Ethical VS abusive leadership: How construction project manager influences workers’ safety behavior with the mediating role of alcohol use and moderating role of alcohol climate

This study aimed to undertake a time-series, multi-level investigation involving construction project managers and workers to assess the influence of ethical or abusive leadership on safety behavior, considering workers’ alcohol use and moderated by the alcohol climate in construction projects. The study sample consisted of 266 project managers and 1,596 workers from 266 construction projects across China. Data was collected through a three-wave time-series survey in a mutual-evaluation format, depending on the causal inference between each variable. The direct effects, mediation, and moderation effects were assessed using the Multilevel Structural Equation Modelling (MSEM). The results show that ethical leadership has a positive impact on safety behavior, while abusive leadership has a negative impact. Alcohol use plays a full mediating role in these relationships. Additionally, there is clear evidence to support that the alcohol climate plays a moderating role, weakening the influence of ethical or abusive leadership on safety behavior. This study suggests that project managers should be encouraged to practice ethical leadership rather than abusive leadership, as this can improve workers’ safety behavior through reducing workers’ alcohol use. At the same time, attention should be paid to controlling the alcohol climate in construction projects, as it can undermine project managers’ efforts to improve workers’ safety behavior.