Can leadership styles inform safety outcomes in safetycritical organisations? a review of literature

Abstract

Safety-critical organisations (SCOs), such as the military, fire service, aviation, emergency services, and construction, are characterised by being organisations with high potential for stress, accidents, and injuries. Environments where safety is highly critical (i.e., high exposure to risk and likelihood of an accident) - poses particular challenges for leaders. Thus, such environments call for specific leadership/ leadership style, which differ from those most effective in less safety-critical environments. Most research literature seems to associate leadership with traditional, linear models, which are incongruent with the behaviour of a complex system, such as the construction industry. Thus, the objective of this paper is to fill this research gap by: (1) critically reviewing relevant literature; (2) investigating the effect of leadership styles (LS) on safety outcomes, with emphasis on SCOs; and (3) developing a conceptual framework for empirical testing. A survey design will be applied to collect data from project managers in the construction industry within the Australian context. This paper presents a brief description of the effect of various LS on safety outcomes, using the principles of complexity science. The results of this study will present the effect of riding on the principles of complexity science to provide the premise for flexible responses to emerging patterns and opportunities in the construction industry.