Integrated Safety Management as a Starting Point for Changing the Working Environment

Abstract

The effective management of organizational change involves understanding and appreciating the complex interactions of technology, people, organizations, economical factors, legislation, and aspects of cultural, physical, and psychological context. The behavior based and culture based approaches to safety are two seemingly incompatible approaches to creating organizational change in safety performance. However, combined, the two approaches may provide a new perspective on conducting effective and healthy organizational changes. DeJoy has proposed an integrative approach to safety management based on a combination of a behavior-based ‘problem-solving process’ and a ‘culture change process’. The participatory problem-solving process and the culture change process require involvement and commitment from management and workers. The ‘problem-solving process’ and the ‘culture change process’ work in parallel, and strives towards a self-regulatory system where the right messages reach the right people, enabling these to solve the right problems with the right solutions. The problem solving process leads to visible and focused activities, which can be diffused and disseminated throughout the organization and thereby potentially create cultural change. Communication and mutual trust between managers and workers are essential for the process to succeed. The integrated approach to safety management can be operationalized by aiming interventions towards the safety committee, middle managers, and workers using individual and group based coaching, and group workshops. The approach has been tested at 18 small and medium sized Danish enterprises and the chapter will include examples from this study.