A recent research project has concluded that age and gender of workplace leaders are less important characteristics than leaders who display empathy and involvement.
Funded by the Global Safety Evidence Centre at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, researchers analysed over 80 research papers to examine how senior management contributes to health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace.
Not surprisingly, the main conclusion from the research found that senior management involvement is the ‘cornerstone’ of an effective safety culture. More interestingly, the analysis found that workers respond more positively to leaders who show empathy and who openly display their personality.
The majority of leaders from the study were men in their 40s and 50s, but age and gender were perceived by the workforce as being much less important than their leadership style and their integrity.
Leadership styles that were found to be most effective were those where leaders openly showed care for employee wellbeing and ethical considerations.
The study linked leadership style to positive safety and wellbeing outcomes, including reduced accidents and less employee sickness. Companies with respected leaders had more positive safety cultures, while companies with leaders who were perceived as being over-confident and focused on short-term gains had more accidents and much more absence from sickness.
Nick Fahy, Director of Research at RAND Europe, an organisation that helps improve policy and decision-making through research, commented: “This research highlights a range of ways in which senior leaders influence safety, as well as the actions, motivations and roles that appear most effective.”
The report identifies that fostering a ‘just culture’ can reap massive benefits. Fathy says: “Organisational leadership is frequently praised as a cornerstone of safety culture. But beyond the rhetoric, what does effective leadership look like in practice? It is one this for executives to endorse a safety policy; it’s another for them to show through their decisions and behaviour that they are driving fewer injuries, stronger reporting culture, and healthier workplaces.”
The research was conducted in collaboration with the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), to support the development of a proposed new international standard focused on ‘leadership and governance’.
Good safety and wellbeing performance is not only a matter of policy but also a reflection of who leads and how they lead.
AHH support their clients to help them build positive safety and wellbeing cultures, through the TEAM=SUCCESS programme.
Please get in contact if you would like more information about TEAM=SUCCESS.
By Norman Thomson