Salāmat-i kār-i Īrān (May 2020)
The Effect Of Transformational Leadership Style And Safety Consciousness As Predictors Of Occupational Injury In Abadan Health Center Staff.
Abstract
Introduction: To survive and achieve competitive successes in the dynamic milieu of modern global competition, organizations should not only coordinate with the evolutions of advanced society but also predict the trajectory of changes and transformations. They ought to be able to lead these changes towards the development of desirable performance in employees for giving rise to a better future. Since leadership is considered as a fundamental process of any organization; moreover, organizations praise or blame the leadership of organizations for any success or failure, we can claim that the attitudes and perspectives of individuals in organizations depend on the leadership style of organizations. Undoubtedly, one of the influential factors in the development of human societies is the leadership styles of managers over their subordinates. Occupational hazards are of the main difficulties in occupational health. Many employees spend more than one-third of their lives in their working environments, where they encounter varying occupational hazards. We witness numerous occupational diseases and events in different occupations every day. By inspecting them, we find out that unsafe behavior is usually the main causing factor. According to the occupational health and safety law, occupational diseases are considered as an illness raised because of exposition to any physical and chemical hazards or biological factors, such that they damage the normal physiological mechanisms and bring about health disorders in working individuals. It is because, in addition to triggering musculoskeletal disorders, hyperacusis, cancer, psychological disorders, cardiovascular side effects, etc., these hazards can eliminate the workforce and impose severe financial losses on the economic system of society by resulting in therapeutic expenses. Furthermore, by leading to occupational injuries, occupational hazards can impact the performance of personnel, increase the risk of job burnout, and decrease job satisfaction. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of the transformational leadership style on predicting occupational injuries in the employees of the Abadan Health Center. Methods and Materials: The present study had a correlational design and employed structural equation modeling (SEM). The statistical population of the study was all employees of the Abadan Health Center (environmental health, schools, nutrition, mothers, professional health, and statistic offices). The samples were selected by the random sampling method. Since the distribution ratio of employees varied in the different parts of the organization, we took into account the same ratio in selecting the samples to reduce sampling error. Because the study was correlational and employed structural equation modeling, the minimum sample size was 15 individuals for every predictive variable. This research had four predictive variables, including leadership style, safety consciousness, safety-related events, and occupational injuries. Likewise, it had eight demographic variables, including gender, age, education, marital status, history, responsibility kind, employment status, and management experience. Since the statistical population of this study comprised 208 individuals, we, finally, used the Cochranchr('39')s formula and random sampling method and selected 135 employees as the sample size of our research. To observe this minimum size and due to the fact that some questionnaires would not fully be filled out by the respondents or some employees might be disinterested in participating in the study, we selected more employees, almost 145 individuals, using the random sampling method. The inclusion criteria for the study were working in any organizational segments and being randomly selected from their colleagues, and the exclusion criteria to the study were filling out the questionnaires incompletely and displaying disinterest in taking part in the research. The return rate of the surveys was 95 percent. By considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, we imported 145 employees with an age range between 20 and 50 to the study. Among the employees participating in the research, 79.9% were female, 62.7% were married, 60% had an associate degree, 6.9% had over 20 years of working experience, 34.9% were sanitarian, 32.5% were permanently employed, and 19.4% had management experience. To measure the data, we used the The 12-Item transformational leadership style of supervisor Scale (Bass and Avoli. 1990). The questions of this scale are based on the transformational interaction style of a supervisor with his employees. For example, “my supervisor encourages me to assert my ideas and perspectives respecting the improvement in the safety of working environment” and "my supervisor talks with me about the significance of observing safety problems." This scale is based on a five-point Likert measure ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). We calculated the reliability coefficient of this research at 88% using the Cronbach alpha method. Safety consciousne With its five sections (Westaby and Lee 2003) measures the awareness and perception rates of employees towards safety issues. Example questions of this scale are, “I don’t use the equipment I feel they are unsafe.” and “I always use protective equipment or wear the requisite clothes for my job." This scale is based on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). Using the Cronbach alpha method, we calculated the reliability coefficient