Transformational leadership and management safety practices: Their role in the relationship between work pressure and compliance with safety work behaviour in a health-care sector industry

Abstract

This study examined both the direct and interactive effects on employee compliance to safety work behaviour of perceived work pressure, transformational leadership behaviour, and organisation management safety practices. Study participants were 208 nurses from public hospitals in South-eastern, Nigeria. The employees completed surveys on transformational leadership, management safety practices, work pressure, and compliance to safety work behaviour. Following moderated hierarchical regression analysis, the results indicated perceived work pressure to be associated with lower compliance with safety work behaviour. Further, transformational leadership behaviour was associated with a sense of reduced work pressure and increased compliance with safety work behaviour, but not management safety practices. Work pressure, in interaction with transformational leadership style, had a moderating effect on employee compliance with safety work behaviour. The results of the study imply that transformational leadership behaviour may enhance employees’ compliance with safety work behaviour in a health-care sector setting, regardless of employee perceptions of work pressure.