Positive organizational behavior and safety in the offshore oil industry: Exploring the determinants of positive safety climate

摘要

Much research has now documented the substantial influence of safety climate on a range of important outcomes insafety critical organizations, but there has been scant attention to the question of what factors might be responsible forpositive or negative safety climate. The present paper draws from positive organizational behavior theory to testworkplace and individual factors that may affect safety climate. Specifically, we explore the potential influence ofauthentic leadership style and psychological capital on safety climate and risk outcomes. Across two samples of offshoreoil-workers and seafarers working on oil platform supply ships, structural equation modeling yielded results that supporta model in which authentic leadership exerts a direct effect on safety climate, as well as an indirect effect viapsychological capital. This study shows the importance of leadership qualities as well as psychological factors in shapinga positive work safety climate and lowering the risk of accidents.