Over the past 15 years in safety, the phrase “winning hearts and minds” has been used in presentations at conferences worldwide. There is agreement that the best safety cultures come when everyone involved takes ownership for safety and is empowered to develop, communicate and use the safest possible work conditions and practices, all tenets of transformational leadership (Rehman & Waheed, 2012).
There is agreement that the best safety cultures come when hierarchal directives and transactional chores are replaced with mutual respect, lateral communication and acknowledgment of expertise regardless of position, all tenets of servant leadership (Dierendonck, 2011) and high-reliability principles (Boin & Schulman, 2008). There is agreement that one leadership style cannot be sufficient for all the dynamics in a workplace or society, so contingency (Hanisch & Wald, 2012) and situational leadership (Hersey & Blanchard, 1987) are good. There is agreement that operations must continue with as little disruption as possible and that safety should assist them, not impair them.