IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/beexfi/v46y2025ics2214635025000371.html

Leading safely: The impact of generalist CEOs on workplace safety

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Tony Xiaochi
  • Molchanov, Alexander
  • Nguyen, Harvey
  • Pham, Mia Hang

Abstract

Businesses are expected to operate as responsible corporate entities, with employee safety serving as a cornerstone of this responsibility. Executives, as corporate leaders, bear moral and ethical obligations to ensure the well-being of their workforce. Drawing on human capital and upper echelons theories, we examine the influence of executives' transferable skills on workplace safety outcomes. We find that chief executive officers (CEOs) with general managerial human capital significantly contribute to the creation of safer work environments. The relation is more pronounced in firms facing financing constraints or intense market competition. These CEOs improve safety outcomes by making more prudent labor investment decisions, reducing employee workloads, and maintaining high information quality. Overall, our study underscores the pivotal role of CEOs' general managerial human capital in promoting employee well-being and mitigating the potential adverse consequences of occupational hazards on firm performance. JEL classification: J28; M12; M54

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Tony Xiaochi & Molchanov, Alexander & Nguyen, Harvey & Pham, Mia Hang, 2025. "Leading safely: The impact of generalist CEOs on workplace safety," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:46:y:2025:i:c:s2214635025000371
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbef.2025.101056
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214635025000371
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbef.2025.101056?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anantharaman, Divya & Lee, Yong Gyu, 2014. "Managerial risk taking incentives and corporate pension policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 328-351.
    2. Mayowa T. Babalola & Matthijs Bal & Charles H. Cho & Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo & Omrane Guedhami & Hao Liang & Greg Shailer & Suzanne Gils, 2022. "Bringing Excitement to Empirical Business Ethics Research: Thoughts on the Future of Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 903-916, October.
    3. Chen, Tao & Dong, Hui & Lin, Chen, 2020. "Institutional shareholders and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 483-504.
    4. Lamont, Owen & Polk, Christopher & Saa-Requejo, Jesus, 2001. "Financial Constraints and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 529-554.
    5. Jody Hoffer Gittell, 2002. "Coordinating Mechanisms in Care Provider Groups: Relational Coordination as a Mediator and Input Uncertainty as a Moderator of Performance Effects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(11), pages 1408-1426, November.
    6. Gerard Hoberg & Gordon Phillips & Nagpurnanand Prabhala, 2014. "Product Market Threats, Payouts, and Financial Flexibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 293-324, February.
    7. Caskey, Judson & Ozel, N. Bugra, 2017. "Earnings expectations and employee safety," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 121-141.
    8. Hu, Conghui & Liu, Yu-Jane, 2015. "Valuing diversity: CEOs' career experiences and corporate investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 11-31.
    9. Kai Li & Feng Mai & Rui Shen & Xinyan Yan, 2021. "Measuring Corporate Culture Using Machine Learning [Machine learning methods that economists should know about]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(7), pages 3265-3315.
    10. Xu, Yan & Xu, Nianhang & Chan, Kam C. & Li, Zhe, 2021. "Generalists vs. specialists: Who are better acquirers?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    11. Dan Amiram & Zahn Bozanic & Ethan Rouen, 2015. "Erratum to: Financial statement errors: evidence from the distributional properties of financial statement numbers," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1594-1595, December.
    12. Leonid Kogan & Dimitris Papanikolaou & Amit Seru & Noah Stoffman, 2017. "Technological Innovation, Resource Allocation, and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(2), pages 665-712.
    13. Seru, Amit, 2014. "Firm boundaries matter: Evidence from conglomerates and R&D activity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 381-405.
    14. Jonathan Cohn & Nicole Nestoriak & Malcolm Wardlaw & Wei Jiang, 2021. "Private Equity Buyouts and Workplace Safety," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(10), pages 4832-4875.
    15. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2003. "Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1043-1075, October.
    16. McManus, T. Clay & Schaur, Georg, 2016. "The effects of import competition on worker health," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 160-172.
    17. Vivian W. Fang & Xuan Tian & Sheri Tice, 2014. "Does Stock Liquidity Enhance or Impede Firm Innovation?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2085-2125, October.
    18. Ee, Mong Shan & Hasan, Iftekhar & Huang, He, 2022. "Stock liquidity and corporate labor investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Edmans, Alex, 2011. "Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 621-640, September.
