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Behavioural Economics of Safety Culture Management in Companies


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

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Most companies care for money and profits more than the safety of their human resources. Why companies’ managements and employers do not decide to spend on safety cultural aspects, as because they are not concerned or less sensitive towards unsafe way of working leading to disaster, incidents, family suffering, impact on new generations, gas leakages or they are not aware that the benefits of safety implementation in any company, small or big, would definitely outweigh the monetary gains of not implementing it. This article discusses these factors based on observations of 309 industry professionals, and makes recommendations for HSE policy and planning towards a culture of safe businesses caring for human cost or losses. While considering the economics of safety management approach, it is important to understand as to why companies stop and refresh their actions for programs leading to longterm safety culture. Though, the slogan seems to have changed, i.e. behaviour first, as we used to say, safety first. However, a large number of Indian companies (90%) are still not able or willing to decide over safety culture management for a variety of reasons as discussed herein. This paper adds an in-depth sense of qualitative data on the topic.

Keywords

Behaviour, Safety, Culture, BBS, Management, Companies, Economics, India
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  • Behavioural Economics of Safety Culture Management in Companies

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Authors

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

Abstract


Most companies care for money and profits more than the safety of their human resources. Why companies’ managements and employers do not decide to spend on safety cultural aspects, as because they are not concerned or less sensitive towards unsafe way of working leading to disaster, incidents, family suffering, impact on new generations, gas leakages or they are not aware that the benefits of safety implementation in any company, small or big, would definitely outweigh the monetary gains of not implementing it. This article discusses these factors based on observations of 309 industry professionals, and makes recommendations for HSE policy and planning towards a culture of safe businesses caring for human cost or losses. While considering the economics of safety management approach, it is important to understand as to why companies stop and refresh their actions for programs leading to longterm safety culture. Though, the slogan seems to have changed, i.e. behaviour first, as we used to say, safety first. However, a large number of Indian companies (90%) are still not able or willing to decide over safety culture management for a variety of reasons as discussed herein. This paper adds an in-depth sense of qualitative data on the topic.

Keywords


Behaviour, Safety, Culture, BBS, Management, Companies, Economics, India

References