Authors Affiliation
Introduction
Occupational safety and health (OSH) is a management technique which aims at protecting the safety, health and welfare of the working class people. The first session of the ILO (Indian Labour Organization) and the WHO (World Health Organization) held in the year 1990, laid the outlines for OSH management stating that it aims at promoting and maintaining the highest degree of social, mental and physical well-being of the employees in all occupations. It also aims at the prevention of employees leaving their workplace due to health concerns. The main aim of the OSH is the smoothening of the process of adaption of each man to his job (Michaels D., 2010).
The theories of OSH are based on the assumption that it is the duty of every organization to ensure that its employees and all other people associated with it remain safe and healthy under all circumstances (Quinlan, M. Bohle, P. & Lamm F., 2010). It is in fact the moral obligation of the organization to protect each employee’s life from any health issues or safety concerns. This paper would investigate in detail the challenges faced by an occupational safety and health professional while applying the theories of OSH.
Identifying the specific OSH leadership behaviors that can build or erode trust within the workplace
It has been researched and reported that effective leadership is the key to efficient management of OSH in any organization (Stranks J. W., 2006). The leaders play a pivotal role in the proper incorporation of OSH culture in an organization. They key responsibilities of a leader includes –
1. Establishing an efficient and effective governance technique to monitor the OSH management in an organization. It is the responsibility of the leader to develop strategies and policies along with establishing goals and indentifying targets for OSH process (Michaels D., 2010). It is the duty of the leader to ensure that health and safety of the employees is always given priority over every other concern in the day-to-day activities.
2. The leader is completely responsible for the establishment of a positive attitude of employees and management towards the OSH schemes along with encouraging a positive, safe and healthy culture in the organization. The leader is accountable to provide and set good examples for other employees by practicing goods OSH policies in their own day-to-day attitude. Encouraging each individual to take proactive participation in promoting the healthy and safety of the organization is the duty of the leader (Tooma, M., 2012). To ensure that all employees have access to the safety tools and also the necessary training required to execute them.
Thus, the leader is the key to success of the OSH program. The leader is the one who can build or erode trust amongst the employees of the organization. It is thus very critical to identify what OSH leadership behaviors that can have a positive or a negative effect on its employees. It has been researches that leadership in OSH management has different aspects and the leadership style in any organization has a huge effect on the safety and health of its employees (Dunn, C. E. 2012).
The Leadership Behaviors that Build Trust
Some leaders adopt the transformational leadership behaviors. This type of leadership aims at maintaining a positive atmosphere at the workplace. It promotes the employees to adopt the change happening in the organization and be a part of change themselves. A few OSH leadership behaviors that help in building trust within a workplace include-:
- Proactive engagement with the staff and showing keen interest to know about their safety and health concerns (Hubbard G., 2008). Visiting the employees work stations, giving impromptu sessions on the importance of their health and safety and assuring them about the organization’s OSH policy.
- Taking personal responsibility about the health and safety of each employee and to assure them that you care about them. This helps the employees feel a sense of belongingness and job security, which enables them to trust the organization (Dunn, C. E. 2012). Leading by example is the best way to promote active participation of each employee towards making the workplace healthier and safer.
- Consulting the employees about how their health and safety concerns can be addressed is the best way of building employee trust. The active participation of workers helps in establishing a healthy culture of dialogue (Hubbard G., 2008). Thus, the workers are encouraged to take active part in the decision making process regarding their health and safety. Thus, developing a culture of trust and accountability.
The Leadership Behaviors that Erode Trust
Some leaders do not understand the importance of employee welfare, safety and health. For them OSH is a liability and an extra responsibility. They do not think about employee health and safety unless something actually turns up. Such leadership behaviors completely erode trust between the management and the employees.
Passive leadership or passive involvement in understanding the health and care needs of the employees is one of the worst behaviors of OSH leadership. It gives the employees an impression that the management does not care about their welfare and hence increase the turnover rates and greater employee dissatisfaction (Dunn, C. E. 2012).
- Taking action only after incident has taken place. It is the responsibility of the leader to equip the employees with essential safety and health training in case of emergency. But, some leaders do not think this is necessary and only take action when the disaster has taken place. This leads to no trust amongst the employees and the management and thus degradation in the overall quality of workplace environment (Hubbard G., 2008).
Various Approaches to Management
Taylor (1911) and the problem solving/scientific approach
In The Principles of Scientific Management, Federick Taylor states that for any particular job there is way to structure the job in the most optimal manner in order to obtain the maximum performance from the employee. He developed to basic principles to guide the leaders in structuring the jobs. The first principle was the job simplification, which referred to the deconstruction or breaking down the goals of the job into simple components. According to Taylor, each job is made of tiny components and breaking down the job to these tiny components would help maximizing the output. The second principle was that of job specialization. Once the individual components of job are identified the employees are selected according to the requirements of each of these specific tasks. Thus, each employee is focused on producing a specific set of results and hence gives maximum output (Leigh JP et al, 2004).
