Total Safety Culture actively caring

The challenge in achieving a total safety culture is to convince everyone to have the responsibility to intervene for safety. A social norm or expectancy must be established in everyone to share equally in the responsibility to keep everyone safe. Through training, employees learn how to translate principles and rules into specific behaviors. If people are motivated to maximize positive consequences and minimize negative consequences, actively caring behavior will only occur if perceived rewards outweigh perceived costs [2]. 

As Geller states, in a total safety culture, employees actively care on a continuing basis for safety. To achieve a total safety culture, employees must believe they have personal control over the safety of their organization [2],... 

We might be reminded of a general purpose—"Actively Care for a Total Safety Culture," or challenged—"100 Percent Safe Behavior is Our Goal This Year."... 

More important than external rewards is the way they are delivered. Rewards should not be perceived as a means of controlling behavior but as a declaration of sincere gratitude for making a contribution. If many people receive this recognition, you have many deposits in the emotional bank accounts of potential actively caring participants in a Total Safety Culture. That is why it is better to reward many than few (Guideline 3). 

My main point here is that gossip can be good—if it is positive. When we talk about the success of others in behavior-specific terms, we begin a cycle of positive communication that can support desired behavior. It also helps to build an internal script for self-motivation. We also set an example for the kind of inter- and intrapersonal conversations that increase self-esteem, empowerment, and group cohesion. As explained in Section 5 of this Handbook, these are the very person states that increase actively caring behaviors and cultivate the achievement of a Total Safety Culture. 

Actively caring is planned and purposeful behavior, directed at environment, person, or behavior factors. It is reactive or proactive and direct or indirect. Direct, proactive, and behavior-focused active caring is most challenging, but it is usually most important for large-scale injury prevention. This chapter discusses conditions and situations that inhibit actively caring behavior. We need to understand why people resist opportunities to actively care for safety. Then, we can develop interventions to increase this desired behavior which is critical for achieving a Total Safety Culture. 

A "yes" answer to any of these questions implies contextual barriers that need to be overcome in order to achieve the ultimate injmy-free workplace. A "no" answer to all of these questions is symptomatic of a work context that encomages people to actively care for the health and safety of others. In this kind of work culture, it is not sufficient to rely on the organization s safe operating procedures or even on personal responsibility and self-discipline but on interpersonal teamwork and a shared interdependent responsibility to protect each other. In this work context, actively caring can be cultivated and a Total Safety Culture achieved. 

Increasing these states, and thus the willingness to actively care for safety, is key to achieving a Total Safety Culture and is addressed in the next two chapters. 

Figure 15,10 Incorporating an actively caring family perspective in an organization will help to cultivate a Total Safety Culture.

In a Total Safety Culture. . . people actively care on a continuous basis for safety."... 

This quote from my 1994 article in Professional Safety (Geller, 1994, page 18) reflects the ultimate vision of a Total Safety Culture. Everyone periodically goes beyond his or her personal routine for the safety and health of others. To meet tiiis challenge, we need to find ways to increase actively caring behaviors. 

Obviously, a large "family" means more people come under the protective wing of actively caring behavior. So it makes sense to have an extended family at work. In a Total Safety Culture, everyone actively cares for everyone else s safety. In effect, everyone belongs to one group. Now what are the barriers to an extended "work family" ... 

Through actively caring, and enhancing self-esteem, empowerment, and belonging, we can bring down the "us vs. them" walls that entrap a work culture. Active caring spreads mutual trust and interdependence throughout the culture. In a Total Safety Culture, everyone benefits from each individual s efforts. 

The psychology of safety requires us to consider both external behavior and internal person factors. Chapter 15 focused on the role of person states in influencing people to actively care for another person s safety and health. Chapter 16 showed how outside factors can be manipulated to influence these person states and, thus, increase actively caring behavior. A Total Safety Culture requires integrating both behavior-based and person-based psychology. The next several principles focus on understanding "inside" factors. 

Principle 34 In a Total Safety Culture everyone goes beyond the call of duty for the safety of themselves and others—they actively care. 

Here, we have a primary theme of this Handbook. While behavior-based psychology provides methods and techniques to improve the human dynamics of safefy, principles from person-based psychology need to be considered to assure the behavior-based tools are used. The ultimate aim is to integrate behavior-based and person-based psychology so everyone participates in efforts to achieve a Total Safety Culture. In the ideal culture, everyone actively cares for the safety and health of others. 

I refer to helping others as "actively caring." This book shows you how to increase the quality and quantity of your own and others actively caring behavior. Indeed, actively caring is the key to safety improvement. The more people actively caring for the safety and health of others, the less remote is the achievement of our ultimate vision—a Total Safety Culture. 

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