The effect of empowering leadership on miners' unsafe behavior: a cross-level chain mediation model

Abstract

Miners' unsafe behavior has always been a key issue in coal mine safety management. Numerous studies have shown that leadership is an important factor influencing miners' unsafe behavior. A cross-level structural model was constructed based on social cognitive theory, using psychological safety and safety climate as intermediary variables, to analyze the effect of empowering leadership on miners' unsafe behavior. Data were gathered from 272 coal miners on 59 working teams. Multilevel regression analysis and the Monte Carlo method were employed to analyze the influence of the empowering leadership on miners' unsafe behavior. The results showed that empowering leadership was negatively related to miners' unsafe behavior. Psychological safety and safety climate mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and miners' unsafe behavior, and also jointly mediated in the chain. These findings enrich existing research results on miners' unsafe behavior and provide a beneficial enlightenment to coal mine safety management.

Keywords: empowering leadership; miners’ unsafe behavior; psychological safety; safety climate.