0000000000060509
AUTHOR
Mario Martínez-córcoles
Leadership and employees’ perceived safety behaviours in a nuclear power plant: A structural equation model
Leadership is considered an essential element in guaranteeing the safe running of organizations. The purpose of the present study is to find out how leader behaviours influence employees' safety behaviours (perceived safety behaviours) in the nuclear field. In an attempt to answer this question, the authors of this research have considered the way this influence is exercised, taking into consideration some important factors like safety culture and safety climate. To achieve this, the empowerment leadership model, based on a behavioural approach to leadership, was used. The sample was made up of 566 employees from a Spanish nuclear power plant. The results indicated that when safety culture …
Strengthening Safety Compliance in Nuclear Power Operations: A Role-Based Approach
Safety compliance is of paramount importance in guaranteeing the safe running of nuclear power plants. However, it depends mostly on procedures that do not always involve the safest outcomes. This article introduces an empirical model based on the organizational role theory to analyze the influence of legitimate sources of expectations (procedures formalization and leadership) on workers' compliance behaviors. The sample was composed of 495 employees from two Spanish nuclear power plants. Structural equation analysis showed that, in spite of some problematic effects of proceduralization (such as role conflict and role ambiguity), procedure formalization along with an empowering leadership s…
The power of empowering team leadership over time: A multi-wave longitudinal study in nuclear power plants
Abstract Team attitudes in critical infrastructures are essential to achieving reliable operations despite internal and external challenges, and empowering team leadership (ETL) may be an important precursor of these attitudes. The present study aimed to test whether ETL was related to teams’ satisfaction trajectories, measured as changes in job satisfaction and safety satisfaction at three time points. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 48 teams from two Spanish nuclear facilities in three different waves (2008, 2011, and 2014). Growth Modeling using hierarchical linear models with SPSS 20.0 revealed that ETL was positively related to initial levels of teams’ job and safety satisfaction…
HUMAN SAFETY PERFORMANCE IN HIGH RELIABILITY ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
Over the last few decades, the study of safety in high reliability organizations has not paid enough attention to the human role and its contribution to a reliable operation. Therefore, the literature about human safety performance is scarce and disjointed. The present paper integrates the existing knowledge on workers’ safety performance in high risk industries, specifically in the nuclear industry. In order to do this, we provide a literature review in which the concept of “safety performance” is clarified, and at the same time, we present the most recent research studies and models on this concept.
Empowering team leadership and safety performance in nuclear power plants: A multilevel approach
Abstract Despite the large body of work on team leadership, hardly any literature has dealt with team leadership in safety performance settings. The goal of the present study is to analyze how team leader behaviors influence team members’ safety performance in nuclear power plants. For this purpose, an empowering leadership approach was assessed. We consider a multilevel model in which safety performance is divided into three types of behaviors. The sample was composed of 479 workers in 54 groups from two Spanish nuclear power plants. The results suggested that leaders’ empowering behaviors generated higher safety compliance behaviors and higher safety participation behaviors by team member…
Linking empowering leadership to safety participation in nuclear power plants: a structural equation model.
Abstract Introduction Safety participation is of paramount importance in guaranteeing the safe running of nuclear power plants. Method The present study examined the effects of empowering leadership on safety participation. Results Based on a sample of 495 employees from two Spanish nuclear power plants, structural equation modeling showed that empowering leadership has a significant relationship with safety participation, which is mediated by collaborative team learning. In addition, the results revealed that the relationship between empowering leadership and collaborative learning is partially mediated by the promotion of dialogue and open communication. Conclusions The implications of th…
Understanding risky behaviours in nuclear facilities: The impact of role stressors
Abstract Risky behaviours have received little attention in the safety literature in recent years, compared to safety behaviours such as safety compliance or safety participation. However, it is important to focus on risky behaviours and their predictors in order to prevent accidents. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of role stressors (role ambiguity and role overload) on risky behaviours, and the mediating role of dissatisfaction (both job and safety dissatisfaction). The sample consists of 566 employees from two nuclear power plants in Spain. Structural equation modelling is used to determine the effects of role ambiguity and role overload on risky behaviours. Role stressors…
Empowering leadership, mindful organizing and safety performance in a nuclear power plant: A multilevel structural equation model
Abstract The aim of this paper is to develop and test a model in which empowering leadership is expected to contribute to developing mindful organizing, which in turn should contribute to safety compliance and safety participation. Empowering leadership was measured at Time 1, and the rest of the variables were measured two years later (Time 2). The sample used for the analyses in this study included 49 teams and 200 employees from a company in the nuclear generation industry with three different sites. The multilevel structural equation analysis performed to test the proposed model revealed an acceptable fit, and most of the paths were statistically significant and presented the expected s…
A conceptual model of mindful organizing for effective safety and crisis management. The role of organizational culture
AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic has involved nations world-wide in the necessity to manage and control the spread of infection, and challenged organizations to effectively counteract an unchartered medical crisis while preserving the safety of workers. While the pandemic and geopolitical turmoil caused by the war in Ukraine are recent examples of complex environments that require effective safety and crisis management, organizations may generally need to find ways to deal with the unexpected and reliably perform in the face of fluctuations. Mindful organizing (MO) is defined as the collective capability to detect discriminatory details about emerging issues and act swiftly in response to thes…