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

L

F1

L

F4

L

F5

L

F6

L

F3

L

F2

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)

+

+

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!