History has shown that Alcoa, as a company, has had a strong commitment to safety. In fact, when Paul O’Neil became the CEO of Alcoa in 1987, Alcoa had the best safety record in the aluminum industry. However, O’Neill believed that the company could do more. He announced that safety was his top priority, and his goal was to strive toward “0” injuries, fatalities, and illnesses within the work place. He believed that safety required comprehensive understanding of manufacturing processes and that understanding would lead to better, more productive plants. By putting safety above profits and production, he began to successfully demonstrate the critical role of leadership in building a strong foundation for the continual growth of safety culture throughout the organization.
For Alcoa, the key challenges in improving their safety performances over the years have been the establishment of behavioral mindsets that would embrace safety throughout their organizational layers. Overcoming decades of legacy behavior around the lack of emphasis and ownership to safety throughout the organization created continuous needs for new Health and Safety standards and procedures in order to address accountability. Many successful approaches to safety have evolved over the years at Alocoa; however, many of those resulted due to reactionary responses. Therefore, more proactive approaches would lessen the likelihood of incidents and further enhance the safety culture.
While setting health and safety standards and procedures are fundamental, learning ways to actively engage an entire organization to intrinsically put those standards to practice by pro-actively contributing to evolving these standards can be challenging. In order to do this, health and saf...
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...s as well as access to training programs and manuals; Induction to EHS for all new employees; Regular testing and certifications for all employees; Setting strict rules and compliance to safety regulations followed with consistent consequences to ensure that all employees understand their accountability when incidents occur.
In conclusion, a culture of safety is the most important factor a company has in facilitating the lowest health and safety incidents as possible. By using the Safety triad to measure and analyze employee behavior within an environment and incorporating the Goal-setting Theory, it is possible to greatly improve and enhance an organizations safety culture. For Alcoa, the main goal is to implement new pro-active safety approaches and plans that can establish a behavioral mindset that embraces safety throughout their organizational layers.
Strategies must touch upon all aspects of a complex work environment. According to Roux and Halstead (2009), some characteristics of an effective client safety culture consists of acknowledging human limitations, avoiding oversimplification of near miss or sentinel events, support from management and leadership in non-punitive problem solving approach in investigations, an interdisciplinary approach to collaboration which includes front line staff to enhance communication and reporting of concerns and errors, and training on intended changes prior to its development and implementation (p.
McGuire, C. (2011, April). Workplace Safety 100 Years Ago. Safety Compliance Letter(2524), 1-6. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=60166397&site=ehost-live&scope=site
1.4 – State why and when health and safety control equipment, identified by the principles of protection, should be used relating to types, purpose and limitations of each type, the work situation, occupational use and the general work environment, in relation to:
Creating a Culture of Safety. A culture of safety includes psychological safety, active leadership, transparency, and fairness. As a health care professional, I can create a culture of safety by having a positive attitude and creating an environment within the team that feeds off that optimistic and encouraging behavior. In addition, I can contribute to a culture of safety by using effective communication, the “Fairness Algorithm” to differentiate between system error and unsafe behaviors, and by being respectful and approachable to all my fellow coworkers and patients.
...ves to create extra routines as important to ensure workers in high hazard commercial enterprises.
Accidents are an inevitable part of life. Children learn this at an early age by bumping their head, scraping their knees, or falling off the swings. They learn that sometimes painful experiences just happen, seemingly without cause or reason. These children carry these lessons into adulthood, and then project their tolerance for accidents onto their families and occupation. The chemical industry, while one of the safest industries, has the potential for catastrophic accidents. Through experience and renewed focus on the conservation of life, the chemical industry has improved its safety considerably. In 2005, chemical industry fatality rate (the number of fatalities per year per total number of people in the applicable population) was the third lowest when compared to industries such as agriculture, coal mining, and construction1. However, accidents still occur, sometimes with regrettable repercussions. In 2005, Formosa Plastics Corporation in Point Comfort, Texas experienced an accident with severe consequences.
When it comes to safety most people think they are safe, and they have a true understanding on how to work safe. Human nature prevents us from harming ourselves. Our instincts help protect us from harm. Yet everyday there are injuries and deaths across the world due to being unsafe. What causes people to work unsafe is one of the main challenges that face all Safety Managers across the world.
I plan to encourage my staff to acknowledge potential dangers and losses, as well as develop opportunities to improve. Although, I know there is no one set way of trying to inspire a risk management culture, however I do have some steps that I plan to implement to accomplish my organizations strategic risk management goals.
In a culture of safety and quality, all employees are focused on upholding quality in providing safe care. In order to promote patient safety in the hospital setting there should be an exhibition of teamwork irrespective of the different leadership positions. However the leaders show their obligation to quality and safety, and set capacities for their employees to perform a committed and critical role in assuring patient safety.
In order to achieve its desired public image and to acquire an organizational identity centered on quality and safety, qualitative research on GM’s culture can be facilitated. Intertwined with the study of organizational culture is organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), which is the performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which task performance takes place. OCBs were found to be positively related to overall organizational effectiveness, unit-level performance, and customer satisfaction (Greenberg, J., 2013). A study of the OCB in GM may help in the change it aims to implement. GM may start by creating an environment where its employees are truly committed to its safety policy while also increasing their job satisfaction.
One of the biggest challenges managers face in motivating employees is the ability to meet their safety needs. Because of the weak economy and high
As for employees, it is essential for them to work together and cooperate with one another to prevent any accidents from occurring and to not carry out any actions that may be reckless and bring harm to their fellow colleagues. They are ultimately responsible for the safety of their colleagues and themselves. Failing to do so will not only cause mishaps but it may also result in parties being convicted for breaching this act.
A candidly of risk occurs in every organisation. Governance principals and the occupational health and safety urge that the organisations take reasonable measures to hinder loss, charge or rage to the organisational and all stakeholders/management. Injury and accidents can even happen ultimately with stringent OHS and the fact that an accident when occurs, does not mean that someone is liable if all responsible steps for prevention or minimisation has been taken.
Many times the Safety Officer, if you will, is accused of not being a team player. Being chastised for doing ones job is not the most effective way to promote a safety minded environment. Also on the other side of the coin the Safety Officer must implement or correct s...
An organization always defines its policy, objectives and a procedure to achieve its goals. This policy of a safety-oriented organization defines the roles, responsibilities and relationships. This must include the policies, procedures and an organized structure to achieve the goals of the organization. Safety policy of an organization also concentrates on its goals regarding safety and tries to come up with plans and strategies to fulfill them. Policy also expects the company to write a safety manual, which is similar to the quality manual.