of this scale at 84%. The safety-related events scale with nine items (Barling et al. 2002) provides us with information on the frequency of the safety-related events during the past month. An example of the questions of this scale is, “how many times have you been exposed to chemical materials or been in place without proper ventilation?” It is based on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (more than five times). The reliability coefficient of this scale was 77% for the present study. Occupational injuries scale which is a 10-item instrument (Barling et al. 2002) gives us information on the events that employees have experienced in their jobs during the past month. It is a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (more than five times). An instance of the questions of this scale is, “how many times have you suffered from pulmonary injuries?” The reliability coefficient of this scale was 0.77 for this research. We employed the SPSS 18 and AMOS software to analyze the data and determine the regression weights in the structural equations. To investigate the manipulating factors, we provided the sample members with a calm, no distraction, and intimate environment so that they could fill out the questionnaires, conveniently. Likewise, the employees verbally declared their consent regarding their participation in the study. To prevent bias in the responses, we assured the employees that their responses would not be disclosed. Moreover, in compiling the questions of the survey, we attempted not to include value statements; otherwise, they would provoke the employeeschr('39') sensitivity, and; consequently, result in bias in the responses. Results: To test the hypothesized effects among transformational leadership style, safety consciousness, safety-related events, and occupational injuries, we employed regression analysis and structural equation modeling. The mentioned coefficients for every path are presented in Table 2. Concerning the findings of the Table, the safety-related events had a significant effect on occupational injuries, and the transformational leadership style had a significant effect on safety consciousness (p<0.05), indicating the significance of the two paths of the model. The transformational leadership style did not have a significant effect on safety-related events. The results of Table 2 demonstrate that the probability value is 0.5 at the 0.05% significance level. This hypothesis is rejected since the probability value is larger than the significance level. Similarly, the safety consciousness hypothesis did not have a significant effect on safety-related events since the probability value was 0.2 at the 0.05% significance level, and; thus, it was larger than the significance level. As observed in Table 2, the results of testing the total indices of the study’s model fit by the path analysis and AMOS software confirms the goodness of fit of the proposed model. Concerning Table 3, it was specified that the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) in this research equaled 76%, which was smaller than 0.1. Thus, we can conclude that the model’s goodness of fit is perfect. Conclusion: According to the findings of the study, the employees of the Health center are always exposed to potential occupational hazards and work in hazardous conditions. This can negatively affect the mental and somatic health of the employees of these environments. Furthermore, the transformational leadership styles of managers reinforce safety relationships among the managers and employees of an organization. When employees perceive their managers’ support and infer that the managers of organizations care about their well-being and safety, they are more inclined to preserve their safety consciousness. Therefore, we recommend the organizations’ managers expend proper budgets to supply requisite equipment and minimize the occupational hazards of the employees in healthcare centers. Accordingly, we can claim that this research has both theoretical and applied consequences. Erecting regular sessions and encouraging employees to express difficulties and insufficiencies that exist in the working environment, along with embarking on solving difficulties and creating appropriate processes in organizations for the management of occupational injuries, are examples of applied consequences. Meanwhile, the sufficient financing of budgets paves the way for the periodical somatic and psychological examinations of the employees. At the theoretical level, the findings of this study can assist with the enrichment of the current theories associated with the transformational leadership style. Likewise, we suggest the repetition of similar questionnaires concerning the leadership style and occupational injuries of individuals in organizations at certain time intervals (for example, during biannual programs). Future studies may address the effect of environmental factors on occupational injuries and present new hypotheses within the framework of the researches related to occupational injuries. The main limitation of this study was the use of self-report instruments. Since the under-study variables dealt with humanistic variables, we could not easily conclude regardless of other influential factors such as the environment. Carelessness and negligence in filling out the questionnaires, small sample size, and time restriction are of the other limitations of the study. The present study was confined to the employees of an organization. Hence, we suggest future studies replicate this research in other organizations, as well as larger and more diverse populations, in terms of sample size and gender so that they can compare the results.
