Abstract
Safety behavior is the most critical task for air traffic controllers and other air traffic safety (ATS) employees. The literature shows that one of the main antecedents for ensuring safety is leadership. Yet, the understanding of leadership within air traffic control (ATC) is very limited. Drawing on both social learning theory and social exchange theory, the current research proposes and investigates the relationship between leadership aspects and ATS employees’ safety behaviors. Data were obtained from 49 ATS employees of a European air navigation service provider (ANSP), who rated their current supervisor's servant leadership, trustworthiness, leader-member exchange, and support for safety as well as their own safety compliance and safety citizenship behavior during one to five consecutive shifts. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed, unexpectedly, a significant negative association between supervisors’ trustworthiness and employees’ safety citizenship behavior. None of the other hypothesized relationships was significant. These findings as well as additional findings from post-hoc interviews and open comment fields suggest that the specific ATC context may require different processes than other industries. Additionally, trustworthiness may be related to lower safety citizenship behavior, possibly because ATS employees believe trustworthy supervisors take care of everything. Although a closer additional examination is warranted, ANSPs might want to take into account difficulties associated with supervisors’ trustworthiness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 105118 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-17 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Safety Science |
| Volume | 135 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2021 |
Funding
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: This work was supported by the Belgocontrol Chair on Human Factors and Leadership in Aviation Safety from the KU Leuven. The research topic was defined in mutual deliberation between funding source Belgocontrol (now skeyes) and researchers. While study design and collection were developed by the researchers, the funding source had minor input in these aspects as well. However, the funding source was not involved in the analysis, interpretation of data, writing of the report, and the decision to submit the article for publication. The research is disinterested and conducted impartially.
Keywords
- Air traffic control
- Leader-member exchange
- Safety behavior
- Servant leadership
- Supervisor support for safety
- Trustworthiness