Application in current scenario The scientific management focuses only on factors like compensation and pay to motivate the employees to perform better. Scientific management does not support creativity, innovation and adaptability (Marcin JP et al, 2004). Thus, scientific management principles are obsolete in today’s workplace environment where intrinsic motivational factors like health and safety are of extreme importance the employees.
Fayol (1949) and the Administrative Approach
According to the Fayol theory of administration, by focusing on the managerial practices the organization can increase efficiency by reducing mistrust and misunderstanding between the employees and the management (Miller TR et al, 2004). His administrative approach to management advocates that the managers should adopt a flexible approach to management which could be applied at home or in office or any anywhere, he believed in planning, organizing and forecasting.
Application in current scenario Fayol’s administrative theory still finds applicability and feasibility in the modern day workplace because it advocates communication as a necessary tool to successful management. Since, in OSH a two way communication between the employees and the managers is extremely important the Fayol theory is still relevant and applicable (Marcin JP et al, 2004).
Mayo (1946) and the Behavioral Approach
According to Mayo’s behavioral approach, an employee who works on his own feels loneliness and lower jab satisfaction than an employee who works in groups and teams. A good and healthy relationship amongst employees and co-workers is the key retaining factor for the organization. According to the theory, employees cannot be treated as individuals they need to be a part of the group to be properly assessed. The mangers should pay attention to needs of the groups and not to each employee individually (Miller TR et al, 2004).
Application in current scenario The Mayo’s behavioral approach does not find much acceptability in the modern organizations as it focuses on the needs of the teams and does not cater to the needs of an organization. The OSH is based on promoting the health and safety of each employee and hence Mayo’s theory finds no applicability here (Leigh JP et al, 2004).
Demming (1982) and the Systematic Approach
According to Demming’s system approach, quality is the utmost priority. Quality is why the employees would want to produce; quality is the joy of working. The basic principle of the Demming’s systems approach includes the joy of working, the innovation and the co-operation between the management and the employees. According to Demming, teamwork incorporates knowledge, the designing and the redesigning of a product (Leigh JP et al, 2004). To improve the working and the quality is everybody’s responsibility. It is the responsibility of the leaders to determine the detailed specifications of each job and the goals of each employee. It also says that employees should be treated as humans with a certain capacity and should not push out of their limits.
Applicability in current scenario Since, the Demming’s System Approach is largely based on improving, innovating and caring for the employees, it is till now one of the most highly regarded and widely practiced approach of management (Marcin JP et al, 2004).
Characteristics of a Generation Y workforce and how can these affect safety management? How can the OSH Manager effectively retain Generation Y workers?
The Generation Y workforce refers to people born between the year 1976 and the year 1991. The Generation Y is known as the credit generations and is the most highly educated generation with the most available purchasing power. In a workplace, the Generation Y employee is always contemplating the good and bad of each issue (Tooma, M., 2012). For the Generation Y employee, the need to happy and secure overpowers the need to get high compensation. The Generation Y employee is constantly looking for improvement in skills and is always eager to understand where he fits into the bigger scheme of things.
Safety Management and Generation Y
The Generation Y is very eager to be trained in safety management skills and techniques. It is always eager to embrace change. But, the Generation Y workforce cares the most about its health, safety and overall welfare. If the OSH management does not involve the Generation Y in its decision making process regarding safety and health or if it makes them feel unwanted and uncared for, then they will find an employer who cares (Davis L et al, 2009). Thus, if the leaders in safety management show any unfavorable behavior or authoritarian style leadership with Generation Y, then the organization would witness a high turn-over rate.
How an OSH Manager Effectively Retain Generation Y Employee
- Making a dialogue with the Generation Y employee in order to make him the process of decision making is the best way to win his trust. Once the Generation Y workforce feels that organization cares about his needs and values his opinion, the employee would embrace any responsibility you give him and work hard to attain maximum result (Tooma, M., 2012).
- The Generation Y employee is concerned about his welfare and it is the utmost priority to feel healthy and secure. Thus, the OSH professional need to promote a culture and safety and health amongst the employees so that each one can contribute to build a better workplace environment.
- The best way to retain the Generation Y employee is to increase the communication and interaction with employee and provide him with safety and health management training, as he always eager to learn (Tooma, M., 2012).
Conclusion
The goal of the OSH programs is to provide the people who are working or employed with a safe and healthy workplace atmosphere. The scope of the OSH programs also include any other people who might be affected by the work-environment of any particular organization including the co-workers, employers, family members or even the customers (Stranks J. W., 2006). Thus, it is extremely critical for all organizations to understand the importance of proper OSH management to retain their employees and attain maximum performance output from each employee.
References
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- Leigh JP, Marcin JP, Miller TR. (2004). An estimate of the U.S. Government’s undercount of nonfatal occupational injuries..
- Stranks, J. W. (2006). Managing occupational health and safety: a multi disciplinary approach. (3rd ed) South Melbourne: Macmillan.
- Michaels, D. (2010) .OSHA at forty: new challenges and new directions. available at http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2010/08/osha_at_forty_new_strategies_f.php?utm_source=combinedfeed&utm_medium=rss. accessed: august 5, 2010.
- Quinlan, M., Bohle, P. & Lamm, F. (2010). The handbook of health and safety practice. New York: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
