Effective Leader Safety Storytelling: its attributes and outcomes

The Challenge

Current research indicates that leaders’ safety communication crucially enhances workers’ safety performance, reducing injury rates and fostering a strong safety climate. Specifically, safety storytelling by leaders is proposed as an effective communication method to influence these outcomes. Yet, despite the proposed effectiveness, there remains limited research on leaders’ safety storytelling. This has resulted in a lack of comprehensive conceptualisations – with valid and reliable measures – for describing and assessing leader safety storytelling and the impacts of these stories. This knowledge gap has restricted our understanding of how leaders construct and deliver safety stories that enhance workplace safety outcomes. Consequently, the practical development of leader safety storytelling as a skill has been hindered, potentially leaving a powerful safety communication tool underused. By conducting research to fill this gap, we can provide better guidance and training to leaders in safety storytelling, which may help strengthen organisations’ safety climate and improve workplace safety.

Proposed Solution

This project aims to enhance understanding of how leaders construct and deliver effective safety stories and their impact. My project (1) develops a taxonomy of the attributes associated with effective safety storytelling, (2) creates a valid and reliable measure for these attributes, and (3) links them to safety outcomes.

Proposed Benefits to WA

During 2021-22, WA’s mining sector reported one fatality and 458 lost-time injuries (LTIs). Although improvements in workplace safety have been made, these statistics suggest that more can be done. The proposed research on leader safety storytelling offers an additional tool for organisations to continue to improve safety in mining. By examining how leaders create and deliver impactful safety stories, the project aims to enhance the training and application of this communication method. This strategic enhancement in safety communication is anticipated to foster a safer work environment, promoting better safety behaviours among workers, and potentially leading to a decrease in accident and injury

rates. Ultimately, these outcomes suggests that the project can provide considerable economic, environmental and social benefits to WA’s mining sector. This includes lowering the economic and environmental costs associated with workplace incidents, as well as contributing to social well-being by enhancing workplace safety and fostering a positive culture.