured Interview
– Open questions & Probing questions– Scenarios
Analysis• Qualitative content analysis
– Carried out by two coders– Krippendorf’s α = 0.725
Results interview studyHow do you show your commitment to safety?– engagement in terms of ‘talking about safety
and publishing material about safety’– being ‘clear about one’s safety goals and safety
itself’ – having safety on the top of the agenda– being proactive– be safe– give positive feedback and rewards
The next step…Aim: How do the identified constructs
affect safety outcomes?Sample: • CEOs and Board members (n = 12-
15 ANSPs)Measures• Semi Structured Interviews
– Open questions– Scenarios
• Questionnaires• Outcome Variables
– Management commitment
From your point of view • How would you transfer findings
regarding senior managers and safety into the organisation?
Thank you for your attention!