Navigating leadership styles through qualitative exploration for enhanced safety in the construction sector

The construction sector faces high safety risks, requiring effective safety leadership to reduce accidents and improve performance. In this context, four themes are crucial: safety leadership styles, their impact on safety climate and performance, and constructs for evaluating these measures. Despite their importance, systematic reviews on these themes, particularly in the construction industry, are lacking. This study aims to fill this gap by systematically reviewing and qualitatively exploring the literature on safety leadership in construction, focusing specifically on these four themes. 44 relevant articles from 1978 to 2023 on safety leadership in the construction industry were identified using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol and Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) Version 2018. Data was analyzed using Excel 2013 to identify countries, sources, and research methods contributing to the field. The research discovered that most current efforts are centred on transformational leadership, safety-specific transformational leadership, transactional leadership, safety climate, and safety performance. The findings suggest combining transformational and safety-specific transactional leadership can enhance safety climate and safety performance. This study elucidates the influence of various safety leadership styles on safety climate and performance in the construction industry, offering insights for effective strategies to enhance safety outcomes. It identifies research gaps, paving the way for future safety interventions and training programs, thereby serving as a crucial resource for practitioners aiming to bolster safety leadership and foster safer work environments. This article is the first to offer a deeper insight into the current research on construction safety leadership and its various styles. It also details the effects of different safety leadership styles on safety measures through a systematic literature review.