A Closer Look at Professional Judgment

Let s look at a situation where an operator reports that the forklift or piece of mobile equipment is using oil. The first step in this scenario is that the team member performs a pretrip inspeetion and notices that the oil dipstick has indicated a shortage of oil. Consequently, the team member informs the supervisor that the equipment is using oil. At this point, a couple of questions arise (1) How much oil is the equipment using and (2) Where is the oil going Hopefully, the operator is adding oil as necessary and required in accordance with the manufacturer s recommendations and established procedure. 

Notice that in trying to answer the second question, the first question also needed to be answered. But what happens if the team member cannot answer the second question Let s say that the team member cannot determine where the oil is going, but knows that the dipstick shows a shortage of oil on certain occasions. If the oil is missing but it does not seem to be leaking anywhere, this might mean that it is being burned as mentioned in the previous scenarios. 

A decision such as the one described for this situation will involve individual professional judgment and integrity. This can be related to everyday real life by examining how individuals treat their personal automobiles or vehicles. Some vehicle owners are extremely meticulous in the 

Let s discuss a situation where a team member experiences a cut or laceration while performing work activity. As soon as the team member realizes that he cut himself, he needs to make a decision. The hrst decision is whether he should report the injury or self-treat. (Most readers are going to say, Wait a minute This worker must report this injury But haven t we all been in situations where the team member chooses not to report because he or she thought the injury was just too minor I know I have.) 

If the cut is minor, the team member might choose to self-treat, and only he would likely realize that an injury was sustained however, if the worker s decision is to report the cut (and I hope the team member decides to report rather than not report any incident), at this point the supervisor, in conjunction with the team member, needs to make a decision. The supervisor needs to determine the extent of the injury. In this situation, there is a variety of information to consider. The supervisor can use  

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