Steering the path to safer food: The role of transformational leadership in food services to combat against foodborne illness

This paper zeroes in on transformational leadership as a central aspect in the promotion of food safety behavior within the food service industry of China, which is an important context in its fast-growing food sector. and global concern for foodborne diseases. Finding a void in the existing literature about the direct and indirect impacts of leadership styles on food safety practices, particularly in non-Western settings, our research examines how transformational leadership is related to food safety behavior via intrinsic motivation and food safety commitment of employees. Based on structural equation modeling through SMART-PLS, our study covers a comprehensive path analysis of the relationships between transformational leadership, employee intrinsic motivation, employee commitment towards food safety, and food safety behaviors among Chinese food service workers. The results show that transformational leadership has a noticeable direct impact on the food safety behavior of employees, that indirectly depends on intrinsic motivation and food safety commitment. The results highlight the role of leadership, which creates an organizational culture that values food safety and consequently decreases the risk of foodborne illnesses. The practical insights of our study are profound, providing a clear mechanism for food service organizations to improve food safety by providing leadership development and motivational programs. By filling different voids in the literature with empirical data from a non-Western context, our study not only furthers the theoretical body but also provides practical approaches to combating foodborne illnesses through effective leadership in the food service sector.