Background and Objective: Offshore oil and gas platforms have a high potential for major and critical events due to sensitive operating conditions, the existence of critical equipment, and significant volumes of hydrocarbon materials. This study aimed to investigate the effect of organizational leadership and safety climate on the occurrence of unsafe behaviors among employees of oil platforms.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 on five oil platform located in the Persian Gulf, Iran. The sample size was obtained at 291 employees. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and standard occupational safety climate questionnaire were used to assess the organizational leadership and safety climate, respectively. Furthermore, the unsafe behaviors checklist was utilized to determine the occurrence of unsafe behaviors based on the risk factors of accidents that have occurred at the oil platforms during the past 10 years.
Results: According to the results, there was a significant inverse relationship between leadership styles (i.e., transformational and transactional) and the occurrence of unsafe behaviors. Moreover, the study of the relationship between different dimensions of safety climate and the occurrence of unsafe behaviors showed that dimensions of safety at work correlated significantly with the probability of ignoring the error and the occurrence of unsafe behaviors.
Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that leadership styles (i.e., transformational and transactional), safety at work, and probability of ignoring errors in oil platforms are important and influential factors in the occurrence of unsafe behaviors.