Influence of inadequate safety leadership on unsafe behavior: Evidence from fatal construction accident

What do fatal incident investigations say about the links b.t. leadership, worker PPE non-compliance & safety participation?

This study investigated 169 fatal incidents in HK on the connections.

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Extracts:

· “the lack of safety-oriented care by higher management is strongly associated with safety non-compliance related to personal protective equip ment (PPE) among both frontline management and workers, while their inadequate safety coaching exerts a significant influence on operation-related non-compliance of workers”

· “senior managers’ inadequate safety coaching, alongside front line leaders’ negative role modeling and insufficient safety concern, significantly related to workers’ inadequate participation in safety activities”

· Senior management caring issues were coded in >59% of cases, and issues with senior leaders establishing safety requirements and checking them in >86% of cases

· For frontline leadership, care, concern and guidance for improvement issues were coded in more than 40% of cases

· In all, “The lack of safety caring and individual respect from senior management significantly affects the PPE-related safety non-compliance of frontline managing staff and workers”

· “The tendency of frontline supervisors to disregard PPE requirements increases the likelihood of workers emulating such unsafe practices”

· “Moreover, deficiencies in participative decision-making, safety guidance, and safety communication among frontline supervisors are closely linked to PPE-related non-compliance among workers”

· “Inadequate role modeling and insufficient attention to worker welfare by frontline supervisors are associated with diminished worker engagement in safety initiatives”

Note – as always, several limitations. It’s not causal, it’s not a full assessment of all leadership behaviours, and importantly it’s evaluating how investigators **described/constructed** leadership as a factor (WYLFIWYF, counterfactuals etc.). Also, no control comparison, so these same factors could be present in all the non-fatal instances, too (and prob are).

Study: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2026.107226

#safety #leadership #safetyleadership #SIF