Organizational Ethics, Leader-Member Exchange, and Organizational Support: Relationships With Workplace Safety

Abstract

The current study explores how employee safety knowledge and behaviors are affected by employees’ perceptions of management’s concern for safety, perceived organizational ethics, perceived organizational support, and leader—member exchange. A field sample of 188 employees from several U.S. locations of a large multinational drilling company participated in the study. Results indicated that perceived organizational ethics, perceived organizational support, and leader—member exchange are indirectly associated with employees’ safety knowledge and behaviors. The current study demonstrates that organizations should pay particular attention to the organizational context within which safety messages are transmitted. Differences in employee perceptions of this context may affect the effectiveness of the message. The findings also demonstrated strong support for a model linking perceptions of ethics, perceptions of support, and leader—member exchange as important mediating elements in the effective transfer of management’s concern for safety to actual employee safety knowledge and behavior.