Empowering team leadership and safety performance in nuclear power plants: A multilevel approach

Despite the large body of work on team leadership, hardly any literature has dealt with team leadership in safety performance settings. The goal of the present study is to analyze how team leader behaviors influence team members’ safety performance in nuclear power plants. For this purpose, an empowering leadership approach was assessed. We consider a multilevel model in which safety performance is divided into three types of behaviors. The sample was composed of 479 workers in 54 groups from two Spanish nuclear power plants. The results suggested that leaders’ empowering behaviors generated higher safety compliance behaviors and higher safety participation behaviors by team members, whereas risky behaviors were reduced. Empirical support was found for hierarchical linear modeling linking leadership and safety performance behaviors. Practical implications, study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

• Safety compliance, safety participation and risky behavior shape the safety performance model. • Empowering team leadership positively predicts safety compliance. • Empowering team leadership positively predicts safety participation. • Empowering team leadership negatively predicts risky behaviors.