The Effects of a Coaching Program for Corporate Managers and the Mediating Role of Commitment-Based Safety Leadership

This study empirically investigates the effectiveness of a safety leadership coaching program targeting managers and executives in the manufacturing sector. In the context of increasing demands for serious accident prevention and the establishment of a robust safety culture in industrial settings, the development of managerial safety leadership capabilities has become essential. To address this need, a six-week coaching program based on the GROW model was developed and implemented. The program aimed to enhance field-oriented leadership competencies and promote safety behavior among employees. A total of 158 managers and 830 employees from manufacturing sites participated in the study. Using a pre-post design, changes in leadership behaviors and employee safety actions were measured through validated survey instruments. Data were analyzed using reliability testing, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesized relationships. The results revealed that participation in the coaching program significantly improved the managers’ field-oriented safety leadership, which in turn positively influenced employees’ proactive and participative safety behaviors. Moreover, the analysis confirmed that changes in managerial leadership served as a mediating factor between the coaching intervention and employees’ safety behavior, thereby contributing to the enhancement of the overall organizational safety culture. This study provides empirical evidence that coaching-based leadership development for managers can effectively drive actual changes in employee safety behavior. It further emphasizes the importance of moving beyond short-term, lecture-based training toward sustainable, coaching-driven interventions to advance safety leadership and foster a mature safety culture in industrial organizations.