Restaurant worker food safety and sanitation compliance behavior in times of crisis: an investigation of transactional leadership behavior effectiveness

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the use of the transactional leadership style (TLB) by restaurant managers and its effect on food safety compliance by restaurant employees in the United States. Utilizing parallel mediation analyses, the study investigated the impact that fear, responsibility, knowledge, and gain had on compliance. Results provide theoretical and practical implications related to the effective use of TLB in motivating compliance amongst employees. The importance of implementing disciplinary actions for noncompliance is suggested and results indicate that compliance was more likely when employees felt a sense of responsibility, understood food safety rules, and believed they would experience gain.KEYWORDS: Transactional leadership behaviorfood safetycomplianceinspections Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).