Supervisor behaviour

Every laboratory should have a code of practice. This will usually identify the laboratory supervisor as the person responsible for the safety of persons within the laboratory. Therefore the laboratory supervisor will decide on such matters as to whether the ability, conduct and behaviour of persons within the laboratory is conducive to the maintenance of a safe environment there. Self discipline is expected, but if it is not evident then discipline has to be imposed. 

If the individual believes that they are being evaluated, this is sufficient to trigger performance anxiety. The anxiety is usually greater if the individual believes that the person doing the evaluation is in a position of authority such as a supervisor or manager, rather than one of their peers. Performance anxiety has cognitive, emotional, behavioural and physiological components. 

Further, different regulatory regimes might themselves create conditions that complicate comparisons. For instance, when comparing management functions, especially for paperwork , Lamvik and Ravn (2006) found that requirements for documentation influenced the behaviour of the management. Supervisors with experiences from both South East Asia and the North Sea reported that the extensive paperwork obligations in the North Sea made them spend less time outside the oEce in the North Sea than when they worked in South East Asia. 

Supervisors Monitoring and reinforcing workers safe behaviours Participating in workforce safety activities (can also be transformational)... 

In order to avoid that false alarms are reported to a supervisor system or that true faults are not detected, ARR residuals should be significantly sensitive to tme faults but little sensitive to parameter variations given uncertain system parameter values. Parameter sensitivities of ARR residuals can be singled out by defining appropriate thresholds. As the dynamic behaviour of a real system described by a hybrid model can be quite different in different system modes, thresholds should be adapted to system modes. 

Management and supervisors at all levels are expected to set an example in safe behaviour and maintain a constant and continuing interest in employee safety, in particular by ... 

Supervisors are organising the work in the iimnediate work environment in such a manner that it can be safely accomplished, providing positive feedback on the safety-conscious behaviour of personnel, treating subordinates fairly and monitoring subordinates coping skills, stress, fatigue levels and skills. ... 

Supervisory support for safety -Positive feedback from supervisors to employees on safetyconscious behaviour -Development discussions have been kept... 

Janssen, 0. (2005), "The joint Impact of perceived Influence and supervisor supportiveness on employee innovative behaviour," Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78 (4), 573-79. 

Different grades of staff favoured different methods of improvement. The emphasis of the workforce was very much upon changing behaviour, thus they were the most likely to suggest that more care was needed. Compliance with the rules was almost exclusively a workforce suggestion. Education was considered important by all grades except supervisors ... 

Woik behaviours are observed to determine if they have met the standards set in the critical behaviour standards or if risk behaviours are occurring. The observation is carried out 1 supervisors and employee colleagues. 

Without participating in the detail of accident investigation, it is very difficult to appreciate the role of human behaviour in accident causation and hence to recommend or implement the most effective responses. Similarly, sole reliance on numbers of accidents/incidents in the organization as a guide to safety performance can be misleading, if the behavioural component is not understood. They do not show whether individual managers/supervisors are effectively dealing with prevention or if further action is required to prevent future accidents and losses. 

Simard, M. and Marchand, A. (1994). The Behaviour of First Line Supervisors in Accident Prevention and Effectiveness in Occupational Safety. Safety Sci., 17, 169-85. 

After the antecedents have been defined, the consequences of the behaviour are described from the perspective of the person who was involved. Examples of consequences include getting injured or harmed, saving time and getting approval from a supervisor or manager. 

However, the Improvement Manager had an opportunity to test out his belief in this new behaviour-based approach while trying to help a shop-floor worker who had suffered numerous injuries in the past, and was again injured as a result of carrying out a task in an unsafe manner. Rather than resort once more to disciplinary action the individual was required to take part in discussions about his potentially unsafe versus safe job-related behaviours. Once agreement had been reached on the desirable safe behaviours the worker was continually reminded of these, by his shift supervisor, several times during each shift. This individual remained accident-free over the following year. 

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