Peer-Reviewed Safety Leadership

1 Professional Development Peer-Reviewed Safety Leade IN BRIEF. F. This literature review sought to or a Safety manage- ship are needed to incorporate organizational man- identify themes present in a decade of ment system to be effec- agers in workplace Safety Leadership . Safety Leadership publications, then tive, it must be partnered Articles published in Professional Safety from 2000. correlated those themes with informa- with an effective Leadership to 2009 were reviewed to identify common themes tion in mainstream Leadership models. technique. This article seeks related to principles of workplace Safety Leadership . Five themes are common in leader- to establish a model for Safety Doing so informs an understanding of what the ship articles authored by members Leadership that has been created Safety profession has considered as important when of the SH&E community: employee in light of Leadership discussion addressing workplace Safety Leadership .

2 These ar- involvement, accountability, devel- within the Safety community ticles were selected because they present a per- oping a Safety culture, professional and mainstream thought on or- spective of what the professional Safety community Safety responsibility and management ganizational Leadership . deems as imperative in leading workplace Safety . engagement. Articles were limited to those appearing in PS. Safety professionals can use the The Safety Literature due to the journal's status as the primary peer-re- Leadership dialogue within the Safety The author explored select viewed journal within the Safety profession. It was community to identify common ground literature on Safety Leadership to essential to limit the research to Peer-Reviewed with an organization's Leadership determine common ground and articles in order to present perspectives that have model so that Safety can become an benchmark that information been reviewed by those in the Safety community integral part of that model.

3 Against mainstream Leadership rather than simply thoughts and opinions that literature in order to establish a might appear in non- Peer-Reviewed publications. model for organizational Safety This information was then benchmarked against Leadership . This information was helpful in under- mainstream Leadership literature to determine a standing the degree to which the status quo is being model that can be used to effectively engage or- supported or whether innovative aspects of leader- ganizational managers who may already exer- Anderson cise Leadership skills based on these mainstream models. A sample of mainstream Leadership lit- E. Scott Dunlap, , CSP, holds a doctorate in Higher and Adult Education erature was purposefully selected (Creswell, 2007).

4 From the University of Memphis and is an assistant professor in the Department to deeply explore how themes in Safety literature of Safety , Security and Emergency Management at Eastern Kentucky University. can be integrated into components of these main- His workplace Safety career has seen him hold location and corporate Safety roles stream models. in organizations such as Nike, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and AutoZone, as well as the State of Maryland. He has been a national speaker on workplace Safety Although the mainstream models are presented and health within the grain industry and has been a speaker at ASSE conferences. as examples within the scope of this review and Dunlap is a professional member of ASSE's Louisville Chapter.

5 general findings are limited to these models, the 42 ProfessionalSafety SEPTEMBER 2011 rship Finding Common Ground By E. Scott Dunlap general principle of being able to apply themes of being a scripted activity, management and em- Safety Leadership to mainstream Leadership models ployees should have a healthy relationship that al- is the major finding of this research and gives SH&E lows for the flow of communication in all directions professionals direction in being able to establish within an organization. The ability for such com- common ground with organizational leaders. munication to occur is contingent on an authentic relationship between employees and management. Literature Findings & Analysis Efforts to involve employees in workplace Safety The process of identifying common themes of can become misguided and establish an incor- information in the PS journal articles was utilized rect role for managers (Krause & Weekley, 2005).

6 To identify core Leadership issues. The five themes Employees must be involved in workplace Safety identified were: processes, but management should not abdicate its 1) employee involvement; responsibility for reducing injuries. The relation- 2) accountability; ship must be balanced so that employees can effec- 3) development of a Safety culture; tively engage in Safety while management provides 4) Safety professional responsibility; the appropriate amount of Leadership . 5) management engagement. Geller (2000) approaches employee involvement from a behavioral perspective by communicating the Employee Involvement need to give workers control over their environment. Petersen and Dotson (2007) identified employee By giving employees control over certain things that commitment as essential to the success of a work- affect their work, their behavior will change to ac- place Safety management system.

7 Employees are commodate the freedom provided. Rather than em- engaged in the daily work being performed, so they ployees reporting to work and having each aspect of have the most invested in their personal Safety and their work planned for them, employees should be know what needs to be done to perform a job safely. given choices and control in matters of workplace Engaging employees and gaining their commitment Safety . This will result in true engagement instead of can increase the quality of workplace Safety efforts. automated responses to the environment. Employees have a role in problem solving through the process of identifying hazards in the workplace Accountability and determining solutions (Petersen, 2004). Managers within an organization must take Relationship building between management and responsibility for Safety (Simon & Frazee, 2005).

8 Employees was identified as an issue of concern by They must be accountable for Safety to ensure that Cooper (2001). Rather than employee involvement injury reduction efforts are successful. This involves SEPTEMBER 2011 ProfessionalSafety 43. the establishment of consequences for poor Safety supporting productivity at the expense of employee performance. Simon and Frazee present general Safety . However, efforts in Safety and productivity Motors (GM) as an example of a radical change in are not mutually exclusive. Development of a Safety workplace Safety . Safety had never been discussed culture through an emphasis on protecting employ- at the upper management level within the corpo- ees has positive consequences on business growth.

9 Ration until a new director asked about the Safety Developing a Safety culture should not be con- report at the close of a board meeting. fused with simply allocating financial resources to The request was the catalyst for change that workplace Safety efforts. Simon and Frazee (2005). caused upper managers to become accountable for found that GM had been significantly funding Safety performance within the scope of their posi- workplace Safety efforts and initiatives, yet the tions. Divisional leaders took it upon themselves to organization's Safety culture was poor. Financial learn about developing a Safety culture and Safety resources dedicated to workplace Safety must be management system. The result was significant coupled with demonstrable support by organiza- improvement in workplace Safety performance.

10 Tional Leadership . Actions must accompany dollars Organizational leaders must hold others ac- spent and upper management rhetoric. A Safety countable for Safety as well (Geller, 2000). They culture cannot be purchased. must take the initiative to place Safety -related When examining a Safety culture, Safety should performance expectations on other managers and be viewed as a value rather than a priority (Cooper, employees. When Safety performance expecta- 2001). A common phrase in industry is Safety first, tions are not met, leaders must hold managers and which refers to Safety being the top priority in every employees accountable. This process will instill a action taken. The inherent challenge with a Safety - sense of urgency in relation to workplace Safety ini- first philosophy is that Safety is being identified as tiatives and achieving applicable goals.