Leadership, resilience and safety outcomes: A study of Indian construction workers post-COVID-19
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Abstract
Worker safety remains a serious concern for the Indian construction industry, where unsafe worker behaviour is a key contributor to workplace accidents, and leadership has a strong impact on safety behaviour. Construction industry researchers have largely focused on how leadership styles and safety climate affect employees' overall satisfaction. Prior research suggests that the quality of the association between leaders and followers may relate to followers' resilience. Leader–member exchange (LMX) captures this relationship quality, defined by trust, mutual respect, support and role clarity between supervisors and workers. While earlier studies have generally treated LMX as a single, uniform construct, this study advances the literature by unpacking its four distinct sub-dimensions to better understand how each uniquely contributes to worker outcomes. By linking these sub-dimensions to resilience and safety behaviour amongst Indian construction workers in the post-coronavirus disease 2019 environment, this study offers a richer theoretical explanation and contextually relevant insights for strengthening leadership practices and safety management in high-risk settings. To reduce unsafe behaviour amongst construction workers, this study examined how the four sub-dimensions of LMX relate to employee resilience and safety behaviour. Hypothesised relationships were tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling, with data collected from 139 construction workers across various construction companies in the Delhi/National Capital Region using purposive sampling. Results show a positive association between all four LMX dimensions: affect, contribution, loyalty and professional respect, and employee resilience. Additionally, employees' capability to cope with adverse situations enhances their safety behaviour, indicating that despite pandemic-related challenges, leaders' support, emotional connection, mutual goal setting and inspirational motivation helped employees overcome adversity, fostering intrinsic motivation to abide by safety norms and engage actively in safety behaviour.
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