Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Revitalise and Fast-Track Safety Culture in Industry or Face Incidents/Losses


Affiliations
1 Professor of Psychology (Retd.), SNDT Women’s University, Director – Forum of Behavioural Safety, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


Safety culture is what we call people’s safe behaviours. Safety culture is a fast-growing wave in the industry today. Addressing gaps in building a long-term supportive safety culture for companies underlines a set of unresolved questions on behavioural risk management in the industry, and possible solutions. Everyone raises a voice for safety, then safety culture comes into existence and the risk disappears – is it so simple? Most companies delay their HSE decisions till they suffer. Why so? Without inculcating safety as a core corporate value, the industry cannot be considered safe. Behavioural safety culture is a live surveillance on the risks and their spot-correction to ensure that the safety culture building process is active. Safety culture behaviour is necessary to overcome incidents and accidents at the work sites. Behavioural safety education for one and all is the safety culture being addressed the most. Ideologies on safety cultures vary across the industries in terms of practices. The present article dwelt on identifying the unresolved critical questions on behavioural safety supportive culture implementation in the industry, and the possible solutions. The data were collected from 603 industry professionals who were the study participants. The sampling method was a non-random convenience sampling. A set of ten themes of research findings reflected upon critical issues, such as basic questions on long-term safety cultures; reactive safety culture; collective voice and leadership for at-risk behaviours; religion, spirituality, and festivities for safety at sites; implementation of safety with a consideration for others; features of companies not empowering their workforce for performing safety implementation; competency gap among the safety professionals; the major roadblocks in HSE decision-making; the spot-implementation of behaviour-based safety (BBS) approach by top leaders; and myriad factors to advance the success of a long-term supportive safety culture. Fast-tracking supportive safety culture at sites would mean the next level of hard work.

Keywords

Behaviour, Risk, Safety, Culture, Qualitative
User
Subscription Login to verify subscription
Notifications
Font Size

  • Barnes, E. (2021, June 15). NSC National Safety Month 2021: Week 3 – It’s vital to feel safe on the job. Retrieved November 25, 2021, from https://www.ehs.com/2021/06/nsc-national-safety-month-2021week-3-its-vital-to-feel-safe-on-the-job/
  • Boutetière, H. D. L., Rousseau, J. B. G., & Turnbull, E. (2019, May, 21). Overcoming limiting mindsets to improve safety. Retrieved from https:// www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/peopleandorganizational-performance/our-insights/ overcoming-limiting-mind-sets-to-improve-safety
  • Burdick, G. (2019, May 13). Big growth and change expected for the safety profession. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://ehsdailyadvisor.blr.com/2019/05/big-growth-and-change-expectedforthe-safety-profession/
  • Choueiri, E. M. (2021, December). Individuals, organizations, and the economy: All suffer when workplace hazards are ignored! World Safety Journal, 30(4), 67. doi:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5865442
  • Edmondson, A. C., & Mortensen, M. (2021, April 19). What psychological safety looks like in a hybrid workplace. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2021/04/what-psychological-safetylookslike-in-a-hybrid-workplace
  • Halligan, M., Zecevic, A., Kothari, A., Salmoni, A., & Orchard, T. (2013). Understanding safety culture in long-term care: A case study. Journal of Patient Safety, 10(4).doi:10.1097/PTS.0b013e31829d4ae7
  • Harbans, H. L. (2021). Why industry is losing faith in HSE awards?: Professionals rethink. IJTD, 51(1), 82-90.
  • Ishimaru, T., Punpeng, T., Maiyapakdee, C., Ketsakorn, A., Fujino, Y., & Hara, K. (2020). Survey of the necessary competencies and proficiency of safety officers in Thailand. Industrial Health, 58. doi:10.2486/indhealth.2019-0205
  • ISHN. (2021, October 7). How does your safety culture impact workers? Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://www.ishn.com/articles/113124-how-do es-your-safety-culture-impact-workers
  • ISHN. (2021, December 2). A young pro and his mentor address safety culture engagement – Delivering safety excellence. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://www.ishn.com/articles/113172-ayoungpro-and-his-mentor-address-safety-cultureengagement
  • ISO 45003:2021. (2021). Occupational health and safety management – Psychological health and safety at work – Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks. Retrieved from https://www.iso.org/obp/ ui/#iso:std:iso:45003:ed-1:v1:en
  • Kaila, H. L. (2020). Planned intervention of behaviourbased safety (BBS) helps organisations improve their safety time arithmetic. World Safety Journal, 29(3), 34-41.
  • Kaila, H. L. (2021). Behavioural benchmarking as a robust tool of total safety culture in industries. The Journal of Insurance Institute of India, 9(1), 82-88.
  • Keenan, P. M. (2017, March 11). Spiritual vulnerability, spiritual risk and spiritual safety – In answer to a question: ‘Why is spirituality important within health and social care? At the Second International Spirituality in Healthcare Conference 2016: Nurturing the Spirit.' Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin. Religions, 8(3), 38. Retrieved from https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/8/3/38
  • MySafetySign. (2021). Is management the biggest roadblock to safety? Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.mysafetysign.com/blog/ roadblock-to-safety-programs/
  • Paoletta, D. (2020, July 1). Core attributes of a worldclass safety culture. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://safesitehq.com/safety-culture/
  • Pettinger, C. (2020, August 25). 5 ways to build a culture of safety for the long term. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://www.ehstoday.com/safetyleadership/ article/21140054/5-ways-to-build-acultureof-safety-for-the-long-term
  • Ravi, D., Tawfik, D. S., Sexton, J. B., & Profit, J. (2021). Changing safety culture. Journal of Perinatology, 41, 2552-2560. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372 - 020-00839-0
  • SHRM. (2020, September 8). Accommodating religion, belief and spirituality in the workplace. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/ accommodating-religion,-belief-and-spirituality-intheworkplace.aspx
  • Urbach, T., & Fay, D. (2020, February 21). Leader member exchange in leaders’ support for voice: Good relationships matter in situations of power threat. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12245
  • Veľas, A., Halaj, M., Hofreiter, L., Kampová, K., Zvaková, Z., & Jankura, R. (2021). Research of security and safety culture within an organization. The case study within the Slovak Republic. Security Journal. doi:https://doi.org/10.1057/s41284-021-00291-5
  • Vos, J. (2021, April 12). Empower your employees to create a culture of safety: Here’s how. Retrieved November 27, 2021, from https://www.aem.org/news/empower-your-employees-to-create-a-cultureof-safety-heres-how
  • Williams, O. (2021, September 1). Strengthen your safety culture. Retrieved November 28, 2021, from https://www.ioshmagazine.com/2021/09/01/strengthen-your-safety-culture

