Multicultural Working Teams and Safety Awareness: How Effective Leadership Can Motivate Safety Behaviour

Abstract

This empirical study focuses on the diversity of cultural values and leadership preferences in multicultural working teams and how this interaction makes it difficult to guarantee and motivate safety at the workfloor. It is often hypothesized that when employees from different national identities have to work together in one team, their different cultural backgrounds make a common mental state of safety awareness very complex. In managing this diversity of cultural values, the role of leadership style could be crucial. The results show that a cultural value as uncertainty avoidance clearly has its influence on safety awareness and that this outcome is mediated by the motivating leadership style.