Leader and subordinate perceptions impact different elements of safety reporting

Previous research has demonstrated how the leader–subordinate relationship can impact safety, but their respective perceptions could have different influences on different elements of safety-related behaviors. The current study analyzed a large sample (N > 11,000) to explore how leader and subordinate perceptions could influence three safety-related issues: safety underreporting, where the individual knowingly withholds safety information from the organization; near misses, where the situation could have resulted in injury but did not; and frequency of actual safety incident reporting. As both leader perceptions and subordinate perceptions became more negative, problematic safety-related issues increased. Leader and subordinate perceptions most strongly affected safety underreporting with a moderate relationship to the likelihood of experiencing a near miss, and the weakest (although statistically significant) relationship to actual safety reporting. Although safety underreporting is affected most, leader and subordinate perceptions can have a robust influence upon multiple aspects of safety climate.