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.
