Leadership in Action: Safety Culture and Team Size as Drivers of Success in Egypt’s Construction Projects

This study explored the relationship between safety leadership and project success in the construction industry, with a focus on the medium-sized Egyptian construction industry, and examined the mediating role of safety culture and the moderating role of team size. The research design was a cross-sectional survey, with 245 site engineers selected purposively. The data collection method used was a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Hayes Process Macro (Model 4 and Model 1) with 5000 bootstrap resamples in SPSS to examine the mediation and moderation effects as hypothesized. The results show that safety leadership is positively related to both safety culture and project success. In addition, safety culture mediated the relationship between safety leadership and project success. Using the Johnson–Neyman technique, team size was found to moderate this relationship, with teams of fewer than 19 site engineers showing a greater moderation effect. These findings show that safety leadership and safety culture are crucial factors that increase key pillars of sustainable project delivery. This study offers practical recommendations for medium-sized construction firms to improve safety measures and team management, thereby enhancing safety and productivity. It also points out areas for future research, such as the moderating roles of other contextual factors on safety and project performance.