Change in Frontline Supervisors’ Safety Leadership Practices After Participating in a Leadership Training Program: Does Company Size Matter?

Details

• Personal Author:
  Goldenhar, Linda M. ; Johnson SK ; Schwatka, Natalie V.
• Description:
  Introduction: The majority of construction companies are small businesses and small business often lack the resources needed to ensure that their supervisors have the safety leadership skills to build and maintain a strong jobsite safety climate. The Foundations for Safety Leadership (FSL) training program was designed to provide frontline leaders in all sized companies with safety leadership skills. This paper examines the impact of the FSL training by size of business. Methods: Leaders, defined as foremen or other frontline supervisors, from small, medium, and large construction companies were recruited to participate in a study to evaluate the degree to which the FSL changed their understanding and use of the leadership skills, safety practices and crew reporting of safety-related conditions. We used linear mixed modeling methods to analyze pre-post training survey data. Results: Prior to the training, leaders from small and medium sized companies reported using safety leadership skills less frequently than those from large ones. After the training, regardless of business size, we observed that the FSL training improved leaders understanding of safety leadership skills from immediately before to immediately after the training. Additionally, leaders reported greater use of safety leadership skills, safety practices, and crew reporting of safety-related conditions from before to two-weeks after the training. However, those from small and medium sized companies reported the greatest improvement in their use of safety leadership skills. Conclusions: The FSL training improves safety leadership outcomes regardless of the size company for which the leader worked. However, the FSL may be even more effective at improving the safety leadership skills of leaders working for smaller sized construction companies or those with lower baseline levels of safety leadership skills. Practical applications: The majority of construction companies employ a small number of employees and therefore may not have the resources to provide their frontline leaders with the leadership training they need to be effective leaders who can create a strong jobsite safety climate. The Foundations for Safety Leadership (FSL) training can help fill this gap. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Small Business Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Construction Construction Industry Construction Workers Occupational Health And Safety Safety Climate Safety Practices Small Business Small Businesses Supervisory Personnel Training Transformational Leadership

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• ISSN:
  0022-4375
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; Maryland ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  199-205
• Volume:
  74
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060555
• Citation:
  J Safety Res 2020 Sep; 74:199-205
• Contact Point Address:
  Natalie V. Schwatka, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, 13001 E. 17th Pl., 3rd Floor Mail Stop B119 HSC, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
• Email:
  natalie.schwatka@cuanschutz.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Safety Research
• End Date:
  20240831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7caf0a08834809c92f6c11f0740bcc29b7c8e38865e87865a7c1ac3c152755a89eeebb34a02bc297490892d888d6f9bd9abe061bc47dbcf39e87d29a17da5c32
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224421/cdc_224421_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 510.22 KB ]