Organization safety culture
Introduction
According to modern research, understanding the dynamics of the structure of an organization is imperative because it enables a person to determine key or influential individuals who have the potential to improve the safety culture. The reason for that is because safety culture within an organization depends on how effective safety information is disseminated amongst each department. This implies that one of the fundamental objectives of the safety management system entails articulating the safety policy, vision, and mission of the organization to each person (Ron, 2013). Therefore, one of the key organizational elements that can foster a successful safety culture is management leadership.
Key organizational element for successful safety culture
As much as safety culture is concerned, leadership management is perceived to be the foundation for fostering SMS (safety management system). The reason as to why leadership management is important is because is the main supporting element for all organization elements that are needed for the purpose of sustaining its mission or goals of its establishment. To achieve that, it is important for the leaders to ensure that they are committed to providing necessary motivating factors to all workers. This is also coupled with the need of availing the necessary resources that can enable the daily operations of the organization to run smoothly hence sustaining safety culture (Nathan et al., 2019).
Nevertheless, it is important for leaders to ensure that they established clear responsibilities related to safety goals and objectives for their employees, supervisors, and managers. Moreover, supervisors, managers, and workers should be provided with the authority to access vital information regarding safety and hazard management. This is imperative because it will enable them to understand the strategies to be used in correcting hazards. Furthermore, in the process of engaging employees in safety-related edification, avail required resources, it becomes for the workers to develop a doctrine of safety culture within their organization (Ron, 2013).
On the other hand, establishing a safety culture in the organization will take into account the need of selecting qualified workers. Such individuals will assist the organization in responding to specific reports regarding unsafe conditions, actions to be taken to rectify any risk, and so on. In this case, it means that the extent of participation followed by the SMS team is the one that assists in formulating successful workplace practices, guidelines, and rules that can instill safety in the workplace. One of the methods that can be used includes regularly participating in SMS reviews, audits, and faculty safety assessments. Individuals should also come up with alternative solutions that can be used to minimize, correct, or control any risk that can be acknowledged (Nathan et al., 2019). This is also coupled with the provision of reviews that can be used for tracking organizational safety performance.
Example of an action that can be detrimental to having a successful safety culture
Poor safety planning- as much as organization safety is concerned, determination of all that is required to sustain the SMS system is one of the overlooked aspects. What this implies is the fact that when an organization decides to achieve the goals of its establishment without documenting the means to be used to sustain it will result in wastage of time, energy, and resources. Furthermore, poor planning has the potential of harming employee morale who dedicated to achieving SMS goals (Nathan et al., 2019). This in return affects the fundamental beliefs and norms of the workers for long-term sustenance of safety culture within their organization.
Reference
Nathan, C, James, R & Michael, W. (2019). Safety Culture: An Innovative Leadership Approach. Butterworth-Heinemann, Waltham, MA
Ron, C.M. (2013). Changing the Workplace Safety Culture. CRC Press
