전력산업 원청의 안전리더십이 협력사 근로자의 안전행동에 미치는 영향 - EFQM 모형 기반 매개분석 - = The Influence of Principal Contractor Safety Leadership on Subcontractor Safety Behavior - An EFQM-Based Mediation Analysis in the Korean Power Industry -

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study was conducted to examine the structural influence of the principal contractor’s safety leadership on subcontractor workers’ safety behavior in the high-risk context of the Korean electric power industry. Industrial accidents remain disproportionately concentrated among subcontractors even after the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act and the revision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. To address this issue, the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model was applied to verify the mediating roles of enablers such as people, policy and strategy, and partnerships and resources, as well as processes, thereby providing both theoretical and practical implications for subcontractor safety management. Data were collected from 167 subcontractor employees in the electric power industry and analyzed using R 4.5.1. Each construct was calculated as a composite indicator based on averaged survey items, and interpretation focused on path coefficients and explained variance (R²). The analysis revealed that the principal contractor’s safety leadership had significant positive effects on people (β=.824, R²=.680), policy and strategy (β=.858, R²=.737), and partnerships and resources (β=.799, R²=.638). These three factors, in turn, influenced processes (R²=.857), which subsequently affected subcontractor workers’ safety behavior (R²=.568). In particular, safety leadership exerted the strongest effect on policy and strategy, while people played the most influential role at the process level. Processes were further confirmed as the core mediating factor explaining subcontractor safety behavior. These findings demonstrate that the effectiveness of safety leadership does not remain at a declarative level but is transmitted through enablers and processes to concrete behavioral outcomes. In conclusion, this study contributes academically by establishing subcontractor workers as an independent unit of analysis and by extending the application of the EFQM model to safety leadership research in the context of the electric power industry. Practically, the study suggests strategies for enhancing subcontractor safety management, including the systematic management of human resources, redesign of work procedures considering overlapping tasks, adoption of smart monitoring systems, and reinforcement of institutional support to strengthen implementation.