Safety leadership, risk management and safety performance in Spanish firms

This paper aims to study the role of the safety leadership and of the proactive risk management in the improvement of occupational safety performance. To this end, the authors develop and test a model on a sample of 188 organisations located in Spain using the structural equation modelling technique. The results show the importance of employees’ safety behaviour in the improvement of safety outcomes, as well as the importance of the proactive risk management and transformational leadership in promoting safety behaviour. These findings are particularly important for management since they provide evidence about the factors that firms should encourage to reduce risks and improve safety performance. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.