Abstract: Safety motivation is an important determinant of employees’ safety behavior in the routine work. Despite continued recognition of the important effect of safety motivation, empirical research lacks clear theoretical framework and useful measurement instruments. The present research intends to borrow the classification of motivation from self-determination theory to enrich the types of safety motivation, and investigate the mediating role of safety motivation among transformational leadership, individual characteristics and safety performance, and also the boundary condition within Chinese management context based on the model of safety performance. Methods such as interviews, questionnaires and scenarios will be used to explore the correlation or cause and effect relations among these variables. Theoretically, the research combines self-determination theory and the model of safety performance to contribute motivation theory in safety domain. Practically, the results would have significant implications for leadership training and safety performance management.

Key words: Safety performance, Safety leadership, Safety motivation, Behavioral-based safety