Shared transformational leadership and safety behaviours of employees, leaders, and teams: A multilevel investigation

Abstract

We investigate the extent to which transformational leadership behaviours enacted by team members – shared transformational leadership – relate to safety behaviours of team members, teams, and team leaders. We also consider the role of perceived organizational support in moderating the relationships between shared transformational leadership and safety behaviours. We collected data from 2,139 crew members (‘team members’) and 98 chief engineers (‘team leaders’) working on merchant shipping vessels (‘teams’). Team members’ perceptions of shared transformational leadership positively related to team members’ safety compliance and safety participation. Shared transformational leadership became less effective in relation to team members’ safety compliance under conditions of high levels of perceived organizational support. Shared transformational leadership at the team level related to higher levels of safety participation of teams. Teams’ shared transformational leadership was positively related to team leaders’ safety participation, but only under low levels of perceived organizational support. Taken together, our findings demonstrate the important role of shared transformational leadership in relation to safety behaviours and suggest that the effectiveness of shared transformational leadership might vary depending on perceived organizational support. Practitioner points Transformational leadership behaviours exercised by team members – shared transformational leadership – are associated with higher levels of mandated and discretionary safety behaviours of team members. Teams that have higher levels of shared transformational leadership demonstrate higher levels of team‐level discretionary safety behaviours. Shared transformational leadership is more strongly associated with employees’ mandated safety behaviours under low levels of perceived organizational support. When leaders perceive low levels of organizational support, their teams’ shared transformational leadership becomes a more important correlate of leaders’ discretionary safety behaviours. In addition to traditional leadership training that involves formal leaders only, organizations should consider implementing activities that foster shared leadership behaviours.

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