A Culture of Fear

One of the biggest obstacles to safety efforts, the prevention of accidents, and change interventions is the fear factor that snrrounds all aspects of safety at the workplace. Unless this fear factor is identified and the root canses of it eliminated by changing the safety philosophies of the organization, all efforts to introduce a positive safety culture will fail. 

For a safety culture change intervention to be successful, there must be a climate of trust between employees and management. This includes declaring a truce and moving the focus away from injury blame fixing and fault finding to a safe space where injuries can be reported without fear of reprimand—a space where employees safety concerns can be freely expressed. This amnesty is the only way to create a climate in which old embedded safety habits and beliefs can change. 

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Main said, Every time Massey sent miners into the UBB Mine, Massey put those miners lives at risk. Massey management created a culture of fear and intimidation in their miners to hide theirreckless practices. Today s report brings to light the tragic consequences of a corporate culture that values production over people. (pp. 1-2)... 

J. Simon (2007) Governing Through Crime How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (Oxford Oxford University Press). 

What Whittingham describes is indicative of an inadequate safety culture. As an example of one aspect of a negative safety culture, consider the following scenario. It represents a culture of fear. 

However, a complete absence of complaints from the workforce may indicate a atmosphere of fear or uncertainty. A workforce that is competent and confident of management s ability to respond positively to issues raised will result from a positive culture. 

Your objective in seeking answers to these types of questions is to better understand what is really going on in the safety subculture of the organization as opposed to the publicly proclaimed and politically correct safety culture. Too often the public face of an organization s safety culture masks a subculture of fear of retribution especially in organizations where speaking out negatively on any topic can lead to retaliation. 

Because black- ethnic relations lie so near the core of this entire complex of concerns, the whiteness of the white ethnic becomes once again unstable. Recounting the murder of Joseph Columbo by an African-American on Italian Unity Day, 1971, Novak wants to know, Couldn t [blacks] distinguish a fellow sufferer under Nordic prejudice from a WASP Or again, ethnics are not unaware of the peculiar forms of fear, envy, and suspicion across color lines. How much of this we learned in America by being made conscious of our olive skin, brawny backs, accents, names, and cultural quirks is not plain to us. 6... 

Healing a patient who is in a state of trance is one of the oldest therapeutic arts. Ancient cultures all around the world have revered individuals deemed to be in contact with supernatural powers and apparently able to use such contacts to cure the sick and distressed while these people were in a state resembling sleep. The supposed connection with the supernatural powers lies behind many of the prejudices and fears about hypnosis — that it is a state that enables inner connections to be made — but it has begun to be universally accepted. 

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