The Effect of Ethical Leadership on Employee Health and Safety in the Oil and Gas Downstream Sector in Ghana: The Mediating Role of Safety Climate and Safety Culture

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of ethical leadership on employee health and safety using safety climate and safety culture as mediating variables. The study adopted the positivism philosophy, thus depending on the quantitative approach and explanatory research design. A convenience sampling technique was used to draw 226 pump attendants within the Accra Metropolis in Ghana using a self- administered questionnaire on the phenomenon for data analysis. The study data were processed using IBM SPSS (version 26) and SmartPLSSEM (version 3.3.3) software. Inferential statistics through the partial least square structural equation technique was adopted to examine the research objectives in the study. The result showed ethical leadership had a significant positive relationship with employee health and safety, safety climate and safety culture. Again, both safety climate and safety culture mediate ethical leadership and employee health and safety nexus. The study recommends that various stakeholders in the petroleum sector, particularly the National Petroleum Authority, Ministry of Energy and Chief Executive Officers of Oil marketing companies, should emphasize employing and promoting managers who are ethically leadership driven to occupy positions at the various fuel stations owned by either government or private sector. The study concludes that only ethical leaders won’t engage in unethical behaviour that will adversely affect employees and, by extension, the local and national economy. By so doing, ethical leadership will ensure the health and safety of employees are protected, which will benefit the company in terms of profit-making and boost both the local and national economies in Ghana. This study appeared to be a novelty within the context of the petroleum downstream sector in Ghana.