Organization-Level Safety Climate and Worker Behavior in the Oil and Gas Industry: The Mediating Role of the “Company Man” Leadership Attributes

Abstract

Background:

Using the intelligence leadership model as a conceptual framework, this study examined the relationship between organization-level safety climate and two dimensions of worker safety behavior (worker safety participation and workers safety engagement) and how this relationship could be affected by workers perceived safety leadership traits of the person in charge.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 105 oil and gas field workers from multiple contractor companies across eight sites in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Participants completed a comprehensive 53-item self-administered questionnaire designed to assess three constructs: safety leadership intelligence (emotional intelligence [six items], rational intelligence [four items], and spiritual intelligence [six items]), organization-level safety climate (16 items), and worker safety behavior (safety participation [five items] and safety engagement [four items]). Study hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling analysis.

Findings:

The results showed significant direct and indirect pathways between organization-level safety climate and worker safety behavior (worker safety participation and worker safety engagement), through safety intelligence leadership attributes (emotional, rational, and spiritual). Specifically, perceived person-in-charge’s (PIC) leadership attributes related to emotional safety intelligence were found to both fully and partially mediate the relationship with worker safety participation and worker safety engagement respectively.

Conclusions/Application to Practice:

In high-risk, high-pressure environments, workers are more likely to engage in proactive safety behaviors when they perceive their leaders as empathetic, emotionally self-aware, and capable of fostering genuine interactions. This type of influence cannot be mandated by authority alone, nor achieved just by charisma; it must be earned through emotional connections.