Management safety culture commitment

Identify weaknesses and performance deficiencies Hold responsible parties accountable Conduct periodic management review of the system Cultivate a positive safety culture Commit to managing the safety culture Communicate to reinforce objectives... 

Management safety culture means the employer s commitment and leadership in making a safer workplace environment. In this research, our empirical measure of management safety culture is a Likert scale index of responses to the following issues ... 

Although the company has very limited safety resources onsite, management perceives safety as added value and hires individuals from organizations with a good safety culture. The management commitment to safety is clearly evident in each aspect of the safety program. 

Safety starts with management leadership and commitment. Without these, the efforts of others in the organization are almost doomed to failure. Leadership creates culture, which drives behavior. 

Common ingredients of a safety culture based on these values include management commitment to safety and the safety values, management involvement in achieving the safety goals, employee empowerment, and appropriate and effective incentive structures and reporting systems. 

Poor management control or lack of management control is what invariably leads to accidents, which in turn cause loss. The key to a positive safety culture, a weak safety culture, or a change in safety culture is management s commitment, involvement, and leadership of the safety drive. 

A common factor in all accredited safety management systems (SMS) is an element that calls for management leadership and commitment to the safety and health process. It is almost guaranteed that any attempt to change or improve the safety culture at any workplace will fail if there is not total commitment, leadership, and management involvement from the executive right down to and including frontline supervision. 

The leading document in the safety system is the official safety and health policy issued by the executive management. This policy forms the commitment to implement a structured safety management system, which in turn will bring about a change in the safety culture. The policy should be prominently displayed in the office foyer, on the company website, in the employees safety handbook, and on safety notice boards. 

A chief executive and his fellow managers can either give minimum commitment to the safety movement or maximum commitment and support. A successful change of safety culture needs both initial and ongoing management support as well as buy-in from the unions and employees. Line management must take the lead and be active participants. 

The introduction and maintenance of a structured safety system will lead to a safety culture change within the organization. If one considers the effort, commitment, and change to the way safety is normally managed in a plant, the safety system will bring about a culture change. It will force leadership to become leaders and to create a positive environment where employees can feel comfortable participating in the safety activities. 

Part of the commitment from the executive leadership team to improve safety culture would be to declare amnesty. This would mean that the playing fields would be leveled and the fault-finding attitude of the past would be set aside. Understanding of the cause and effect of accidental loss will enable line managers to identify all of the accident s causes and not stop the investigation once an unsafe behavior is encountered. Most accidents will have a component where an employee s behavior or actions are questionable, but the focus should now fall on how the system can improve in the future to stop this happening. 

The safety policy statement is a substitute for repetitive management decisions and is mandatory. This is the guiding document in a safety system and perhaps the most important in implementing a change in safety culture. Although the concept safety should appear in the vision and mission statements of the organization, the safety policy statement is the declaration of the company s safety intent, commitment, and responsibility to constantly promote a safe and healthy work enviromnent. This policy should be extensively publicized and displayed on all notice boards, on the company website, in the employee safety handbook, and in prominent positions throughout the workplace. 

Having standards for each element of the safety system means that safety issues are documented and the requirements are clearly spelled out. Both managers and employees prefer safety directives and policies in writing so that expectations at all levels are clearly spelled out. Safety standards commit the organization and its members to carry out certain safety activities on a regular basis, and who must perform the activity and what the required result is are clearly laid out in the standard. Having committed the organization and its members to specific standards creates the foundation of the company s safety culture—its safety personality. 

As part of this overall safety culture change the task teams set out developing and writing standards as required by the system. These measurable performances had to be approved and signed off on by the executive managers as well as the unions. The unions were excited about the entire process, as for once they were obtaining written commitment from management for basic safety issues. 

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