    20. Pham, Mia Hang, 2020. "In law we trust: Lawyer CEOs and stock liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    21. Chen, Jie & Liu, Xicheng & Song, Wei & Zhou, Si, 2020. "General managerial skills and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 43-59.
    22. Joon Mahn Lee & Jung Chul Park & Guoli Chen, 2023. "A cognitive perspective on real options investment: CEO overconfidence," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 1084-1110, April.
    23. Pham, Mia Hang & Merkoulova, Yulia & Veld, Chris, 2024. "Award-winning CEOs and corporate innovation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    24. Custódio, Cláudia & Ferreira, Miguel A. & Matos, Pedro, 2013. "Generalists versus specialists: Lifetime work experience and chief executive officer pay," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 471-492.
    25. Shane A. Corwin & Paul Schultz, 2012. "A Simple Way to Estimate Bid‐Ask Spreads from Daily High and Low Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 719-760, April.
    26. Richard J. Gentry & Joseph S. Harrison & Timothy J. Quigley & Steven Boivie, 2021. "A database of CEO turnover and dismissal in S&P 1500 firms, 2000–2018," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 968-991, May.
    27. Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "Does Competition Destroy Ethical Behavior?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 414-418, May.
    28. Chen, Chen & Chen, Yangyang & Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Podolski, Edward J., 2016. "Be nice to your innovators: Employee treatment and corporate innovation performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 78-98.
    29. Cheng, Shijun, 2008. "Board size and the variability of corporate performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 157-176, January.
    30. Patricia Boyallian & Pablo Ruiz-Verdú, 2018. "Leverage, CEO Risk-Taking Incentives, and Bank Failure during the 2007–10 Financial Crisis [Endogenous matching and the empirical determinants of contract form]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(5), pages 1763-1805.
    31. Evanschitzky, Heiner & Wangenheim, Florian v. & Wünderlich, Nancy V., 2012. "Perils of Managing the Service Profit Chain: The Role of Time Lags and Feedback Loops," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 356-366.
    32. Wang, Ning & Hagedoorn, John, 2014. "The lag structure of the relationship between patenting and internal R&D revisited," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1275-1285.
    33. Liang, Claire Y. C. & Qi, Yaxuan & Zhang, Rengong (Alex) & Zhu, Haoran, 2023. "Does Sunlight Kill Germs? Stock Market Listing and Workplace Safety," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(4), pages 1645-1674, June.
    34. Jesper Haga & Fredrik Huhtamäki & Dennis Sundvik & Timmy Thor, 2024. "Nothing to fear: strong corporate culture and workplace safety," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 519-550, August.
    35. Daniel Bradley & Connie X. Mao & Chi Zhang, 2022. "Does Analyst Coverage Affect Workplace Safety?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3464-3487, May.
    36. Boochun Jung & Woo†Jong Lee & David P. Weber, 2014. "Financial Reporting Quality and Labor Investment Efficiency," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 1047-1076, December.
    37. Kai Li & Feng Mai & Rui Shen & Xinyan Yan, 2021. "Measuring Corporate Culture Using Machine Learning," NBER Chapters, in: Big Data: Long-Term Implications for Financial Markets and Firms, pages 3265-3315, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    38. Jonathan B. Cohn & Malcolm I. Wardlaw, 2016. "Financing Constraints and Workplace Safety," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(5), pages 2017-2058, October.
    39. Elisabeth Kempf & Alberto Manconi & Oliver Spalt, 2017. "Distracted Shareholders and Corporate Actions," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(5), pages 1660-1695.
    40. Najah Attig, 2024. "Relaxed Financial Constraints and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 111-131, January.
    41. repec:fth:harver:1473 is not listed on IDEAS
    42. Cao, Zhangfan & Rees, William, 2020. "Do employee-friendly firms invest more efficiently? Evidence from labor investment efficiency," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    43. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm Policies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1169-1208.
    44. Cain, Matthew D. & McKeon, Stephen B. & Solomon, Steven Davidoff, 2017. "Do takeover laws matter? Evidence from five decades of hostile takeovers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 464-485.
    45. Gong, Ning & Guo, Lixiong & Wang, Zhiyan, 2023. "Shareholder litigation and workplace safety," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    46. Xuan Wu & Yueting Li & Yangxin Yu, 2023. "CEO Inside Debt and Employee Workplace Safety," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 159-175, January.
    47. Chen, Yangyang & Ofosu, Emmanuel & Veeraraghavan, Madhu & Zolotoy, Leon, 2023. "Does CEO overconfidence affect workplace safety?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    48. Don O'Sullivan & Leon Zolotoy & Qingliang Fan, 2021. "CEO early‐life disaster experience and corporate social performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(11), pages 2137-2161, November.
