[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-151974-en":3,"doc-seo-151974-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},151974,7971461741311,"Ophelia","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/74000253aff267980c6?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1779345379180704826",8,"Research & Report","Ruthless Exploiters or Ethical Guardians of the Workforce? Powerful CEOs and their Impact on Workplace Safety and Health","The allocation of resources among stakeholders creates an ethical dilemma for chief executive officers (CEOs). This study examines how CEO power relates to workplace injuries and illnesses using a 31,924 establishment-year dataset from 2002 to 2011. Employees in firms with structurally powerful CEOs experience fewer injuries, illnesses, and days away from work. Results suggest private CEO incentives through reputation and employee influence, while expertise power reduces and ownership power increases harm.","Journal of Business Ethics  \n[https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04740-4](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04740-4)  \nRuthless Exploiters or Ethical Guardians ofthe Workforce? Powerful CEOs and their Impact on Workplace Safety and Health  \nJesper Haga1 · Fredrik Huhtamäki1 · Dennis Sundvik1  \nReceived: 2 June 2020 / Accepted: 7 January 2021 © The Author(s) 2021  \nAbstract  \nThe allocation of resources among different stakeholders is an ethical dilemma for chief executive officers (CEOs) . In this study, we investigate the association between CEO power and workplace injuries and illnesses. We use an establishment-level dataset comprising 31,924 establishment-year observations between 2002 and 2011. Our main result shows that employees at firms with structurally powerful CEOs experience fewer workplace injuries and illnesses and days away from work. We reason that CEOs derive a private benefit from low injury and illness rates and that powerful CEOs are better at influencing employees to take workplace safety and health seriously. Additional analyses reveal fewer injuries and illnesses in firms led by CEOs with expertise power. However, increased injuries and illnesses were linked to firms controlled by CEOs with ownership power. Moreover, we find that structurally powerful CEOs mitigate injury and illness differences in relation to geographical proximity to corporate headquarters. We contribute with both research and practical implications on the topics of CEO power and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in general and workplace safety and health in particular.  \nKeywords CEO power · Corporate social responsibility · Real effects · Workplace safety and health  \nIntroduction  \nThere are numerous contemporary cases where firms with powerful chief executive officers (CEOs) report abysmal safety and health figures. High-profile cases include former BP CEO Tony Hayward, former Tesla chair and current CEO Elon Musk, and Amazon chair and CEO Jeff Bezos. Tony Hayward emphasized economic efficiency and cost control in a manner inconsistent with achieving an enduring safety and health culture (Amernic and Craig 2017) . Subsequently, on April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in 13 casualties and the spillage of 4.9 million oil barrels. Tesla has received a considerable amount of negative press concerning their lackluster injury and illness record, highly pressured workforce, and  \n* Dennis Sundvik [dennis.sundvik@hanken.fi](dennis.sundvik@hanken.fi)  \nJesper Haga  \n[jesper.haga@hanken.fi](jesper.haga@hanken.fi)  \nFredrik Huhtamäki  \n[fredrik.huhtamaki@hanken.fi](fredrik.huhtamaki@hanken.fi)  \n1 Hanken School of Economics, P.O. Box 287, 65101 Vaasa, Finland  \npoor working environment (Wong 2018; Eidelson and Hull 2019 ; Ohnsman 2019) . Employees at Amazon warehouses have acted as whistle-blowers, organized work stoppages, and drawn attention to the firm’s unsafe work practices and injury and illness rates, which are reportedly three times higher than the national average for warehouses (Evans 2019 ; Sainato 2020). Conversely, powerful CEOs have also been acknowledged for decreasing work-related injuries and illnesses. The late Alcoa chair and CEO Paul O’Neill, for example, emphasized the importance of workplace safety and health and devoted resources to decreasing workdays missed due to injuries and illnesses, claiming “If you want to understand how Alcoa is doing, you need to look at our workplace safety figures”(Wagner 2019) .  \nCEO behaviors influence workplace safety and health (Barling et al. 2002 ; Mullen 2005 ; Kelloway et al. 2006 ; Tucker et al. 2016). The attitudes of top executives are vital to developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Fabrizi et al. 2014) . In this regard powerful CEOs are particularly interesting, since researchers in accounting, business ethics, finance, and management document that powerful CEOs behave differently than non-powerful CEOs (Adamset al. 2005 ","cbCaiip5pxXva2pb","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiip5pxXva2pb","pdf",781625,1,23,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Ethical dilemma and research gap\n## Agency-theory rationale for CEO influence\n## Data and study motivation","[{\"question\":\"What relationship does the study find between CEO power and workplace injuries?\",\"answer\":\"Employees in firms with structurally powerful CEOs experience fewer workplace injuries and illnesses and fewer days away from work.\"},{\"question\":\"How do different types of CEO power affect safety and health outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"Additional analyses show fewer injuries and illnesses for CEOs with expertise power, while firms controlled by CEOs with ownership power have increased injuries and illnesses.\"},{\"question\":\"Do the effects of structurally powerful CEOs vary by firm location?\",\"answer\":\"Yes. Structurally powerful CEOs mitigate injury and illness differences related to geographical proximity to corporate headquarters.\"}]","Ruthless Exploiters or Ethical Guardians of the Workforce? Powerful CEOs and their Impact on Workplace Safety and Health | PDF",1787853686,58,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"ruthless-exploiters-or-ethical-guardians-of-the-workforce-powerful-ceos-and-their-impact-on-workplace-safety-and-health","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/ruthless-exploiters-or-ethical-guardians-of-the-workforce-powerful-ceos-and-their-impact-on-workplace-safety-and-health/151974/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-06","2026-08-27",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What relationship does the study find between CEO power and workplace injuries?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"Employees in firms with structurally powerful CEOs experience fewer workplace injuries and illnesses and fewer days away from work.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"How do different types of CEO power affect safety and health outcomes?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"Additional analyses show fewer injuries and illnesses for CEOs with expertise power, while firms controlled by CEOs with ownership power have increased injuries and illnesses.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"Do the effects of structurally powerful CEOs vary by firm location?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"Yes. 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