A study on safety climate as a moderator on the relationship between transformational leadership and safety performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the moderation effect of safety climate to relationship of transformational leadership and safety performance in an airline company in Kuala Lumpur. A total of 121 questionnaires received from engineers in maintenance department. Questionnaires distributed consist of four parts; Part A (Demography), Part B (Transformational Leadership), Section C (Safety Climate) and Section D (Safety Performance). The questionnaires used the instrument of Safety Performance Scale (SPS), Multilevel Leadership Scale (MLQ) and Safety Climate Scale (SCS). The data were analysed by using descriptive statistics (mean, average and percentage) and inferential statistics (simple regression and hierarchical regression). The findings revealed that the level of safety performance and transformational leadership in this airline company were at high level, while safety climate was at average level. The result explained that there was significant effect between transformational leadership and safety performance. However, the findings discovered that safety climate in this company did not moderate the relationship of transformational leadership and safety performance. Furthermore, in this study, theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions were given to the future researchers and also to the organization for future improvement.