    49. Mia Hang Pham & Yulia Merkoulova & Chris Veld, 2023. "Credit risk assessment and executives’ legal expertise," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 2361-2400, December.
    50. Cronqvist, Henrik & Yu, Frank, 2017. "Shaped by their daughters: Executives, female socialization, and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 543-562.
    51. Dan Amiram & Zahn Bozanic & Ethan Rouen, 2015. "Financial statement errors: evidence from the distributional properties of financial statement numbers," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1540-1593, December.
    52. Philippe Aghion & John Van Reenen & Luigi Zingales, 2013. "Innovation and Institutional Ownership," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 277-304, February.
    53. Betzer, André & Lee, Hye Seung (Grace) & Limbach, Peter & Salas, Jesus M., 2020. "Are Generalists Beneficial to Corporate Shareholders? Evidence from Exogenous Executive Turnovers," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(2), pages 581-619, March.
    54. Amin, Md Ruhul & Kim, Incheol & Lee, Suin, 2021. "Local religiosity, workplace safety, and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    55. Cláudia Custódio & Miguel A. Ferreira & Pedro Matos, 2019. "Do General Managerial Skills Spur Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 459-476, February.
    56. Jesper Haga & Fredrik Huhtamäki & Dennis Sundvik, 2022. "Ruthless Exploiters or Ethical Guardians of the Workforce? Powerful CEOs and their Impact on Workplace Safety and Health," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 641-663, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gao, Jingru & Dong, Yunhe, 2025. "The effect of managerial ability on workplace safety," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    2. Chen, Xuanyi & Tong, Jiarui, 2025. "Social trust and workplace safety," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    3. Li, Kenuo & Zhang, Lijuan, 2025. "Does share pledging affect workplace safety?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Zhong, Xi & She, Jianquan & Wu, Xiaojie, 2024. "Tech for social good: Artificial intelligence and workplace safety," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Islam, Emdad & Loriot, Blake & Rahman, Lubna, 2025. "The impact of product market competition on workplace safety," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Tran, Thanh & Nguyen, Harvey & Pham, Mia Hang, 2025. "Do financial markets value corporate culture?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Jesper Haga & Fredrik Huhtamäki & Dennis Sundvik & Timmy Thor, 2024. "Nothing to fear: strong corporate culture and workplace safety," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 519-550, August.
    8. Pham, Mia Hang & Merkoulova, Yulia & Veld, Chris, 2024. "Award-winning CEOs and corporate innovation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    9. Mia Hang Pham & Yulia Merkoulova & Chris Veld, 2023. "Credit risk assessment and executives’ legal expertise," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 2361-2400, December.
    10. Shen, Lingbo, 2022. "Essays on behavioral finance and corporate finance," Other publications TiSEM a9b98a25-a208-4ba6-9344-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Lili Dai & Rui Shen & Bohui Zhang, 2021. "Does the media spotlight burn or spur innovation?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 343-390, March.
    12. Kong, Dongmin & Zhang, Bohui & Zhang, Jian, 2022. "Higher education and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    13. Do, Truc (Peter) & Tan, Kelvin Jui Keng & Wu, Yanhui, 2025. "Health and creativity: Evidence from corporate innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(9).
    14. Nguyen, Harvey & Pham, Mia Hang & Vu, Van Hoang, 2025. "Executives’ early-life experience and corporate debt contracting: Evidence from CEO military experience," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Amin, Md Ruhul & Kim, Incheol & Lee, Suin, 2021. "Local religiosity, workplace safety, and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Hoang Vu, Ngan & Dang, Ha V. & Nguyen, Hung T. & Pham, Mia Hang, 2025. "Upholding integrity: The influence of executives’ backgrounds on corporate information environment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    17. Ee, Mong Shan & Hasan, Iftekhar & Huang, He, 2022. "Stock liquidity and corporate labor investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Wang, Xiaoqiong & Zhu, Xiaoyang, 2025. "Fading virtue, flourishing profits: Corporate social responsibility in the presence of competitor constraints," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    19. Deng, Saiying & Mao, Connie X. & Pu, Xiaoling & Xu, Yuan, 2023. "Import penetration and workplace safety," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 149-161.
    20. Adwan, Sami & Goncharenko, Galina & Liu, Siwen, 2024. "The impact of employee satisfaction on company's labour investment efficiency," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:46:y:2025:i:c:s2214635025000371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-behavioral-and-experimental-finance .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.