Supervisor's Role in Managing Employee Stress and Safety Compliance

The current study proposes a moderated mediation model to explain how stressors may affect safety compliance both directly and indirectly through emotional exhaustion while examining the moderating role of supervisor support. Specifically, the model suggests that constraints (a form of hindrance stressor) are negatively related to safety compliance, and that emotional exhaustion mediates this relationship. The model also proposes that supervisor support moderates the mediated relationship such that individuals receiving high supervisor support experience less emotional exhaustion and consequently are more likely to comply with safety procedures compared to those who receive low levels of supervisor support. The model was tested using a sample of employees doing construction type work in a public sector organization. Results supported Hypotheses 1 and 2, indicating that constraints were negatively related to safety compliance, and that emotional exhaustion partially mediates the relationship between constraints and safety compliance. Results did not support hypotheses 3, 4a, and 4b, failing to show a significant relationship between supervisor support and safety compliance, and failing to show that supervisor support moderated the indirect or direct effects between constraints and safety compliance.