Safety Leadership in High-risk Organizations: The Cost of Being a Good Soldier

Abstract

Safety leadership has emerged as an important area of interest for both the practitioner and researcher in maintaining safety in high-risk industries, however literature has not attempted to explore the dark side of such practices. This study explored the negative consequences of being good with safety. For this purpose data was collected from the employees of high risk organizations (electricity distribution firms). A sample of 400 respondents was approached under convenience sampling technique, out of which 314 completely filled responses were considered for data analysis. Data was analyzed using Smart PLS 3.9 Software by applying the Structural Equation Modeling Technique (SEM). Results indicate that, safety leadership improves the safety citizenship behavior among the workers of high risk organizations, however it has also been linked with the citizenship fatigue. Research limitations and future directions are also discussed.