Safe behavior modification

Modem behavior-modification programs rely on the identification and reinforcement of safe behaviors. Considerable improvements in measures of safety performance have been attributed to the introduction of these approaches (see McSween, 1993, for a petrochemical example). However, other studies have indicated that performance may return to its original level if the programs are withdrawn. It is therefore important to maintain a continuing program to ensure that the initial levels of improvements are maintained. Also, the benefits of behavior modification programs have mainly been demonstrated in the context of work activities where there is a high level of... 

The successes of the traditional approach have largely been obtained in the area of occupational safety, where statistical evidence is readily available concerning the incidence of injuries to individuals in areas such as tripping and falling accidents. Such accidents are amenable to behavior modification approaches because the behaviors that give rise to the accident are under the direct control of the individual and are easily predictable. In addition, the nature of the hazard is also usually predictable and hence the behavior required to avoid accidents can be specified explicitly. For example, entry to enclosed spaces, breaking-open process lines, and lifting heavy objects are known to be potentially hazardous activities for which safe methods of work... 

The primary aim of behavior modification is to help patients choose lifestyles conducive to safe and sustained weight loss. Behavioral therapy is based on principles of human learning, which use stimulus control and reinforcement to substitute desirable for learned, undesirable behavior. 

As the experts make substantive changes in what they prescribe, will reflection after the passage of time result in the conclusion that what they proposed in the beginning was just another fad The critics are right when they say that behavior modification and psychology of safety approaches inappropriately focus on employee performance, rather than on management s responsibility to provide a safe operating system. Also, whether the subject is productivity, cost efficiency, quality, or safety. 

For remedial action, another employee training program would be conducted on how to Mft safely. The solution to this problem obviously is work methods redesign. No amount of training or reinstruction or behavior modification could be an adequate solution. Yet, safety professionals accept that this scenario relates often to the actuality of past investigations, analyses, and corrective actions proposed. 

The basic premise of behavior modification programs is that the primary cause of accidents is worker error. This blame-the-victim concept provides little opportunity for effective accident prevention. Behavior modification does not focus on the fundamental safety problems that we face in the continuous process industry. For example, it does not address the need to change the dangerous contractor system or the unsafe practice of running plants far beyond their safe design limits, (p. 2)... 

Having employees work in a neat, clean, and orderly work environment constantly impacts their attitudes toward safety, and this pristine workplace becomes the way the organization operates—cleanly, orderly, and safely. No amount of behavior modification or observations can affect the attitudes of employees more than letting than operate in a neat and tidy work area where everything is in its place and there is a place for everything, aU the time. 

A better approach to reducing problems with MSDs is to change how a person performs the work using behavioral modification (behavior-based safety is discussed in Chapter 4). Workers are trained in how to carry out tasks effectively and safely. 

Safety problems arise in everyday work situations they are sometimes the result of unsafe behavior. Experts and researchers in the field of occupational safety, who are committed to a behavior modification approach to safety (Sulzer-Azaroff, 1978 Komaki, 1981), try to transform unsafe practices into safe practices. This approach has been justified by a number of impressive... 

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