Abstract Views: 341

PDF Views: 0




  • Revitalise and Fast-Track Safety Culture in Industry or Face Incidents/Losses

Abstract Views: 341  |  PDF Views: 0

Authors

Harbans Lal
Professor of Psychology (Retd.), SNDT Women’s University, Director – Forum of Behavioural Safety, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Abstract


Safety culture is what we call people’s safe behaviours. Safety culture is a fast-growing wave in the industry today. Addressing gaps in building a long-term supportive safety culture for companies underlines a set of unresolved questions on behavioural risk management in the industry, and possible solutions. Everyone raises a voice for safety, then safety culture comes into existence and the risk disappears – is it so simple? Most companies delay their HSE decisions till they suffer. Why so? Without inculcating safety as a core corporate value, the industry cannot be considered safe. Behavioural safety culture is a live surveillance on the risks and their spot-correction to ensure that the safety culture building process is active. Safety culture behaviour is necessary to overcome incidents and accidents at the work sites. Behavioural safety education for one and all is the safety culture being addressed the most. Ideologies on safety cultures vary across the industries in terms of practices. The present article dwelt on identifying the unresolved critical questions on behavioural safety supportive culture implementation in the industry, and the possible solutions. The data were collected from 603 industry professionals who were the study participants. The sampling method was a non-random convenience sampling. A set of ten themes of research findings reflected upon critical issues, such as basic questions on long-term safety cultures; reactive safety culture; collective voice and leadership for at-risk behaviours; religion, spirituality, and festivities for safety at sites; implementation of safety with a consideration for others; features of companies not empowering their workforce for performing safety implementation; competency gap among the safety professionals; the major roadblocks in HSE decision-making; the spot-implementation of behaviour-based safety (BBS) approach by top leaders; and myriad factors to advance the success of a long-term supportive safety culture. Fast-tracking supportive safety culture at sites would mean the next level of hard work.

Keywords


Behaviour, Risk, Safety, Culture, Qualitative

References