Competencies of the Occupational Safety Manager

The core competencies of the occupational safety (OS) manager include the ability to develop processes, procedures, and methods to attain the best possible management of the risks that can cause injury to people, and damage property or the enviromnent. The OS manager should apply good business practices and economic principles for the efficient use of resources to add to the importance of the safety processes. 

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Chapter 2 explores the fundamentals of critical thinking and analysis. Managers must be ready to analyze problems and understand how information is influenced by bias and perceptions, even manipulation. Chapter 3 examines the core competencies of the occupational safety manager. Chapter 4 tells us how to build an occupational safety management program. The remaining chapters are as follows ... 

Maslow s hierarchy of needs is a core competency that an occupational safety manager should understand. It can be used for the manager to understand how anployees interact in real life, inclnding the work environment. Explain how Maslow s hierarchy can be used to explain internal theft by employees. How would this explanation be different from using Maslow s theory to explain theft from outsiders ... 

Several studies have raised questions about the value of quality, environmental and occupational health and safety management system certification [audits]. Many of the concerns raised in these studies have focused on the competency of the auditors performing conformity assessment audits. [Author s note The foregoing comments pertain principally to audits made for management system certifications with respect to quality, environmental, and occupational safety and health by persons external to an organization. Nevertheless, similar questions have been raised for many years about the value of comparable audits made by in-house personnel.]... 

Kemi Shipping has two occupational safety representatives one for stevedore workers (who are in the majority) and another for managers and clerical employees. An occupational safety manager is listed in the Finnish occupational safety personnel register as are aU other members of the company s occupational health and safety committee. The goals, responsibilities and competencies of occupational health and safety personnel are written down in the action plan linked to the OHSAS 18001 certificate (BSl 2007). 

Excerpts from a paper titled Auditor Competency for Assessing Occupational Health Safety Management Systems will help in this regard. That paper (available on the Internet) was jointly issued by the American Society of Safety... 

Sponsoring organizations say that the purpose of this Position Paper is to provide recommendations concerning the qualifications that should be considered in evaluating the competency of individuals tasked with evaluating occupational health and safety management systems. Major points only are recorded here for the specific knowledge and skills... occupational health and safety auditors should have ... 

Alternatively, one could argue that if the individual is to retain full health through his/her normal span of life then the management of safety at work must be a shared social responsibility. Such a responsibility cannot be devolved to industrial companies or to individual risk-exposed workers. And if this is the case, the social control of occupational safety should be well defined, functionally supported by valid preventative legislation, and underpinned by a well-resourced and competent industrial safety inspectorate. 

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