The Effects of Safety Culture and Ethical Leadership on Safety Performance
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Dissertations and Theses 7-2016 The Effects of Safety Culture and Ethical Leadership on Safety Performance Kevin O’Leary Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.erau.edu/edt Part of the Aviation Safety and Security Commons, and the Leadership Studies Commons Scholarly Commons Citation O’Leary, Kevin, "The Effects of Safety Culture and Ethical Leadership on Safety Performance" (2016). Dissertations and Theses. 201. https://commons.erau.edu/edt/201 This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE EFFECTS OF SAFETY CULTURE AND ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON SAFETY PERFORMANCE by Kevin O’Leary A Dissertation Submitted to the College of Aviation in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Aviation Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach, Florida July 2016 © 2016 Kevin O’Leary All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Researcher: Kevin O’Leary Title: THE EFFECTS OF SAFETY CULTURE AND ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON SAFETY PERFORMANCE Institution: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Degree: Doctor of Philosophy in Aviation Year: 2016 This dissertation investigated the effects of safety culture and ethical leadership on safety performance in Fractional jet pilots in the United States. The primary objective was to develop a well-fitted model linking these constructs. A composite survey instrument was developed from instruments previously validated in the literature. There were 305 complete and valid responses from Fractional pilots. The hypothesized factor structure consisted of seven factors. The exogenous factor of safety culture was made up of four sub-factors. The endogenous factors included ethical leadership, pilot commitment, and safety performance. Safety performance was a second order factor consisting of errors and attitudes to violations. The hypothesized model was not well fit for the data; therefore, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. The new model consisted of three factors: safety culture new, ethical leadership new, and not following procedures. A structural equation model was developed to test the relationships between constructs. Safety culture new demonstrated a strong and significant positive effect on ethical leadership new. Safety culture new, unexpectedly, did not have a significant negative relationship with not following procedures. Additionally, ethical leadership new did not have a significant negative effect on not following procedures. These findings iii conflicted with previous studies in the literature that confirmed a significant relationship between both safety culture and ethical leadership with safety behavior. The main finding illuminates the influence of safety culture new on ethical leadership new. Additional findings showed the factor structure for most of the previously validated survey instruments was not maintained in this study with the Fractional pilot data. iv DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my parents, wife, and children. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my parents for their countless sacrifices. I would like to thank Ms. Cavallo and my other teachers who combined learning with both encouragement and discipline. I would like to thank Major Ed Donnelly and Rich Heckman for their mentorship and friendship. I would like to thank my ERAU student friends for their encouragement. I would like thank Dr. Goodheart, Dr. Freiwald, Dr. M.J. Smith, and many others for their help. I would like to thank my former and present staff for their encouragement, assistance, and dedication. I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Alan Stolzer, for his assistance, insights, quick revisions, and patience. I would like thank both Dr. Truong and Dr. Goodheart for their many hours of encouragement and coaching. I would like to thank Dr. O’Toole for his safety insights as well as the remainder of my committee. I would like to thank the ERAU faculty, staff, and Susie for all the help over the years. I would like to thank those who assisted with the collection of data. The ERAU alumni relations department and several key ERAU alumni contributed immensely to data collection. I would like to thank Chad, Amy, Bill, Curt, Dave, and many others who assisted in soliciting respondents. I would finally like to thank my family and especially my wife, Julie, who has acted as a single parent for most weekends for the last six years. I cannot thank you enough for allowing me the opportunity to complete this degree. You are a great mom and wife and for you I am now Dr. “Owe”. I would also like to thank my daughter, Shannon, who allowed me to be away for her so much time during a very important time vi in her life. I would like to thank my boys Connor and Trevor for their sacrifices during this journey. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Committee Signature Page ................................................................................................. ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication ............................................................................................................................v Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ vi List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter I Introduction ...............................................................................................1 Significance of the Study .................................................................6 Purpose Statement ............................................................................6 Hypothesis [Research Question or equivalent] ................................7 Delimitations ....................................................................................7 Limitations and Assumptions ..........................................................8 Definition of Terms..........................................................................9 List of Acronyms .............................................................................9 Chapter II Review of the Relevant Literature ...........................................................11 Introduction ....................................................................................11 Accident Investigation ...................................................................13 Pilot Error Causing Accidents .......................................................14 Human Error ..................................................................................15 Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) .....16 Culture............................................................................................17 viii Safety Culture ................................................................................19 Safety Climate ................................................................................20 Safety Climate and Culture as Predictors of Safety Performance .21 Employee Commitment to the Organization .................................28 Ethics..............................................................................................29 Ethical Leadership .........................................................................30 Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS) .....................................................31 Ethics as a Predictor of Behavior ...................................................33 Criterion or Self-Reported Outcomes ............................................33 Criterion Based Outcomes in Aviation ..........................................35 Criterion Measurement Variability and Reliability .......................36 Self-Reporting Outcomes...............................................................37 Consistent Methodology ................................................................38 Hypotheses .....................................................................................38 Hypothesized SEM Model .............................................................40 Summary ........................................................................................40 Chapter III Methodology ..........................................................................................42 Research Approach ........................................................................42 Design and Procedures .......................................................44 Apparatus and Materials ....................................................46 Population/Sample .........................................................................46 Sources of the Data ........................................................................49 Data Collection Device / Survey Design .......................................50 ix Safety culture (SC) .............................................................50 Pilot commitment to AMC (PC) ........................................51 Ethical leadership (EL) ......................................................51 Pilots’ own attitude to violations (AT) ..............................51 Pilot error